The Costa Luminosa will join the Carnival fleet in September and will begin operating as the Carnival Luminosa in November 2022 from Brisbane, Australia. The acquisition of Luminosa is an update to Carnival's previously announced plans to acquire the Costa Magica, which will now remain with Costa Cruises.
After this delivery, the Carnival Luminosa will operate seasonally from October to April out of Brisbane, then reposition to Seattle, where it will sail Alaska itineraries from May to September, before returning to Brisbane.
The ship, which entered service in 2009, has a capacity for 2,826 guests and 1,050 crew members with 92,720 gross tons.
“With our full fleet back in guest operations and the pent-up demand we’re seeing every week aboard our ships, the opportunity to expand with Luminosa and then the arrival of Carnival Celebration in November gives our guests more choices and new ways to enjoy a Carnival vacation,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “Our Spirit-class ships are very popular with our guests, and Luminosa will be a great addition given the large number of balcony staterooms that make it an ideal ship for this deployment. And equally important, this will allow Carnival to finally begin our highly anticipated Brisbane itineraries, so we’ll have two ships operating in Australia for the Down Under peak season.”
The ship will undergo some modest upgrades to transition from Costa to Carnival over the next few months before service begins in November. The Carnival Luminosa will sail a variety of itineraries that will initially include visits to Australian favorites such as the Great Barrier Reef and Airlie Beach, and, as destinations reopen over time, ports of call such as Noumea and Lifou Isle in New Caledonia, Port Vila and Mystery Island in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji.
In addition to the Carnival Luminosa off Brisbane, the Carnival Splendor will arrive in Sydney to resume year-round sailing on October 2, 2022. With the arrival of the Carnival Celebration this November, Carnival's fleet will consist of 24 ships, and its lower berth capacity will be seven percent greater than at the end of November 2019.
