Carnival Cruises Changes Homeport for Fantasy

Carnival Cruise Line has announced that in future it will have cruise ships sailing from Charleston all year round. The 2,056 passenger Carnival Fantasy will home-port in Charleston from May 2010 and will spend her time making five, six and seven day trips from the South Carolina port to the Bahamas and to Key West in Florida. Norwegian Cruise Lines already has a regular sailing from Charleston, in South Carolina. Charleston already has a high tourism profile with local plantations to visit, beachfront hotels and historic buildings, as well as a darker history relating to the slave trade.

Local people are delighted, as this will mean around $1 million in direct spending for each cruise that leaves the port. At present, Carnival cruise ships do sail from Charleston but only a few times during the winter season. Carnival Fantasy first came into service in 1990, and was initially based out of the Port of Miami – she had a complete refurbishment in autumn 2008 to achieve the Evolutions of Fun upgrade.