Carnival updates deployments for Gulf Coast vessels

Carnival Cruise Lines set October 2006, as a return date for its cruises from New Orleans, when it plans to again deploy the Sensation on four- and five-day cruises from the city.

“We are eager to return to pre-Katrina capacity levels from New Orleans, a homeport that is extremely near and dear to us,” Carnival CEO Bob Dickinson said in a statement.

The line did not say whether the Carnival Conquest, which currently is offering seven-day cruises from Galveston, Texas, would return to New Orleans.

The Sensation will not sail directly to New Orleans once its charter with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) expires. The ship will kick off a new program of four- and five-day cruises from Port Canaveral, Florida, on March 23 that will call at Nassau and Freeport, Bahamas.

Carnival´s new facility in Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; and Half Moon Cay, the private Bahamian island owned by sister line Holland America Line. The Elation, which currently is sailing seven-day cruises from Galveston, will take over the Canaveral route on October 19, when the Sensation redeploys to New Orleans.

In the meantime, the Elation will launch seven-day cruises April 30 from Miami to Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk.