Question: What’s better than being able to book a cruise out of New Orleans?
Answer: Being able to book two!
That’s the feeling of Carnival Cruise Lines, and if you want to think this is a cold, hard business decision, go for it. As veterans of one cruise out of NOLA, we prefer to think the Carnival world just tuned in to our way of thinking.
Carnival’s Triumph has been sailing out of New Orleans, along with the Norwegian Spirit and Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas. Now the Triumph has been traded to Galveston in a two-for-one deal that sends the Conquest and the Ecstasy to the Louisiana port. Carnival says a newly-christened ship will also be despatched to the Texas port.
It all happens in the fall of 2011, and sets up the Battle of the Gulf between the two leading port cities on the Gulf Coast. New Orleans is aiming for a million passengers — for the first time. More importantly, the expansion sends a strong message that, come oil or hurricanes, Carnival believes in New Orleans as a port of growth…exactly what embattled Louisianans want to hear.
With renovations to a third cruise ship terminal about to begin, with the Super Bowl (2013) and the Final Four (2012) scheduled for the Superdome, and with Carnival’s inventory returning to its pre-Katrina levels, there is reason for optimism in one of America’s most fun cities.
To which we say: “Whoo Dat!!!”
That’s it, we’re done.