Travel Factory Blog
Carnival Radiance Moving To Galveston
Carnival Cruise Lines recently made the announcement that they were moving the Carnival Radiance to Galveston in May, and that will make the presence for that cruise line largest in the state. In fact, that will give them 4 ships in the Galveston market, and that is as many ships as they have in their Miami home market.
I remember when they started 20 years ago with one ship and the sales representative to our agency was really pumped about being able to sell cruisers out of Texas. Of course one of the selling points we use in selling that product is that you don't have to fly to cruise.....just a short 6-7-hour drive to Galveston and you're on the ship!! I saw a report that currently there are approximately 37 million people who reside within a 500-mile radius of Galveston....that's quite a market, especially when you consider that only 6-8% of them have ever been on a cruise.
It is estimated that the Radiance will boost the number of passengers carried by Carnival on their four ships will total around 900,000 annually. That's really dramatic, especially when you consider that they have two other ships that cruise out of New Orleans, and that's only 300 miles from Galveston.
Of course they are limited in time as far at the itineraries go. One itinerary they travel to is what they refer to as the Western Caribbean with ports at Cozumel, Belize, and Roatan. The alternate itinerary is Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Montego Bay Jamaica. They also have an Eastern itinerary that runs about once a month to Key West, Freeport, and Nassau.
With this new ship, they've devised a 9-day itinerary that includes an introduction to the Panama Canal, where they will leave on a Friday to Sunday week so you get two extra days to enjoy the cruise experience. They are also planning on a couple of eight port, 14-day schedule that will visit much deeper into the Caribbean than every before out of Galveston.
The Radiance has been in dry dock for over a year, changing from her original name of the Carnival Victory, and after a $200 million refurbishment, she will be seriously fancied up. She will have a Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse, the family-style Italian restaurant Cucina del Capitano, a Bonsai Sushi, and the ever-popular Red Frog Pub. Another addition created by Carnival's “chief fun officer” Shaquille O'Neal, the first Big Chicken. We are fortunate to sell the heck out of Carnival, so drop on in for a face to face encounter with our friendly staff and we'll get you on one of the best vacations of your life.
Also wanted our listeners to know, especially since we did have a good bit of caution selling the Dominican Republic this past summer, that we received the news yesterday that the FBI has “uncovered no connection with a cluster of tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic, supporting the country''s position that the deaths were coincidental.” A State Department official said, “Toxicology testing completed to date have been consistent with the findings of local authorities. We have seen no increase over the past several years in the number of U.S citizens who pass away while visiting or living in the Dominican Republic. Many o f the U.S. citizen deaths reported in the media were determined by Dominican authorities to be from natural causes. We have no indication of any connection between these deaths.”
You are the first to know....thanks to The Travel Factory where we do business at 4150 Southwest Drive, or you can call us at 698-1421 or visit our web: www.thetravelfactory abilene.com
When you subscribe to the blog, we will send you an e-mail when there are new updates on the site so you wouldn't miss them.