Carnival Cruise Lines recently announced a schedule change for two of its Florida-based cruise ships, dropping Key West as a port of call for 30 cruises this year.
The Carnival Ecstasy sailing from Port Canaveral and the Carnival Fascination departing from Jacksonville will both instead make stops at Royal Caribbean Internationals private island in the Bahamas versus Key West on their five-night itineraries.
The island is operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. as CocoCay, but Carnival will market the destination as Little Stirrup Cay.
Carnival Fascinations March 14 call will be the first of 19 during 2013, with an additional six stops in 2014. The itinerary also includes Nassau.
Carnival Ecstasy will make 11 calls to Little Stirrup Cay in 2013 and one in 2014. Nassau and Freeport are the other ports.
This schedule change is due to a growing fleet and rising fuel costs. Royal Caribbeans private island is just 50 miles north of Nassau, putting it closer to the other scheduled ports of call. Key West is about 260 miles west of Nassau, therefore requiring a longer haul for the ships to reach their destinations and homeports.
The top priority, however, according to Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen, is to offer a better cruise for guests.
The addition of Little Stirrup Cay provides us the opportunity to expand and diversify our port-of-call choices for our guests, particularly within the Bahamas, Gulliksen said.
With Nassau, Freeport and CocoCay in a relatively close cluster, guests are able to enjoy more hours ashore in each port of call.
Other Bahamian ports offered by Carnival include Nassau, Freeport, Half Moon Cay and, potentially, the line said, Princess Cays.
