Carnival Cruise Line christens Carnival Firenze in California

Carnival Cruise Line has christened its newest ship, Carnival Firenze, at its home port of Long Beach in California.

Hollywood actor Jonathan Bennett, the ship’s godfather, joined the line’s president Christine Duffy at the celebration on Wednesday (April 24).

The 5,000-guest vessel is sailing year-round from the Port of Long Beach, joining the 5,100-passenger Carnival Panorama and the near 4,000-passenger Carnival Radiance, which both homeport year-round in California.

Carnival Firenze is part of a significant expansion that has seen five ships added to the Carnival fleet in the past 18 months.

By next year, Carnival will take more than 750,000 guests from Long Beach on over 200 sailings, an increase of 100,000 guests compared to 2019.

Carnival Firenze features new concepts that “put an Italian style twist on Carnival favourites”, said the line.

Notable additions include specialty restaurant Il Viaggio – Italian for ‘The Voyage’ – and an onboard programming which includes Festa Italiana, billed as a top deck ‘street party’.

The ship will sail a variety of itinerary lengths, with three to seven-day Baja Mexico and Mexican Riviera cruises on sale now.

Duffy said: “We carry more guests than any other cruise line from California, and now this ship is giving us the opportunity to offer more fun to more people sailing from Long Beach.

“The recipe combining this ship’s beautiful Italian theming with the familiarity of our friendly team’s hospitality is, in a word, perfecto.”

The ship set sail on a seven-day cruise to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán and Cabo San Lucas on Thursday afternoon.