Mardi Gras is an Excellence-classcruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. The ship is Carnival’s lead vessel of the fleet’s Excel-class, a subclass of the Excellence class, and was built by Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku in Turku, Finland. The ship has often been incorrectly referred to as Carnival Mardi Gras, though Carnival has specified that her name does not include the “Carnival” prefix, a first since the Fantasy-class vessels originally omitted “Carnival” in their names upon their debuts. Mardi Gras has been subject to numerous delays in her construction, delivery, and debut amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent impact on tourism. First scheduled for a summer 2020 delivery and debut, she was delivered to Carnival on 18 December 2020. After her debut was postponed on numerous occasions, Mardi Gras began operating weekly sailings on 31 July 2021. read more…
Diamond Princess is a British-registered cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises. She began operation in March 2004 and primarily cruises in Asia during the northern hemisphere summer and Australia during the southern hemisphere summer. She is a subclassed Grand-class ship, which is also known as a Gem-class ship. Diamond Princess and her sister ship, Sapphire Princess, are the widest subclass of Grand-class ships, as they have a 37.5-metre (123 ft 0 in) beam, while all other Grand-class ships have a beam of 36 metres (118 ft 1 in). Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess were both built in Nagasaki, Japan, by Mitsubishi Industries. read more…
AIDAprima is the flagship of AIDA Cruises, built by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding at their shipyard in Nagasaki in Japan. The cruise ship entered service on April 25, 2016. The ship was christened on 7 May 2016 in Hamburg in Germany as part of the 827th Hamburg Port Anniversary (Hafengeburtstag). Like the other AIDA ships she sails under the Italian flag. For the cruise operations Costa Crociere in Genoa is responsible. The ship, which is specially designed for the German market corporate brand AIDA Cruises, start year-round from the Hamburg Cruise Terminal Steinwerder to weeklong cruises in Western Europe. read more…
