Carnival Corporation to Expand Cruises to Cuba with Carnival Cruise Line

Company's largest cruise brand, Carnival Cruise Line, is granted approval to expand corporation's sailings to Cuba to help meet pent-up demand from U.S. travelers to visit Caribbean's largest island

Carnival Paradise to become the largest capacity cruise ship in history to sail from U.S. to Havana when sailings from Port Tampa Bay to Cuba begin in June 2017

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Carnival Corporation & plc

Feb 14, 2017, 07:10 ET

MIAMI, Feb. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure travel company, today announced that Cuba has granted approval for its Carnival Cruise Line brand to begin sailing to Cuba starting in June 2017.

To help meet strong demand from U.S. travelers to visit Cuba, Carnival Cruise Line will offer a full series of sailings in 2017, expanding Carnival Corporation's total sailings to Cuba in 2017 and providing more travelers with the opportunity to visit the Caribbean's largest island.

Carnival Corporation made history in May 2016 as the first U.S. cruise company to sail to Cuba in over 40 years with its Fathom brand, which is currently sailing from Miami to Cuba through May 2017, and has operated more sailings to Cuba than any other U.S. cruise brand to date.

Building on Fathom's historic sailings, Carnival Cruise Line plans to deploy Carnival Paradise for a series of 4- and 5-day voyages out of Port Tampa Bay in the second half of 2017 that will include a daytime and overnight visit to Cuba. Based on guest capacity, the 2,052-passenger Carnival Paradise will become the largest cruise ship in history to sail from the U.S. to Havana when the ship arrives in June, further expanding Carnival Corporation's presence in Cuba as the company anticipates approval for other brands to also sail to Cuba.

Carnival Cruise Line is now accepting bookings for its sailings that include a visit to Havana in 2017.

"We are pleased to again be granted approval to sail to Cuba. This time it's for our namesake brand, Carnival Cruise Line," said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation. "Our iconic Carnival brand has carried tens of millions of passengers to the Caribbean during its nearly 45-year history, and we are excited that our largest brand will sail guests to Cuba, one of the most sought-after destinations in the world. Our first-hand expertise gained from being the first to sail from the U.S. to Cuba in decades, and carrying more U.S. passengers than any other cruise company over the past year, will be invaluable in helping our Carnival brand make sure its guests have a great vacation experience to what is becoming one of the Caribbean's most desired destinations."

Donald added: "As we expand cruise vacations to Cuba in the second half of this year, we are also optimistic we will be granted approval by Cuba for additional Carnival Corporation brands. The Caribbean is already the world's most popular region for cruising, and we are excited about expanding our itineraries across several of our brands to include Cuba."

EDITOR'S NOTE:

In a separate news release today, Carnival Cruise Line released further itinerary and booking details for the sailings to Cuba beginning in June 2017. Additional information is available at www.carnival.com.

About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest leisure travel company in the world, with a portfolio of 10 cruise brands in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia comprised of Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK).

Together, these brands operate 102 ships visiting over 700 ports around the world and totaling 226,000 lower berths with 19 new ships scheduled to be delivered between 2017 and 2022.

Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P500 and the FTSE 100 indices.

Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com, www.fathom.org, www.hollandamerica.com, www.princess.com, www.seabourn.com, www.aida.de, www.costacruise.com, www.cunard.com, www.pocruises.com.au and www.pocruises.com.

SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc