MIAMI, Jan. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL;NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure travel company, continued its long history of achieving outside recognition for providing its over 12 million annual guests with extraordinary vacation experiences, earning over 600 awards and honors in 2018 across its nine global cruise line brands.

The corporation and its brands were recognized for excellence in vacation value, cruise ships, shore excursions, onboard entertainment, dining, itineraries, company leadership and more. Since 2016, Carnival Corporation has received over 1,500 industry awards recognizing the world-class experiences provided by its nine cruise line brands.

Carnival Corporation and its brands were consistently recognized in the industry's top awards programs in 2018, collecting over 145 Cruise Critic Awards, 25 USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, over 50 Travel Weekly awards and over 20 Porthole Cruise awards. Examples include:

• AIDA Cruises received the German Gas Industry Innovation Award and Cruise Guide 2018 Award for innovation for its newest ship, AIDAnova, the world's first ship powered by LNG at sea and in port. The brand also received the German Fairness Award from the German Institute for Service Quality for the fifth year in a row.
• Carnival Cruise Line was named America's Most Trusted Cruise Line by Reader's Digest for the fourth consecutive year, and received 10 USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice honors, including Best Ocean Cruise Line and Best Cruise Ship for Families.
• Costa Cruises was recognized by Seatrade for Corporate Social Responsibility for its 4GOODFOOD program, which aims to cut food waste in half on board its ships by 2020, and was also awarded the "Top Employers Italy" certification by the Top Employers Institute for the fifth consecutive year. Also, the brand received the WTM World Travel Leaders Award for Italy and set a Guinness World Record for the longest string of bunting ever at its Costa Zena Festival, which celebrated Costa Cruises' 70^th anniversary.
• Cunard was recognized with several Porthole Cruise 2018 Readers' Choice Awards, including Best Onboard Enrichment and Best Service. It also received the No. 1 Mega-Ship Ocean Cruise Line award in Travel + Leisure's 2018 World's Best Awards readers' survey for the third consecutive year.
• Holland America Line received over 100 awards during the year, including 45-plus Cruise Critic awards and 26 Travel Weekly awards. The brand's private island destination, Half Moon Cay, was recognized as Best Private Island in Travel Weekly Readers' Choice Awards and Porthole Cruise Readers' Choice Awards.
• P&O Cruises Australia again won Most Trusted Cruise Operator in Reader's Digest Australia's annual 2018 Trusted Brands, was named Best Contemporary Cruise Line for a third consecutive year by Cruise Passenger magazine and was honored with Cruise Critic Australia 2018 Editors' Pick for Best Ship Refurbishment for Pacific Aria.
• P&O Cruises UK received several British Cruise Awards, including top recognition in the categories of Best for New to Cruise and Best for On Board Entertainment, in addition to Favorite Ocean Cruise Line in the World of Cruising Wave Awards.
• Princess Cruises received seven USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, including Best Large Ship for Regal Princess and Best Food at Sea for Royal Princess. The brand was also named Best Alaska Cruise Line in AFAR.com's Travelers' Choice Awards and Healthiest Cruises in SHAPE Magazine's Healthy Travel Awards. In addition, Cruise Critic's editors awarded Princess Cruises Best Itineraries, Cabins and Shore Excursions in the U.S. in its 11^th Annual Editors' Picks Awards.
• Seabourn received the top rank in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards for Best Small Ship Cruise Line for the eighth time in the last 10 years, and was named to the publication's Gold List for the 25^th consecutive year. Seabourn was also honored by U.S. News & World Report's Best Cruise Line awards for Best Luxury Cruise Line and Best in the Mediterranean.

Additional notable honors included Carnival Corporation's recognition as one of the top 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2018 by Corporate Responsibility Magazine (CRM) and one of America's Best Large Employers by Forbes. The corporation was also named a CES Innovation Awards Honoree for its revolutionary OceanMedallion^TM wearable device.

Several of Carnival Corporation's leaders were recognized as major cruise industry agents of change, including 11 leaders named to Travel Agent Central's list of The Most Innovative People in Cruise Travel 2018, in addition to both Carnival Corporation Chairman Micky Arison and CEO Arnold Donald being named as two of Florida's 500 most influential business leaders by Florida Trend.  

Carnival Corporation was also recognized in business operations fields such as sustainability, diversity, corporate responsibility and innovation, including Excellence in Maritime Safety, Most Eco-Friendly Cruise Line, Best for Guests with Disabilities and Best Cruise Line for LGBTQ Travel.

"Each of our brands and our 120,000 passionate and dedicated employees around the world play a huge part in our goal of consistently exceeding our guests' expectations every day," said Roger Frizzell, chief communications officer for Carnival Corporation. "We take great pride in providing the best vacation experiences in the world at an exceptional value and we continue to welcome more and more guests every year. On behalf of our nine iconic and immensely popular cruise line brands, we are honored to be recognized with these prestigious awards. The third-party recognition means a great deal to all of us – and further inspires our passion for providing our guests with extraordinary vacation experiences"

In addition to Carnival Corporation and its nine cruise line brands taking home awards, the company's popular Ocean Originals TV programs also received top entertainment industry awards, including 14 Telly Awards and three Parents' Choice Awards Stamps of Approval, in addition to two Daytime Emmy nominations.

Overall, the global cruise market has grown to an estimated 30 million people who are expected to take an ocean cruise in 2019, an all-time record and overall increase of more than 68 percent over the past 10 years with an average increase of more than one million new cruisers each year. Of these, nearly half will sail on a Carnival Corporation cruise line brand.

A complete list of Carnival Corporation's 2018 awards and recognitions can be found here.

About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is the world's largest leisure travel company and among the most profitable and financially strong in the cruise and vacation industries, with a portfolio of nine of the world's leading cruise lines. With operations in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia, its portfolio features Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.

Together, the corporation's cruise lines operate 105 ships with 242,000 lower berths visiting over 700 ports around the world, with 20 new ships scheduled to be delivered through 2025. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour company 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&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices.

With a long history of innovation and providing guests with extraordinary vacation experiences, Carnival Corporation has received thousands of industry awards – including recognition by the Consumer Technology Association™ as a CES® 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree for OceanMedallion™. A revolutionary wearable device that contains a proprietary blend of communication technologies, OceanMedallion enables the world's first interactive guest experience platform transforming vacation travel on a large scale into a highly personalized level of customized service. The prestigious CES Innovation Awards honor outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products.

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

SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc

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