Carnival Corporation's Nine Cruise Lines Earn Nearly 600 Awards for Great Vacations

MIAMI, Jan. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure travel company, continued its long history of third-party recognitions for providing its over 12 million annual guests with extraordinary vacation experiences, earning nearly 600 awards and honors in 2019 across its nine global cruise line brands and leadership team.

Since 2016 Carnival Corporation and its cruise line brands have received over 2,000 industry awards, and in 2019 the recognition continued for consistently exceeding guest expectations as cruising extends its popularity and reputation as the fastest growing segment of the vacation sector.

The 2019 recognition for Carnival Corporation and its brands includes 152 Cruise Critic awards, 23 USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, 23 CruiseLine.com awards and 10 awards from Conde Nast Traveler for being named best in the industry for cruise ships, value, service, shore excursions, itineraries, family friendliness, private islands, onboard entertainment and more.

A sample of 2019 awards includes:

• AIDA Cruises was named Germany's Most Trusted Cruise Line by Reader's Digest, and received the Blue Angel ecolabel for excellence in environmentally friendly ship design for its newest ship, AIDAnova, the world's first cruise ship capable of being powered in port or at sea by liquefied natural gas (LNG), the marine industry's most advanced fuel technology.
• Carnival Cruise Line was certified as a Great Place to Work™ based on employee surveys by the Great Place to Work organization. Carnival Cruise Line was also named Best Domestic Cruise Line for the fourth year in a row at the annual Travel Weekly Readers' Choice Awards, in addition to Best Family Experience and Best Travel Advisor Educational Program. Additionally, Carnival Cruise Line earned several USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, including Best Ocean Cruise and Best Cruise Ship for Families.   
• Costa Cruises' innovative approaches to support environmentally friendly operations were recognized at the Business Performance Awards with the Sustainable Performance Award highlighting 4GOODFOOD, the brand's food waste reduction program. The 4GOODFOOD program was also recognized as a finalist of the 15^th UNWTO Enterprise Award and earned the MedCruise Award for Cruise Line with the Greatest Charity Program.
• Cunard earned the Porthole Cruise Magazine Editor-in-Chief Award for Best Trans-Atlantic Experience, and was also named Favorite Luxury/Premium Cruise Line in the 2019 World of Cruising Wave Awards.
• Holland America Line was named the top-rated Alaska Cruise Line for Large Ships by Cruise Critic readers, and the brand's private island, Half Moon Cay, was named as Best Private Island Destination by Porthole Cruise Magazine readers for the 19^th consecutive year. Additionally, Holland America Line President Orlando Ashford received Seattle Business Magazine's 2019 Executive Excellence Award, honoring senior executives who have demonstrated extraordinary, consistent leadership in guiding their organizations.  
• P&O Cruises (Australia) was named the winner of Trusted Cruise Operator by Reader's Digest Trusted Brands Australia, and was honored with multiple Cruise Critic Australia Cruisers' Choice Awards including Best Cruise for Families, Best Shore Excursions for Mid-Sized Ships, Best for Fitness & Recreation for Mid-Sized Ships and Best Nightlife.
• P&O Cruises (UK) earned several Travel Weekly Cool Cruises Awards, including Best for Value, Best for World Cruises, Best for Mediterranean and Best for Caribbean.
• Princess Cruises was named Best Cruise Line in Alaska in the Travel Weekly Readers' Choice Awards for the 13^th consecutive year. Additionally, Princess Cruises received the Wine Spectator 2019 Restaurant Award of Excellence after recently introducing a newly reimagined wine menu. Princess Cruises also received its second consecutive SHAPE Magazine Healthy Travel Award, recognizing the brand's fleetwide and state-of-the-art Lotus Spa and Fitness Centers.
• Seabourn was named one of TIME magazine's World's Greatest Places to Stay, and as Best Cruise Line for Luxury Small Ships in Luxury Travel Advisor's Awards of Excellence. The brand also ranked at the top of U.S. News & World Report's Best Cruise Lines list for Best Cruise Line in the Mediterranean. Additionally, Seabourn was recognized as Best Small-Ship Ocean Cruise Line in the Telegraph Travel Awards.

Additional notable honors in 2019 included Carnival Corporation's recognition as one of 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Corporate Responsibility Magazine (CR Magazine) for the fourth consecutive year, and three separate recognitions by Forbes as one of America's Best Employers for Diversity, Best Large Employers and Best Employers for New Grads.

Carnival Corporation was also named among America's Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek, Greenest Shipowner of the Year Neptune Award by maritime industry peers, and received a perfect score for the third consecutive year in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's Corporate Equality Index and designation as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.

Several of Carnival Corporation's leaders were recognized as major cruise industry agents of change, including 10 leaders named to Travel Agent Central's list of The Most Innovative People in Cruise Travel 2019. Carnival Corporation Chairman Micky Arison and CEO Arnold Donald were among South Florida Business Journal's Top 250 Power Leaders for 2019. Donald was also named to Florida Trend's annual list of Florida's 500 most influential business leaders. In addition, Chief Procurement Officer Julia Brown was named among the Most Influential Women in Corporate America by Savoy Magazine and one of this year's "Women to Watch" by Cranfield University in the United Kingdom.

"These awards are a strong testament to the success of our collective efforts and the passion and dedication of our 150,000 employees around the world to provide the best vacation experiences in the world at an extraordinary value," said Roger Frizzell, chief communications officer for Carnival Corporation. "We are honored to be recognized with such a remarkable collection of awards from consumers, the travel industry, business organizations and most importantly our more than 12 million guests, which further inspires our passion for providing great vacation experiences."

In addition to Carnival Corporation and its nine cruise line brands taking home awards, the company's innovative OceanMedallion, now available on five Princess Cruises ships, continued to receive awards for being the world's first interactive guest experience platform transforming vacation travel on a large scale into a highly personalized level of service. During the course of the year, the OceanMedallion was named a 2019 Edison Awards Finalist and was awarded the IoT Breakthrough Award for IoT Wearables Innovation of the Year, the Red Dot Award for Product Design and the Skift Design Award for Best Cruise Experience.  

A complete list of Carnival Corporation's 2019 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 254,000 lower berths visiting over 700 ports around the world, with 16 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