There are many reasons why a cruise line – Carnival Included – might tweak itineraries. These changes could be related to weather, updated port availability, or even shifting routes for fuel efficiency.
In the latest round of itinerary tweaks, Carnival Cruise Line has altered a total of six sailings in 2025 and 2026 across Carnival Freedom, Carnival Sunrise, Carnival Conquest, and Carnival Elation.
All changes should be reflected on Carnival’s website and on cruise tracking data within 24 hours.
Carnival Freedom
The first voyage on the list to be impacted is Carnival Freedom’s October 6, 2025, cruise – which is a 5-night Eastern Caribbean sailing based out of Port Canaveral, Florida.
The itinerary includes calls on Celebration Key, the cruise line’s new private destination that is about to open in the Bahamas; Nassau, Bahamas; and RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay), Bahamas. No ports are being removed from the list, but the order is changing.
“Port visits to Celebration Key and Nassau have been reversed with modified port times for Nassau,” Carnival updated.
This means that Nassau will now be the first stop of the voyage and Celebration Key will be bumped to second. RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay) will still be the third and final stop – sort of like the grand finale of the cruise before returning to Florida.
Carnival Sunrise
The next itinerary change is for Carnival Sunrise – but it won’t come into effect until spring of 2026.
The Sunshine-class ship is due to embark on a 5-night Eastern Caribbean sailing from PortMiami, Florida, on May 25, 2026. The itinerary features calls on Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; Nassau, Bahamas; and RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay), Bahamas – which is another Carnival-owned private destination.
Once again, no ports of call are being dropped – but the order in which the ports are visited has changed.
“Order of port visits has changed and port times have been modified for RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay) and Grand Turk,” Carnival shared.
The cruise line did not say if Nassau would also be impacted as part of the shift, but it’s currently the final stop of the trip.
Carnival Conquest
Carnival Conquest will also be embarking on a now-altered sailing on the same day as Carnival Sunrise – May 25, 2026.
The Conquest-class vessel’s 4-night Miami-based sailing was supposed to just visit Carnival’s private island experiences in the Bahamas – RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay) and the new Celebration Key.
However, RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay) has been replaced with a different private destination instead: Princess Cays, Bahamas. This is the only itinerary change on the list in which a port of call has been entirely removed.
“Replaced RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay) with a visit to Princess Cays on another day and modified port times,” the cruise line updated.
Even though Princess Cays technically falls under the domain of Princess Cruises, Carnival ships can still visit because the Carnival Corporation is the parent company for both brands.
Carnival Elation
Carnival Elation is last on the list, but has the most changes – as three separate sailings are impacted. These include the voyages embarking from Jacksonville, Florida, on September 28, 2026, October 12, 2026, and October 26, 2026.
All three cruises are 5-night Bahamas voyages that are sailing exclusively to Carnival’s private destinations – RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay) and Celebration Key.
Neither of these ports are being removed, but rather the order is switching so that the sailings will end with Celebration Key instead of visiting the new destination first.
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“Reversed the order of port visits for Celebration Key and RelaxAway (Half Moon Cay),” reads the brief update.
As the same ports are still being visited and it’s much too soon to book shore excursions (Carnival excursions can be purchased 120 days before the cruise date), hopefully booked guests will be able to go with the flow and have a great time.
