Insider Video: What Makes Carnival Firenze Different From the Rest of the Fleet—Fun, Italian Style!

Well, I've been studying it for weeks. But the main thing here is that the guests are here to experience a new Carnival Fun Italian style, and that theme is showing itself in myriad ways. I can already see it, and I've been on board for 15 minutes. So this is a must-experience for those who love to cruise and also for those who love cruising with Carnival. This is a brand new experience, except for the sistership Venezia, which launched last year out of New York.

Oh, glad to have you here.

Well, the two ships, the Venezia and the Firenze, were originally part of the Costa fleet and they were designated for Carnival Asia, mainland China sailings. And then after the pandemic, cruising closed in Asia, so they moved the ships back to Costa. And at the same time, Costa was also getting two Excel-class ships like the Mardi Gras, Celebration, and Jubilee, so they have two of those. And the amount of capacity that they would be taking on was a lot, because Carnival's demand was so high in the US after the restart. It made sense to bring the ships over to the US. So we took delivery of the two ships. They are ships we're not just borrowing them. We've painted the hull with the blue and white livery, but the funnel still says C on it for Costa, so kind of reminiscent of the Costa Italian heritage. So the ships, they both are themed. Obviously Venezia is themed more like Venice, this one is Firenze, which is more like Florence. And you find Italian artwork, a statue of David in the dining room, there's a gondola on the Venezia. And he's got a fig leaf on now, so okay, I'll check. No, trust me, you can see from the side though if you want to take a look. I'll take a look. Anyhow, it's still a Carnival cruise like any other Carnival cruise. You're going to have great entertainment, great food. We're just leaning into the Italian heritage of Costa. And I think we just did the Venetian mask parade outside. And we have the rooms definitely themed. There's the Via, which is a new restaurant that we put on board this ship and the Venezia, an Italian specialty dining which is incredible. And you just kind of get the flair. It does feel like you're somewhere in Italy when you're on board. And it's just a different experience, but at the same time, what you grow to expect on a Carnival cruise you'll still get. Guy Fieri's, you'll still have the pizza, you'll still have all the great stuff.

So the Venezia and Firenze are very similar, same superstructure of the ship, it's very similar to the Vista class. So the differences really are more in decor and the theme of the city that they represent. But the actual offerings on board are the same. So we have a gelato instead of the normal ice cream place. We have a frante which has all the Aperol Spritz and those kinds of drinks as well. The Indio, which is the Italian specialty restaurant, really great. So you feel you kind of have the same offerings on both ships. Guy Fieri's burgers are on board, but we also have an Italian burger as well. Pizza with pepperoni and tomato sauce, excellent. And it carries through to the smallest detail.

Other than the decor in the main dining room with the gondola versus the David, I see those kinds of things. So it's really the decor and the theme of the ship versus offerings.

One of the unique features on this ship, and it's similar to Vista, but on Vista we call it the Havana cabins, here we have the Terrazzo cabins. Which have a terrace that opens up to the deck, versus hanging off the side of the ship. So you get a little bit more space and you get private access with a wristband to the pool back there. And the cabins are really unique and special. We have the spa cabins which are great, we have some suites as well, different classes of suites on board. And then the standard balcony cabins are great.

I don't know the answer to that question.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Terrazzo, there's quite a few. And the suites, we have different suite types, yeah absolutely. And the spa cabins as well.

The Venezia will be doing four, five, six, and seven-night cruises to the Mexican Riviera or Catalina and Ensenada, depending on the length of the cruise. But there are four, five, six, and seven-night cruises.

Yeah. And then we have the Panorama, which does the seven-day out of Long Beach for the Mexican Riviera. And then we have the Radiance sailing doing four-night cruises out of Long Beach. So Panorama is always going to be seven, Radiance is going to be the shorter. I can't say always, but for now, yeah.

You have to remember that cruise ships are like resorts that are movable. So depending on what the situation is, if we have to bring a new ship in and take this one out, put it somewhere else, we have the ability to do that. So as demand changes or as our needs change, you can move a ship from one port to another easily. So there's nothing permanent. There's no plan. I mean, there's no plan, but you never know.

I mean, the airport's relatively close, obviously. The town of Long Beach is really cute. I don't know if you've ever been there. We actually had a sales meeting there once. Great little town with great restaurants, great things to do. Obviously, the Queen Mary right next to us is a really cool haunted site to go visit.

I don't think so.

We have two ships on order, two more Excel-class ships, like the Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Jubilee. So those will be in '27 and '28. I don't know where they're going to be homeported, I don't know their names, I don't know what's going to be different about them yet. But we just announced that we'd be getting two more of those ships. And there's a lot of demand out there for cruising. The amount of people that have actually sailed on a cruise is minuscule compared to the whole travel market, so there's a lot of room for growth. I think it gives travel advisors a great opportunity to grow their business as we continue to grow our fleet.