Carnival Cruise Line adds new attraction families will love
Carnival’s next Excel-class ship will have a huge focus on family-friendly amenities and attractions.
For many parents planning a cruise vacation with kids, Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Line often come to mind for family-friendly cruise options before anyone thinks of Carnival Cruise Line.
However, Carnival reports that it welcomes one million children per year aboard its ships — more than any other cruise line. And with its next Excel-class ship, the cruise line is making big moves to better serve those families and increase its appeal to new ones.
Related: Carnival cruisers don’t want popular Royal Caribbean offering
When Carnival Festivale sets sail from Port Canaveral, Florida in spring 2027, families will have the opportunity to cruise with enhanced family amenities and a new attraction designed to be the most family friendly of its kind.
Although Carnival’s first three Excel-class ships, Celebration, Jubilee, and Mardi Gras, offer plenty of family-friendly features, Carnival is raising the bar with Festivale, especially for families with young kids.
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Carnival Festivale will trade roller coaster for huge family water park
With its next Excel-class ship, Carnival will swap out its innovative top-deck attraction, BOLT, the Ultimate Seacoaster, with a splashy new water park designed for families called Carnival Waterworks Ultra.
The family-friendly water park will be part of Sunsation Point, a new outdoor family fun zone that will span the top three decks on Carnival Festivale.
Carnival Waterworks Ultra will feature six thrilling slides, including four that are completely new to the cruise line. Two of the new slides will be family raft slides and the water park will even feature slides that allow kids as small as three feet tall.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line won’t let parents break one adult rule
Kids will also be able to play in two different splash pads with kids' slides and spray toys. Dedicated baby splash areas will offer fun for the littlest cruisers too. The family fun zone will also feature dry play activities with a treehouse-inspired elevated adventure trail and toddler areas with plenty of shaded seating nearby.
This Sunsation Point fun zone will also offer a sports court, ropes course, and jogging track along with a new miniature golf course, outdoor games, and themed arcade spaces.
In another Carnival first, the family-friendly Waterworks fun will continue at night with special evening events that have extended water park hours, in addition to a DJ and other activities for families and people of all ages to enjoy together in the evening.
Carnival Festivale will feature more family amenities
To better serve families, Carnival Festivale will feature 1,000 interconnecting rooms, nearly 70% more than on the first three Excel-class ships. The additional interconnecting rooms will be offered instead of the Family Harbor staterooms featured on the existing Excel ships.
Carnival Festivale will also introduce a dedicated space for Carnival's Turtles program for children six months to two years old, and offer more experiences for the littlest cruisers on the open decks. Spaces for all of Carnival's youth programs will be enhanced to support additional programming.
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Along with leaning into family-friendly activities, Carnival Festivale will celebrate the ways in which music brings people together, with brand new zones featuring new music-themed venues and immersive experiences to infuse the love of music throughout the cruise.
Like other Excel-class ships, Carnival Festivale’s name is a tribute to one of the original Carnival cruise ships that helped popularize cruise vacations for many Americans. In the same spirit, the cruise line’s fifth Excel class ship, coming in spring 2028, will be named Carnival Tropicale. It will include many of the new features debuting on Carnival Festivale in 2027, as well as some new concepts and theming.
Reservation and itinerary details for Carnival Festivale will be released this summer.
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