Carnival Festivale
Carnival Festivale is the fourth Excel-class ship and gives PortMiami a second full-scale mega-ship alongside Carnival Celebration
Carnival Festivale entered service in late 2023 as the fourth ship in the Excel class, joining Mardi Gras, Celebration, and Jubilee in Carnival's flagship tier. At approximately 6,500 guests and 183,521 GT, Festivale is among the largest cruise ships afloat and homeports at PortMiami — giving Miami's cruise market two Excel-class ships on different itinerary rotations. Like its class siblings, Festivale carries BOLT (the shipboard roller coaster), the six-zone themed neighbourhood layout, and the broadest dining programme in the Carnival fleet.
Carnival Festivale's arrival expanded Carnival's Excel-class capacity at PortMiami, where Carnival Celebration was already established. Rather than competing for the same guest segment, the two Miami ships cover different itinerary rotations: Festivale's schedule includes sailings that Celebration doesn't regularly offer, giving Miami-based cruisers a choice between the two ships across more departure dates and destination combinations. The practical effect is that Excel-class sailings from Miami are more available than they were before Festivale joined.
The Excel class architecture on Festivale follows the established template: six themed zones give the ship a coherent identity that prevents it from feeling like one undifferentiated space at 6,500 guests. The Lido Marketplace is the outdoor food hall concept that Festivale carries — a covered but open-air dining area combining multiple food stations (international street food, a dedicated burger counter, a taco station) within a single physical space, designed for casual meals during sea days without the queue-at-a-counter model of earlier Carnival lido arrangements.
BOLT runs on the upper deck as on all Excel-class ships. The SkyZone trampoline park, mini golf, SportSquare, and WaterWorks complement the coaster in the ship's activity complex. The nine specialty dining venues cover Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse, Bonsai Teppanyaki, Bonsai Sushi, Cucina del Capitano, Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse, and others — the same dining breadth that Mardi Gras introduced and that the class now delivers consistently.
For travellers who want the full Excel-class experience from Miami, Festivale adds capacity and schedule variety. Guests who have sailed Celebration and want to compare will find Festivale similar in structure with minor itinerary differences; guests sailing their first Excel-class ship will find the format consistent with what the class is known for. PortMiami's connectivity — close to MIA, on the cruise capital of the US — makes same-day embarkation from most US markets straightforward.