For quite a while, many Tampa cruisers have wanted longer cruise voyages. Currently, the Carnival Paradise operates 4 & 5 day cruises from the port, but these voyages are not long enough for some cruisers. Today, Carnival Cruise Line announced the Carnival Pride will operate 5 - 14 day cruises from Tampa in January and February 2017. The Carnival Pride has departed Tampa in the past, but has since been sailing from Baltimore. Last year, 2014, the Carnival Pride was sent to dry-dock for some renovation and to add some exciting features, such as Carnival's Fun Ship 2.0 program. Some of the Fun Ship 2.0 features added were Bonsai Sushi, Blue Iguana Cantina, Guy's Burger Joint, Blue Iguana Tequila Bar, Red Frog Rum Bar, Alchemy Bar, and the Red Frog Pub. In addition, the Carnival Pride has an exciting water recreation area onboard with multiple waterslides (including the Green Thunder slide). 
       Hopefully, Carnival will consider keeping a 7 day cruise ship in Tampa long term. For now, I am sure many Tampa cruisers are excited to have some additional options. No information has been announced about cruises from Baltimore during the months the Carnival Pride is in Tampa. Carnival did note, in their press release, after sailing from Tampa the Carnival Pride will return to Baltimore.

Click Here For Carnival's Official Press Release - This gives more details & is where I got this basic information.

         Royal Caribbean's Oasis class cruise ships already have many exciting features, but when the Harmony of the Seas debuts in 2016, this third Oasis Class cruise ship will have some new water features. According to Royal Caribbean's recent Harmony of the Seas press release there will be a feature called Splashaway Bay, which is a waterpark for kids. Another feature available is a waterslide named the Ultimate Abysss. Royal Caribbean notes that this slide has a 100 foot plunge and will be the largest slide on a cruise ship. In addition, the Harmony of the Seas will have a feature called The Perfect Storm. This feature consists of a trio of waterslides, according to Royal Caribbean.
         These features that will debut on the Harmony of the Seas represent Royal Caribbean's commitment to providing fun cruise vacations to people of all ages. For more information and for the press release I used to write this brief article:  Click Here. The press release's link also includes a few of Royal Caribbean's renderings of these new features.

       It is time to officially say goodbye to Carnival Cruise Lines. On August 13, Carnival's brand ambassador, John Heald, posted to his Facebook page Carnival was dropping the "s" in Carnival Cruise Lines. RyG's Cruise Guide wrote to Carnival's public relations to learn more about this change. Effective now, Carnival Cruise Lines is Carnival Cruise Line. According to Carnival, making the name singular will help better align Carnival's name with the other brands owned by Carnival Corporation. For example, Carnival Corporation's has other brands including Princess Cruise Line (singular) and Holland America Line (also singular). None of the other brands have the "s" at the end of their name like Carnival Cruise Lines used to have.
       For many, like me, getting used to this change will take some time. Since Carnival first sailed in 1972, the company has been called Carnival Cruise Lines. Now, just drop the "s" at the end and call the company Carnival Cruise Line. Thankfully, it's still the same company, with the same ships, and crew members. 

       All of Carnival Cruise Line's ships have an onboard internet cafe, but the options and packages offered to cruisers are about to become better & more affordable fleetwide. The last time Carnival announced it was improving its onboard internet program, the company released a social media internet package that was as $5.00 per day. According to Carnival, this program is now on more than half of the line's ships and by the first quarter of 2016 all ships will have this program. Carnival recently stated as a part of this plan Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and much more are available to cruisers.  There are other plans available too at a reasonable low rate. 
        In addition, the Carnival Breeze (currently the only ship) has a special mobile app called the Carnival HUB Mobile App. This app allows the cruisers onboard to get a look at activities, places on the ship, events, and more on their phone during the cruise vacation. Currently this app is free of charge to those cruisers. There is chat feature that allows cruisers onboard to communicate with another cruiser onboard for $5.00. The app can be downloaded via the Google Play store or Apple I-Tunes store. Luckily, Carnival has plans to expand this app too. By the end of 2015, Carnival states this app will be available on 5 ships and there are plans to make it fleetwide by summer 2016.
              Cruise ship internet used to be slow and frustrating to use. Carnival has made great strides to make internet faster, cheaper, and easier for everyone onboard to use. 

To view Carnival's press release that contains this information:  Click Here