The 2018 Alaska Cruise season for Princess Cruise Line will be filled with a variety of ships and itineraries.  Today, Princess Cruise Line announced its summer 2018 Alaska cruise season ship deployments and itineraries. These newly announced cruises will be available for booking starting on December 1, 2016.
            Princess' press release states the 2018 season will be a 15% capacity increase from prior seasons and there will be a total of 130 Alaska cruise departures for the cruise line in 2018. Princess Cruise Line ships will sail to Alaska from Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Whittier in the 2018 Alaska cruise season. 
           Based on the information provided in Princess' press release the Island Princess, Coral Princess, Star Princess, Golden Princess, Ruby Princess, and Emerald Princess will all be doing various Alaskan itineraries for the 2018 season. Each ship will be departing from different places and sailing different itineraries. More specific details can be found in the link I am providing at the bottom to Princess Cruise Line's press release. 
              In addition to releasing cruise information, Princess Cruise Line also announced there will be 22 different cruisetour options available for the 2018 season as well. Specific details about each of these cruise tours can be found in the link I am providing at the bottom to Princess Cruise Line's press release. 

Note From Webmaster:  The link to the press release will be here soon. The information from this article is from an emailed version of the press release. Check back soon as I will post the link after Princess uploads the press release to their media website.

       The past few weeks have brought unfortunate news that the Carnival Liberty has been suffering from problems due to a technical issue. Carnival has reported numerous times this issue has affected the ship's cruising speed, but not any of the ship's other on-board services. Due to this issue, this morning, Carnival Cruise Line has announced a homeport swap for the Carnival Liberty and Carnival Valor.
             The Carnival Valor will be re-positioning to Galveston, Texas, in order to take over the Carnival Liberty's 4 & 5 night cruises. The Carnival Liberty will be re-positioning to Port Canaveral, Florida, to take over the Carnival Valor's 3 & 4 night cruises. The Carnival Liberty's first cruise from Port Canaveral is currently scheduled for December 15. The Carnival Valor's first cruise from Port Canaveral is scheduled for December 17. Both ships are of Carnival's Conquest class and were built one year apart. Essentially, the overall layout of each of the ships is the same with a few minor differences. 
               The Carnival Liberty's remaining cruises from Galveston will have a few modifications due to the ship's speed problem. Cruisers on the Carnival Liberty's 5 night cruise that will depart on November 14 will no longer be stopping at Progreso, but instead stay overnight in Cozumel. The Carnival Liberty will be arriving in Galveston late at the end of this cruise, according to Carnival's press release. The Carnival Liberty's November 19 cruise, which is a 7 night voyage, is now scheduled to only stop at Cozumel and Costa Maya. This cruise will be departing in the late evening at 10pm on November 19. Following this cruise, the Carnival Liberty's November 26, which is a 5 night voyage, will  have an overnight stay in Cozumel instead of stopping in Progreso. This cruise is also expected to arrive late in Galveston. After this cruise concludes, the ship will be heading to dry-dock and following dry-dock will go to Port Canaveral, Florida. 
                   The Carnival Valor's December 11 cruise is being shortened from a 4 night cruise to a 3 night cruise. This cruise will sail to Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas. Following this cruise, the Carnival Valor will be re-positioning to Galveston, Texas. 
                    Both ships have many of Carnival's Fun Ship 2.0 features. Some of these features include Guy's Burger Joint, the Blue Iguana Cantina, Red Frog Rum Bar, and Blue Iguana Tequila Bar.  While the ships have different names, different interior decorations, there are extremely similar in terms of layout and design.  

       Yesterday, Carnival Cruise Line announced the Carnival Miracle and Carnival Splendor would be re-positioning to different homeports. However, yesterday Carnival released additional cruise itineraries for some ships that are not re-positioning. 
          These newly opened itineraries include sailings for the Carnival Triumph out of New Orleans, the Carnival Paradise out of Tampa, and the Carnival Glory out of Miami. All of these ships had bookings opened in Carnival's booking engine.
            The Carnival Triumph is scheduled to continue sailing 4 & 5 night cruises from New Orleans. The 4 night cruises sail to Cozumel and the 5 night cruises sail to Cozumel & Progreso.
          The Carnival Glory is scheduled to sail 7 night cruises from Miami, Florida. According to Carnival's booking engine the ship sails a variety of itineraries that feature different ports of call each cruise. 
           The Carnival Paradise is scheduled to sail 4 & 5 night cruises from Tampa, Florida. The Carnival Paradise has a variety of itinerary combinations for these 4 & 5 night cruises. The 4 night cruises sail from Tampa to Cozumel.  The 5 night cruises alternate between sailing to Cozumel & Mahogany Bay, Cozumel & Key West, and Cozumel & Grand Cayman. It appears all of the different 5 night cruise combinations include Cozumel, Mexico. 
                All of this information is based on my observations of Carnival's booking engine. To view Carnival's available cruises visit www.carnival.com, which is Carnival's official website. 

      Carnival Cruise Line is already making its itinerary plans for 2018 and today announced a few more details regarding its 2018-2019 ship homeport deployments. The Carnival Miracle will begin sailing from Tampa, Florida, and the Carnival Splendor will begin sailing from Long Beach, California. 
        The Carnival Miracle's deployment from Tampa, Florida, will begin in late January 2018. The ship is scheduled to sail year-round seven night voyages. These cruises will depart on the weekend. Based on Carnival's booking engine, it appears Sunday will be the primary day the Carnival Miracle departs from Tampa. The Carnival Miracle is a Spirit Class ship and is similar to the Carnival Spirit, Carnival Pride, and Carnival Legend. In order to get to Tampa, the Carnival Miracle will offer a 14 night Panama Canal cruise that departs from Long Beach, CA.  The Carnival Miracle will be sailing from Tampa with the Carnival Paradise, which is already doing 4 & 5 night cruises from Tampa. 
              The Carnival Splendor's deployment from Long Beach, California, is scheduled to begin in late January 2018 too. The Carnival Splendor will join the Carnival Imagination and Carnival Inspiration. According to Carnival's press release, the Carnival Splendor will increase Carnival's capacity from Long Beach by 41%. While sailing from Long Beach, the Carnival Splendor will offer three different Mexican Riviera itineraries. Carnival's press release notes that two Carnival Journey's cruises to Hawaii are scheduled for October 13, 2018, and December 1, 2018. I do not know if there are any additional Hawaii sailings other than these, at this time. In order to get to Long Beach, the Carnival Splendor will offer a Panama Canal cruise that departs Miami on January 14, 2018. The Carnival Splendor will be the first Carnival ship to travel through the new locks on the Panama Canal, according to Carnival's press release. 
               For additional details about these newly announced ship deployments, check out Carnival's press release by clicking here. Carnival's press release is where I got my information from and is a good place to start if you want more information! The link will take you away from RyG's Cruise Guide by opening in a new window.