CCL-Carnival Cruise Line revised a total of 21 Mardi Gras sailings, eliminating San Juan (Puerto Rico) as a port of call and adding Nassau (Bahamas) to the itinerary.
Passengers booked on Mardi Gras have been notified of the port of call change by email on October 25, 2022. Although some of the affected sailings are more than a year away, the switch is the same for all affected voyages.
The modification affects 21 Mardi Gras sailings, of which 1 in 2022, 14 in 2023, and 5 in 2024, all 7-night Eastern Caribbean itineraries. These are not the only Eastern Caribbean voyages on which Mardi Gras is operating, other departure dates have not been impacted, and San Juan is still on the schedule for the ship's remaining Eastern Caribbean sailings.
CCL made a similar move in February 2022, swapping Mardi Gras’ San Juan port calls with Nassau.
The 181,808 GT ship was scheduled to arrive at San Juan at ~7 am to 4 pm. Each time, the impacted sailings bring a total of 5,282 visitors or up to 6500 guests (fully booked) to the island.
Pre-booked shore trips for San Juan will be automatically canceled, and refunds will be processed back to the passengers’ payment source.
While the cruise line has not specified what “operational plans” were being adjusted, that had resulted in many itineraries skipping San Juan as a call port.
For the first time, Carnival Mardi Gras arrived in San Juan in August 2021. Since no cruise vessel had taken passengers to the island for ~17 months due to the COVID crisis, the visit marked the formal resumption of voyages to Puerto Rico.