Port Baltimore and Carnival Cruise Line celebrated a major milestone with a “Decade of Fun” celebration on Carnival Pride on Sunday, June 9, to mark the ten-year anniversary of the line’s year-round sailing from the port.
Carnival launched its first year-round cruise program from Baltimore back in 2009 and over the past decade has carried over 1 million passengers.
The festivities were highlighted by an exchange of maritime gifts with Christine Duffy, Carnival President, presenting Cynthia Burman, Cruise Maryland’s General Manager, with a ship’s bell. Burman presented Duffy with an international maritime clock.
Carnival Pride features a wide range of cruise options from Baltimore, such as week-long trips to tropical ports throughout Bermuda and the Bahamas as well as 14-day Carnival Journeys visiting Caribbean destinations and partial transits of Panama Canal.
Baltimore is an integral component of the ship deployment strategy of Carnival in which the line positions vessels close to large U.S. population bases along the Gulf of Mexico, the East and West Coasts. Including Baltimore, the cruise line sails from twenty different North American homeports offering a cost-effective means for travelers to get to and from their voyage. It is estimated that roughly half of the population of the United States is within a day’s drive of Carnival homeports.
In 2010, Carnival launched the first year-round cruise program from Baltimore and the departures attract tourists from across the Northeast and other regions.