Carnival Cruise Line has put its 2028-29 Miami season on sale, and it's a big one: 346 departures between April 2028 and April 2029, spread across five ships and 22 destinations in The Bahamas and the Eastern, Western and Southern Caribbean. Itineraries run the full range, from quick three-day escapes to an 11-day Carnival Journeys deep dive into the southern islands.
The line-up splits neatly by trip length. Short-haul fans get 174 sailings of three to five days aboard the Conquest and Magic, hitting Celebration Key, Nassau, Grand Turk and RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay. Week-long holidays continue on the Carnival Celebration, with seven-day Eastern and Western Caribbean routes calling at Amber Cove, San Juan, St. Thomas, Cozumel and Isla Tropicale. For something longer, the Vista and Venezia team up on 39 eight-day Southern Caribbean sailings to Aruba and Curaçao, most of them adding Bonaire too, while the Conquest runs two 11-day Journeys cruises taking in Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.
One number stands out: Carnival expects 217 visits to Celebration Key, its purpose-built private resort on Grand Bahama. The exclusive destination has just marked its first anniversary and already logged nearly 2.5 million guest visits this summer, with the line projecting 2.7 million visitors in 2026 and 3.5 million in 2027. Clearly the private-island model is working, and it's shaping where Carnival sends its ships.
Why does this matter for holiday planners? Booking two years out locks in the best cabin choices and prices, especially for the longer Southern Caribbean routes, which tend to sell to repeat cruisers. The spread of ship sizes also matters: the newer Celebration delivers the full mega-resort-at-sea experience, while Conquest-class ships offer a more traditional, often cheaper ride for the same Bahamian ports. If you've been curious about Celebration Key or want a proper ABC-islands itinerary without flying into the region first, this programme makes both easy from a single home port with plenty of flight options into Miami.
Carnival has also unveiled a matching 2028-29 line-up from Port Canaveral, with more than 300 departures on five ships, so Florida-based cruisers will have two major hubs to choose from that season.
