Carnival Cruise Line plans a stem-to-stern overhaul of the Carnival Triumph in the spring that will give it a full package of Fun Ship 2.0 features and culminate with it being renamed the Carnival Sunrise.
Budgeted at nearly $200 million, the refurb will be the priciest in cruise history. In addition to bars, restaurants, waterslides and stores, the 20-year-old Triumph will gain 115 cabins, bringing its capacity to 2,988 passengers.
Two of those cabins will be new 850-square-foot Captain's Suites, which will be located above the bridge and have floor-to-ceiling windows.
"They're going to have spectacular views," Carnival COO Gus Antorcha said.
The upgrade is as sweeping as the one given a sister ship in 2013, when the Carnival Destiny became the Carnival Sunshine. The two ships will be part of a Sunshine Class, and Antorcha said it was likely that other ships could get a similar treatment.
After the $155 million Sunshine refurb, the company said it did not anticipate such a large sum being spent on another ship. But Antorcha said reviews of the Sunshine changed Carnival's thinking.
"What we learned is that guests raved about the ship," he said. "Obviously, you re-evaluate. Triumph merits this level of investment."
Beginning next March, the ship will be taken out of service for nearly two months at the Navantia shipyard in Cadiz, Spain, where it will get seven restaurants, two bars, two lounges, three new pool deck attractions, a newly designed spa, two new children's play and recreation areas and new retail spaces, including a candy store appropriately called Cherry on Top.
The first sailing of the Carnival Sunrise, following a renaming ceremony, will depart Norfolk, Va., where the ship will begin a series of five- to seven-day cruises on April 29. It will then move to New York for the summer for a series of four- to 14-day cruises, starting May 23. It will move to Fort Lauderdale for four- and five-day cruises in October.
Expunging the Carnival Triumph name will bury an association that tarred Carnival's reputation in 2013, when an engine room fire left the ship adrift off the coast of Mexico without power for most hotel services.
The incident and fumbled handling of the attention that followed led Carnival to launch a brand-recovery effort that included its Carnival Conversations dialogue with travel agents and a campaign to monitor its image.