Carnival Cruise Lines is pulling Carnival Liberty from Europe where the ship was schedule to sail on 2009 cruises.  The ship instead will sail year-round from Miami on seven-day voyages beginning April, 2009.   In addition, Carnival Pride, currently based in Long Beach, Calif., and originally scheduled to shift to Miami for a five-month Caribbean deployment from April through August, will instead launch its Baltimore-based program on April 27, 2009.

This is the second Carnival ship with a cancelled 2009 Europe season.  At present, the only Carnival vessel sailing in Europe next year will be the new 3,646-passenger Dream, which enters service in September and sails on 12-day Mediterranean voyages before operating a 16-day trans-Atlantic crossing from Rome to New York in late October 2009.

Cruise industry executives have expressed concern that Europe cruises may lag next year due to worsening economic conditions in both the U.S. and abroad.   According to Gerry Cahill, Carnival president and CEO, “Based on current market conditions, continued economic uncertainty and high air costs to Europe we are shifting our focus to an ever greater extent toward our core, close-to-home cruise options.”

Carnival Liberty will continue its current program of seven-day Caribbean cruises from Miami through April 18, 2009 then assume a new schedule of weeklong cruises to the Western and Exotic Eastern Caribbean beginning Saturday, April 25, 2009, through November 28, 2009. The new Exotic Eastern Caribbean cruise route will feature Half Moon Cay, a private Bahamian island; St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos Islands. The western route will visit Ocho Rios, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; and Cozumel, Mexico

Carnival Pride will launch Baltimore’s first year-round cruise program beginning on April 27, 2009, four months ahead of the original schedule. From April 27, 2009 to September 6, 2009, the ship will operate a series of six-, seven- and eight-day cruises. These cruises will visit a wide variety of ports including Nassau, Freeport, Half Moon Cay (a private Bahamian island), Port Canaveral (Orlando) and Grand Turk in the Turks & Caicos.