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Carnival Cruise Lines is saying bon voyage to Norfolk and Baltimore.
The company said Thursday it is shifting the Carnival Glory to Miami beginning in November and moving Carnival Pride out of Baltimore in late November 2014. It will sail from Tampa between December 2014 and April of the following year.
Carnival will not deploy the Carnival Glory or another Carnival ship from Norfolk in 2014, a spokesman told The Virginian-Pilot. Plans for Carnival Pride beyond April 2015 have not been set.
Carnival cited 2015 environmental requirements related to the sulfur content in the fuel used by cruise ships as a key factor in its decision.
The requirements “would significantly impact our fuel costs for operating cruises from Norfolk and many other ports around North America,” including Baltimore, Vance Gulliksen, a Carnival spokesman, said in an email.
Carnival had warned Maryland officials that it would relocate the Pride if the Environmental Protection Agency did not approve its plan for complying with pollution-control regulations, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Gulliksen said the company is keeping the door open on the possibility of returning to Norfolk and Baltimore at some point, calling its cruise program from those destinations very successful.
— ASSOCIATED PRESS
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