''Carnival Radiance'' (formerly ''Carnival Victory'') is a operated by

Carnival Cruise Line Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Its logo is a funnel (ship), funnel shaped like a whale's tail, with a red, white, and blue colo ...

. Ordered by Carnival in 1997, the vessel was the third ''Destiny''-class cruise ship to join the fleet after her debut in 2000 and became one of the largest cruise ships of her era. In 2021, she was renamed ''Carnival Radiance'' after a

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

200 million refit was completed in October and she commenced service under her new name in December.

Construction

''Carnival Victory '' was built by Italian shipbuilder

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

at its

Monfalcone Monfalcone (; Venetian language#Regional variants, Bisiacco: ; ; ; archaic ) is a town and (municipality) in the Province of Gorizia, Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northern Italy, located on the Gulf of Tr ...

shipyard in

Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea. Friuli-Venezia Giulia has an area of and a ...

. She was launched on 31 December 1998 and later christened by Mary Frank, wife of Howard Frank, the then vice-chairman of Carnival. At the time of her launch, she was one of the largest cruise ships of her era. In October 2018, Carnival announced that ''Carnival Victory'' would undergo a large-scale renovation in 2020 to complete the final phase of Carnival's fleet renovation program, after which the vessel would be renamed ''Carnival Radiance''. The vessel was originally scheduled to begin the $200 million dry dock in Cádiz, Spain in March 2020 but the refit was postponed into the following year after the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

paused shipyard operations at the

Navantia Navantia is a Spanish state-owned shipbuilding enterprise dedicated to civil and military naval construction, the design of deep-tech systems and the manufacture of structures for the renewable energy sector, such as offshore wind or hydrogen. ...

shipyard. The ship was officially renamed ''Carnival Radiance'' in September 2021 amid the continued renovation and left Cádiz in mid-October on a seven-week trip through the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

to reach her new homeport of

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

. In November, Carnival named Lucille O'Neal, mother of Carnival's brand ambassador,

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

, as the ship's new godmother, and she christened the vessel on 12 December in Long Beach, after which the ship commenced operations the following day with a four-day inaugural sailing to

Ensenada, Mexico Ensenada ("inlet") is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Located on Bahía de Todos Santos, the city had a population of 279,765 in 2018, making it the third-largest city in Baja Californ ...

and Catalina Island.

Design

Machinery

The ship is powered by four GMT Sulzer 16 ZAV and two GMT Sulzer 12 ZAV diesel-electric engines driving two

controllable pitch propeller Controllability is an important property of a control system and plays a crucial role in many regulation problems, such as the stabilization of unstable systems using feedback, tracking problems, obtaining optimal control strategies, or, simply p ...

s. She is fitted with two rudders (which can be individually controlled) as well as stabilizers.

Layout

''Carnival Victory'' is themed by American designer and architect Joseph Farcus to depict the different oceans and seas of the world. Like (formerly ''Carnival Triumph''), her architecture is different from sister ship (formerly ''Carnival Destiny''). The two newer vessels have additional balcony cabins on their Lido decks and various changes to placement and architecture of public areas. There are three large pools and a waterslide. She has a nine-deck atrium with four glass elevators, a two-deck lounge with seating for 747, and a total capacity of 3,400 passengers and 1,100 crew members.

Service history

Throughout her service, ''Carnival Victory'' was based at

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, Florida, sailing year-round on alternating three-night and four-night cruises to

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

destinations. In July 2020, Carnival announced that ''Carnival Radiance''s new homeport would become Long Beach instead of

Port Canaveral Port Canaveral is a cruise, cargo, and naval port in Brevard County, Florida, United States. In 2022, the port has the busiest cruise terminals in the world with over 4 million passengers passing through it during the fiscal year. Additional ...

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...

, which were previously announced in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Following her debut in December 2021, she began sailing year-round on alternating three-night and four-night cruises to Catalina Island and Ensenada.

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

*
Carnival Victory Photo Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carnival Radiance

Radiance In radiometry, radiance is the radiant flux emitted, reflected, transmitted or received by a given surface, per unit solid angle per unit projected area. Radiance is used to characterize diffuse emission and reflection of electromagnetic radiati ...

Ships built in Monfalcone 1998 ships Ships built by Fincantieri