Carnival Spirit is a cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. She is actually the second ship of her namesake class to enter service, having been preceded by Costa Atlantica.

Construction

Built by Kværner Masa-Yards at its Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, Carnival Spirit was launched on July 7, 2000, and completed on April 11, 2001. She was formally named by American politician Elizabeth Dole in Miami on April 27, 2001.

Areas of operation

Previously in the northern fall and winter seasons, Carnival Spirit sailed cruises from San Diego, California and Los Angeles, California to the Mexican Riviera. After Carnival Spirit's repositioning out of San Diego in April 2012, Carnival ceased operations with that port.

During the period from mid-May and ending in September (northern summer), Carnival Spirit sailed the waters off Alaska, visiting several glaciers on alternating one-week northbound and southbound voyages calling at Vancouver and Seattle, Washington.

In September 2012, Carnival Spirit sailed to the Hawaiian Islands.

After Carnival Spirit finished her Alaskan and Hawaii cruises, she embarked on a Tahiti and Fiji cruise for repositioning to Australia, arriving on October 16. The ship is currently based in Sydney, Australia, and will continue for five years, making the first time that Carnival has based a ship permanently outside North America. Carnival Spirit was dry docked in San Francisco in January 2012 to prepare her for Australia, this included installing Australian-style power points as well as changing the on-board currency to the Australian dollar and regular renovations. The total cost of the renovations was US$7 million.

Carnival Spirit commenced cruising from Sydney to the South Pacific, Fiji and New Zealand from October 20, 2012

In August 2015 Carnival Spirit went into drydock in Singapore for a $44 million refurbishment.

In May 2016, Carnival announced that Carnival Spirit would sail seasonally in China from Shanghai.

In late 2016, Carnival subsequently reversed this decision and Carnival Spirit continued to sail from Sydney throughout the year. Their reasoning was that the Australian market continued to be strong and that leaving Australia without a Carnival vessel over the Winter months would not be economically viable in the long term.

In summer 2018, Carnival announced that Carnival Spirit would become the company's first ship to sail from Brisbane, Australia starting in 2020.