Carnival Cruise Line is departing on its final departure from Charleston’s Union Pier Terminal today, December 30. Following the short New Year cruise, Carnival Cruise Line’s homeporting contract at Charleston, SC ends.
The cruise line says farewell after 14 years and several hundred departures from the downtown port. The New Year sailing has long been sold out and visits Nassau and Half Moon Cay on Carnival Sunshine. It then returns to Charleston for the last time on January 4.
Cruise ship homeporting in Charleston ends due to the city’s sale of Union Pier to local businessman Ben Navarro, who plans to redevelop the site.
“We had to pivot in the way that we were utilizing Union Pier. It really reflected nothing about our relationship with Carnival, but just more about what we had decided to do as the South Carolina Port,” said,” said Barbara Melvin, the port’s president and CEO.
Carnival first started homeported sailings from Charleston in 2010, originally with the Carnival Fantasy, and then Carnival Ecstasy in 2016. The Sunshine will relocate to Norfolk, VA, which signals year-round cruises from the port. The first Norfolk departure is in early February.
“Carnival Sunshine is the perfect ship to usher in our next step for service expansion from Norfolk,” said Christine Duffy, Carnival’s president. “We’ve been sailing from Norfolk since 2002, and we’re pleased to expand our offerings from this historic, charming community.”
Carnival added it was pleased to have been a part of the “continued growth of Charleston’s tourism economy.”
The redevelopment of the Charleston port area will pivot towards other tourism and entertainment facilities available for all residents and tourists to use. However, it doesn’t mean the end of cruise ships in downtown Charleston.
Cruise Calls Still Permitted with Limits
There will be no more homeporting of ships but port calls will still be permitted with limits. Cruise ships with passenger capacities of no more than 3,500 guests will be able to dock. Additionally, the city has imposed a limit of 104 cruise ship visits per year.
Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas has a scheduled port call in Charleston in January 2025, while Celebrity Cruises, Virgin Voyages, and Norwegian Cruise Line also have planned port calls in Charleston in 2025.
Earlier this year, a proposal for a new cruise terminal in nearby Mount Pleasant was blocked due to an existing state law forbidding cruise ships.
