''Carnival Sunshine'' (formerly ''Carnival Destiny'') is a cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. She debuted in 1996 as the first passenger ship ever built to exceed 100,000 gross tons, and became the first to break the record the ''

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'' set in 1940 as the world's largest passenger vessel, holding it until 1998, . Built by Fincantieri at its Monfalcone shipyard in

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, northern Italy, she was christened as ''Carnival Destiny'' in

Venice, Italy Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

, in November 1996 by Lin Arison, the wife of Carnival Cruise Line founder

Ted Arison Ted Arison ( he, תד אריסון; 24 February 1924 – 1 October 1999) was an Israeli businessman who co-founded Norwegian Cruise Lines in 1966 with Knut Kloster and soon left to form Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972. Early years Arison wa ...

. In the 1997 American comedy-drama film Holy Man featuring

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...

, Jeff Goldblum and Kelly Preston, ''Carnival Destiny'' is seen in the background several times at the beginning of the movie, the first time the main characters meet. In 2013, she received a major refit and a rename, with sister ships ''

Carnival Sunrise ''Carnival Sunrise'' (formerly ''Carnival Triumph'') is a operated by Carnival Cruise Line. As she and her three younger sisters (, , and ) are each a redesigned version of the lead ship in the class, she is sometimes referred to as the first ...

'' and ''

Carnival Radiance ''Carnival Radiance'' (formerly ''Carnival Victory'') is a operated by Carnival Cruise Line. She became the last of the three ''Destiny''-class ships to undergo a refit and rename. The ship's refit was completed in October 2021, and she resumed ...

'' following suit in 2019 and 2021 respectively. At a ceremony in New Orleans on 17 November 2013, she was formally renamed, with Lin Arison once again serving as her godmother. Since May 2019 the ship has been homeported in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. It was originally planned to sail to Cuba from Charleston but those plans were cancelled after the Cuban travel ban in 2019.

History

''Carnival Destiny'' went into

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

in Trieste, Italy in 2013 to be refitted and renamed ''Carnival Sunshine''. The refitting, which was completed in May 2013, was delayed by a month to install new back-up generator systems. In late 2021, ''Carnival Sunshine'' was repainted into Carnival's new livery. In October 2022, she became the oldest operating ship in Carnival's fleet, due to the retirement of ''

Carnival Ecstasy ''Carnival Ecstasy'' (formerly ''Ecstasy'') was a operated by Carnival Cruise Line. Built by Kværner Masa-Yards at its Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, she was Float-out, floated out on January 6, 1991, and christened by television ...

''.

Layout

Following a multimillion-dollar refurbishment in 2005, ''Carnival Destiny'' featured three pools, a variety of dining options, lounges, nightclubs, a casino and a spa. ''Carnival Destiny'' received more modifications in 2010, including a movie screen on the Lido deck and

cabin Cabin may refer to: Buildings * Beach cabin, a small wooden hut on a beach * Log cabin, a house built from logs * Cottage, a small house * Chalet, a wooden mountain house with a sloping roof * Cabin, small free-standing structures that serve as in ...

renovations. On 6 March 2012, Carnival announced that ''Destiny'' would undergo a US$155-million dollar refit, and renaming of the ship as ''Carnival Sunshine''. The ship was re-launched on 5 May 2013. The refit included a racing themed waterpark with one of the biggest slides in Carnival's fleet.

Areas of operation

Other than an 18-day cruise across the Atlantic to position her for the refit in Italy, the ship has always operated from ports in the United States cruising primarily to Caribbean destinations. The Carnival Sunshine is primarily doing three to five night voyages from Charleston that visit Nassau, Freeport, Half Moon Cay, and Princess Cays. The ship also participated in the fun ship meet up in March 2022 to commemorate Carnival's 50th anniversary. It will also do various ten day voyages that visit St. Thomas, St. Martin, Antigua, St. Kitts, San Juan, Princess Cays, Grand Turk, Aruba, and Bonaire.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* *

External links

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Carnival Sunshine Photo GalleryPhotos of the disco from 1997
{{Authority control 1995 ships

Sunshine Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when th ...

Ships built in Monfalcone Ships built by Fincantieri