Carnival Dream Moves to New Orleans, Again

Announced with the 2027/28 cruise schedule, the Carnival Dream has been moved from Galveston, Texas back to New Orleans. This will take place in May of 2027 and will share the New Orleans port with the Carnival Liberty. The Dream was last homeported from NOLA in 2019. 

She will replace the Carnival Valor, a smaller Conquest class ship that can only accommodate 2,974 passengers. The new homeport for the Valor has not been announced.

The Carnival Dream is a Dream class ship that can hold 3,646 passengers with 1,369 crew members. She has 15 decks and comes in at 128,250 gross tonnage. This will almost double the capacity from the Valor.

Carnival is the only cruise line to have two ships with New Orleans as a homeport. New Orleans is the 6ths busiest port in the U.S. by passenger volume, and the 7th busiest port by cargo volume.

“More capacity with a larger ship means more tourism activity for Port NOLA and the region, where we’ve enjoyed a successful partnership for over three decades,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “As we roll out our deployment plans through the spring of 2028, we have great news to share with our homeport communities. Fun is on the move, and that means more options and more variety as guests book their future cruise vacations.”

The Carnival Liberty returns to service in New Orleans after being dry docked in Europe where she received updates and new amenities. Some of the new features include a WaterWorks aqua park with new waterslides and a Heroes Tribute Bar & Lounge.

Galveston will be left with the Carnival Jubilee and the Carnival Breeze, but no announcements have been made on their cruise schedules after May of 2027. Carnival has committed to servicing Galveston which has shown increased demand over the years, going as far as to decorate the Carnival Jubilee with Texas adornments.