Carnival Cruise Line continues its year-long 50^th birthday celebration, this time marking 50 years of visiting The Bahamas.

The Royal Bahamas Defense Force Marching Band kicked off the festivities held in Pompey Square, followed by performances from Bahamian singer Simmone Bowe and spoken word artist (poet?) Joinel Juene. The event culminated with the cutting of a 50^th birthday cake for Carnival and the upbeat sounds of a traditional Bahamian Junkanoo Band, which brought everyone to their feet. 

“We are so proud of achieving five decades of partnership with The Bahamas to bring fun and joyful vacations to guests from across the globe, and we thank the Bahamian people and their government and industry leaders for their support of and collaboration with Carnival,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.

Carnival is currently working in partnership with government to finalize needed permits and approvals to develop two major projects in cooperation with the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the government of The Bahamas. The first, a new cruise port destination primarily for Carnival Cruise Line on Grand Bahama, will represent an investment of over $200 million. The second project, on the Bahamian island of Little San Salvador, home to Holland America Line’s award-winning Half Moon Cay port, will constitute an estimated $100 million investment over time. 

In addition to today’s event in The Bahamas, Carnival’s year-long 50^th birthday celebrations included 17 commemorative birthday Sailabrations cruises that featured at-sea ship meetups, special entertainment and programming. 

Carnival is sailing from all its year-round homeports, and its entire fleet will be back in service by this summer, completing an impressive and successful restart of its guest operations and setting the pace for the rest of the U.S. cruise industry. Carnival started its operations with one ship from PortMiami in 1972 and has since grown into the world’s most popular cruise line with a total of 23 ships carrying more than six million guests annually and employing more than 40,000 team members from 120 nationalities.

For additional information on Carnival Cruise Line and to book a cruise vacation, call 1-800-CARNIVAL, visit www.carnival.com, or contact your favorite travel advisor or online travel site.