Already pairing their own custom brew with a chef-designed burger, Carnival Cruise Lines is adding a local craft beer to ships sailing from Florida ports.  It’s yet another move by the cruise giant to establish and promote a mutual long term relationship with the ports their ships call home.

Making a big hit with cruise travelers, part of Carnival Cruise Line‘s Funship 2.0 initiative added gourmet burgers designed by celebrity chef Guy Fieri.  Resonating with the Carnival passenger demographic, “Guy Burgers” as we have come to call them, have made for a great, new reason to sail Carnival ships with Guys Burger Joint rolled out fleetwide now.

On most Carnival ships, steps away from the Food Network star’s signature eatery, is the Red Frog Rum Bar which already serves a custom brew on tap, Thirsty Frog Red.  Continuing to design experiences available on no other line, Carnival will feature Florida brewer Cigar City beers, again a display of the worlds most popular cruise line making ties to the ports and part of the world from which they sail.

“For a small company like us, it’s obviously an opportunity to sell more beer,” Cigar City founder Joey Redneris  told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. “But it goes hand-in-hand that Cigar City being on those ships will increase our profile, and that never hurts.”

It’s a win-win partnership for both the local Florida brewery and Carnival Cruise Lines, supporting local businesses.  But its not the first time we have seen and reported such moves.  Usually reported with a Cruise Lines Give Back flavor, we have seen similar efforts with Disney Cruise Line‘s Walk For Wildlife, Crystal Cruises We Care, You Care program, Royal Caribbean International‘s  annual G.I.V.E. Day and more.  Most recently, Carnival Cruise Lines showed its support of the Texas drive market by building several ongoing local relationships, one of which was with the Frisco RoughRiders, the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

More than 500 “Carnival Kids Day” participants came from a variety of Dallas/Fort Worth- area organizations, including YMCA Frisco, Plano and Irving, Children’s Medical Center Foundation, Frisco Family Services, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club of Denton County, Collin County Frisco Branch, Collin County Plano Branch, Greater Fort Worth, Greater Dallas and Rockwall County.

But this news is all about beer and the first-ever partnership with a major cruise line and a craft brewery.  Now, when cruise travelers visit a bar on one of Carnival’s Florida-based ships, they will be able to order cans of Cigar City Cracker Belgian-Style Ale and Invasion Pale Ale.

How big of a deal is this?  The thirteen Carnival ships sailing from five Florida ports are expected to serve 100,000 Cigar City brews in the first year of the agreement.

Want to know more about Cigar City Brewery?  Here’s a video with more information:

 Flickr photo by Bobby Alexander