Well first, Happy Valentine’s Day.  It’s a special day when couples who have been together for a while look back, those hoping to get there work on that and a day second only to Mother’s Day in the florist business.  This Valentine’s Day I am in Houston, Texas on the way to Galveston for a special event hosted by Carnival Cruise Line honoring our military.  Today, military families will enjoy a day and evening of fun and stay overnight on board Carnival Freedom before the ship begins year-round service from the Texas port. Capping off the event, a special Carnival Live concert featuring country star Martina McBride.  Stop right there and the event looks to great way to introduce a new ship to Texas and do something nice for our military.  But there is much more to this.

When we last visited the topic of ‘cruise’ and ‘military’ it was for sister-line Princess Cruises first Cruising For A Cause sailing.  That themed voyage raised funds for Operation Homefront and the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Fund.  In that case, guests on board were mostly retired veterans. A number of events both honored their service and added a layer of special interest on top of onboard programming already in place.  This quick, one day Carnival Texas event on Carnival Freedom is squarely aimed at military families but will showcase features that should resonate with non-military families as well.

Carnival Loves Military Members, Throughout The Year
This event is no one time shot nice thing to do for military families.  Carnival Cruise Line offers a Military Discount year-round, traditionally sweetening the deal around Veteran’s Day.  Often the lowest possible rate, Carnival’s military rate is not like occasional resident, senior or other promotions aimed simply to fill ships by lowering the price.

Carnival Loves Military Members, Especially On Valentine’s Day
Prior to the Martina McBride CarnivalLIVE concert, Carnival will conduct a special check presentation to Operation Homefront providing $100,000 to the organization.

Carnival Loves Texas
Positioning Carnival Freedom in Texas makes for a total of three ships sailing from Galveston.  Especially significant in the deployment of Carnival Freedom, the ship recently went through a $70million refurbishment, adding many of the FunShip 2.0 enhancements that have proved to be a consistent win for cruise travelers.

Carnival Freedom year-round sailings from Galveston feature four- to seven-day cruises that visit beautiful ports throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida. Together with Carnival Triumph and Carnival Magic, the line will carry more than 600,000 passengers annually from Texas.

Carnival Loves Texas Families
Big ship cruise lines are bending over backwards to attract families with more than an outstanding travel value.  When we traveled with our now-grown children, that we could sail for far less than the price of a land vacation was plenty. Now, that’s not enough.  In our recent post Disney Chills Other Cruise Line Efforts With Stellar Magic, we talked about some amazing new features being added to family vacation fun on Disney Cruise Line, comparing the Disney magic to the meager efforts of most other cruise lines. Intentionally not mentioned: Carnival Cruise Line.  Find out why starting Sunday as we sail and explore what Carnival Freedom has to offer as well as fleetwide programming of interest to families.