Carnival launches first year-round cruises out of Baltimore

[mercedes]

Add Baltimore to the list of cities with a major ship to call its own. Carnival says it'll begin year-round cruising out of the mid-Atlantic port in September, 2009 on the 2,124-passenger Carnival Pride.

The 88,500-ton vessel, the first from any line to be based year-round in the city, will sail two different

week-long itineraries departing on Sundays:

-- An Eastern Caribbean itinerary that will include calls at Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos; the private Bahamian island of Half Moon Cay; and Freeport, the Bahamas.

-- A Bahamas/Florida itinerary that will include calls at Port Canaveral, Fla.; and Nassau and Freeport, the Bahamas.

Baltimore will become the 11th port where Carnival operates year-round, joining such cities as Miami, New Orleans and San Diego. But the deployment marks the first time the line has ventured north of Florida with a ship year-round. Until now, the furthest north Carnival had placed a ship year-round was Jacksonville, Fla.

Carnival and other major lines have been moving aggressively in recent years to position ships in a larger variety of cities so that a more customers can reach them by car instead of airplane.

“Today’s consumers are more value-conscious than ever," Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill says in a statement. "Considering that Baltimore is within a day’s drive for millions of Northeastern U.S. residents, these new seven-day voyages provide a convenient and affordable vacation option."

The line notes that 40 million people live within a six-hour drive of Baltimore.