Carnival’s Ace Class Revealed: Carnival Destiny Returns

July 10, 2026 Randy Young

At a steel-cutting ceremony at the Fincantieri shipyard in Trieste, Italy, Carnival Cruise Line announced the name of the first ship in its new class. Dubbed “Project Ace,” these ships are the largest Carnival has ever built, 25% larger than Carnival Mardi Gras and holding 21% more people.

The first ship in the class will be named Carnival Destiny. It is a tribute to the original Carnival Destiny, which sailed from 1996 to 2013. When it debuted, it was the first passenger ship to exceed 100,000 gross tons. In 2013, Carnival Destiny underwent a multimillion-dollar refurbishment that gave it a new name. It is currently sailing as Carnival Sunshine and is technically the oldest ship in Carnival’s fleet.

carnival destiny 1996 vs carnival destiny 2029

Today’s steel cutting happened on the 30th anniversary of when the original Carnival Destiny first sailed from Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard, the very shipyard where the new Carnival Destiny will be built.

Record-Breaking, But Not Necessarily in a Good Way

While the new Carnival Destiny will be big, it will not break any size records like its namesake did. When looking at gross tonnage, it will be the sixth-largest ship in the world when it debuts, outsized by Royal Caribbean’s Icon Class and newer Oasis Class ships.

But it will break records for the number of guests onboard. At maximum capacity, the ship is expected to hold 8,000 guests. That’s 5% more than Royal Caribbean’s Icon Class, the current record holder at 7,600 guests. Holding more people while having less gross tonnage may prove to be a downside.

	Carnival Ace Class	Carnival Excel Class	Royal Caribbean Oasis Class
Gross Tons	230,000	183,521	228,081
Max Passengers	8,000	6,631	6,680
Cabins	3,000	2,641	2,759
Space Ratio	29	28	34

What Will Carnival Destiny Be Like?

Even with this announcement, we don’t know a lot about the Ace Class Carnival Destiny yet. Carnival has said it will hold an event with more details in November.

At the press conference during the steel-cutting ceremony, Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy gave us a few more hints, though.

She said the Ace Class ships “are designed to change how guests will experience the sea while on their cruise. We like to say they’ll have ‘More Sea to See.’”

It will be the most outward-facing ship in the Carnival fleet
More ocean views across more spaces
A reimagined Lanai Deck
More than 4.5 acres of glass
The most sea-view balconies at sea
70% new concepts across dining, beverage, and entertainment

Looking at the render that was provided, it seems the ship takes a lot of inspiration from Carnival’s previous class of ships, the Excel Class, which includes Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Jubilee. You can see the three-story windows on the side where Grand Central is located on those ships, although what is inside has yet to be revealed.

The exterior promenade, the Lanai Deck, also called Summer Landing on the Excel Class ships, has been expanded. It looks like it will have more bars and restaurants along it, and while it is hard to see in the render, a 360-degree spinning holographic display at the ceremony seemed to show pools along the aft section of the Lanai Deck. Unfortunately, according to the renders it does not wrap around the whole ship like on the Vista Class.

Seeing the ship’s design, we can now confirm that it will not have a split-superstructure design. So far, every cruise ship over 200,000 gross tons has widened the ship and added open interior spaces in the middle lined with cabins. This creates areas like Central Park on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis and Icon Class ships and the World Promenade on MSC’s World Class ships. But Carnival is going with a traditional cruise ship design. It will be interesting to see how this impacts how crowded the ship feels, as the split-superstructure design has so far been credited with making these massive ships possible without feeling cramped.

You might notice that there are no top-deck attractions yet. That is standard for early renders, and we can expect things like ropes courses, water slides, and other attractions to be added to future renders.

Three Ace Class Ships Coming

Carnival Destiny will be the first Ace Class ship and will debut in 2029. Carnival has two others on order, set to debut in 2031 and 2033. Their names will be released at a later date, along with their homeports and itineraries.

Carnival has been preparing for these ships for a long time, though. With all its recent improvements, including the new piers at RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay and Celebration Key, as well as Terminal F at PortMiami, Carnival has said these facilities will be able to accommodate the new, larger ships.

Why Not Carnival Ace?

Project Ace was Carnival’s internal name for the project that developed this class of ship. Usually, when a ship is revealed to the public, the name of the first ship also becomes the name of the class. For example, Carnival Vista is part of the Vista Class, and Carnival Dream is part of the Dream Class.

But with its most recent class, the Excel Class, Carnival’s internal name, Excellence Class, became the class name. The reason is likely because Carnival Corporation has been reusing these ships across multiple brands it owns. The Excel Class is not exclusive to Carnival and is also used by AIDA, Costa, and P&O Cruises.

In fact, the first ship in the class was not built for Carnival but for AIDA Cruises. AIDAnova debuted two years earlier, and it would have been odd to call them “Nova Class” ships when only one of the cruise lines had a ship with “Nova” in its name.

John Heald was the first cruise director onboard Carnival Destiny. Sixty-five of the original Carnival Destiny crew members are still serving with the line.

Carnival Destiny Will Be Sailing the Caribbean

The press release confirmed that the ship will sail in the Caribbean. It will visit destinations in the Paradise Collection, including Celebration Key and RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay.