Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the ritual Lenten sacrifices and fasting of the Lenten season.
Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. It is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Its logo is the funnel like the funnels found on its ships, with red, white, and blue colors. The funnels are shaped like a whale's tail. Carnival is ranked first on the list of largest cruise lines based on passengers carried annually and total number of ships in fleet.
Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator, currently the world's largest travel leisure company, with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of two companies, Panama-incorporated US-headquartered Carnival Corporation and UK-based Carnival plc, which function as one entity. Carnival Corporation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Carnival plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Carnival is listed in both the S&P 500 and FTSE 250 indices.
The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in all of Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Usually there is one major parade each day ; many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the Mardi Gras season. In the final week, many events occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities, including parades and balls.
Princess Cruises is a cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company is incorporated in Bermuda and its headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California. As of 2018, it is the second largest cruise line by net revenue. It was previously a subsidiary of P&O Princess Cruises, and is currently under Holland America Group within Carnival Corporation & plc, which holds executive control over the Princess Cruises brand. The line has 18 ships cruising global itineraries that are marketed to both American and international passengers.
Carnival Sunshine is a cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. Upon entering service in 1996, she was the first passenger ship ever built to be over 100,000 gross tons. Built by Fincantieri at its Monfalcone shipyard in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northern Italy, she was christened as Carnival Destiny in Venice, Italy, in November 1996 by Lin Arison, the wife of Carnival Cruise Line founder Ted Arison. Since May 2019 the ship has been homeported in Charleston, South Carolina.
Carnival Victory is a Destiny-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. She is the last of the three Destiny-class ships to undergo a refit and a rename; the ship will resume service in April 2021 as Carnival Radiance.
Carnival Freedom is a Conquest-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. She is the 22nd operating vessel in the fleet, and the last of the Conquest-class ships. The ship was built as part of a four-ship deal with Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard and was launched in Venice, Italy on April 28, 2006. She was delivered to Carnival on February 28, 2007.
RMS Empress of Britain was a transatlantic ocean liner built by Fairfield Shipbuilding at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland in 1955-1956 for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship — the third of three CP vessels to be named Empress of Britain — regularly traversed the trans-Atlantic route between Canada and Europe until 1964, completing 123 voyages under the Canadian Pacific flag.
The Ocean Dream is a cruise ship, built in 1981. The ship began sailing for Carnival Cruise Line as the Tropicale in 1982. The Tropicale was Carnival's first newly built ship, operating mainly in the Caribbean. She was transferred to the Costa fleet in July 2001 and renamed the Costa Tropicale. The Costa Tropicale was retired in 2005 and entered service for P&O Cruises Australia as the Pacific Star in December of that year. She was formerly Queensland’s latest cruise liner, based in Brisbane, performing cruises along the Tropical Queensland coast, to various islands in the South Pacific, New Caledonia, and to New Zealand. In March 2008, P&O Cruises Australia sold the Pacific Star to Pullmantur Cruises.
Mardi Gras refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany, and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday.
RMS Empress of Canada may refer to one of the following ships of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company:
Azamara Pursuit is a cruise ship operating for Azamara Club Cruises. The ship was built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at their shipyard in St. Nazaire, France in 2001.
P&O Cruises Australia is a British-American owned cruise line with operational headquarters as part of Carnival Australia, based in Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia.
RMS Empress of Canada was an ocean liner launched in 1960 and completed the following year by Vickers-Armstrongs of Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd.. This ship, the third CP vessel to be named Empress of Canada, regularly traversed the transatlantic route between Liverpool and Canada for the next decade. Although Canadian Pacific Railways was incorporated in Canada, the Atlantic liners were owned and operated by the British registered subsidiary Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. and were always British flagged and manned and therefore Empress of Canada was not the flagship of the Canadian Merchant Marine.
Mardi Gras in the United States is not observed nationally across the country, largely due to the country’s Protestant and Anglo roots. Mardi Gras and Carnival are mostly Catholic holidays, while the United States has a Protestant majority population. However, a number of cities and regions in the U.S. have notable Mardi Gras or Carnival celebrations. Most of these places trace their Mardi Gras celebrations to French, Spanish, and other Catholic colonial influences on the settlements over their history. The earliest Carnival celebration in North America occurred at a place on the west bank of the Mississippi river about 60 miles downriver from where New Orleans is today; this Mardi Gras on the 3rd of March 1699 and in honor of this holiday, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, a 38-year-old French Canadian, named the spot Point du Mardi Gras near Fort Jackson. The earliest organized Carnival celebrations occurred in Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, and Pensacola, which have each developed separate traditions. In addition, modern activities generally vary from city to city across the U.S.
MS Rotterdam is a Pinnacle-class cruise ship under construction for Holland America Line (HAL), a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation. MS Rotterdam shares her name with six previous Holland America ships and will become the company's new flagship upon her debut. Originally named Ryndam, she will be the third of HAL's Pinnacle class in the fleet and is scheduled to be delivered in July 2021.
The Excellence class, including the sub-classes Helios class and XL class, is a class of cruise ships ordered by Carnival Corporation & plc for its subsidiary brands AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, P&O Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line. The ships are being constructed by Meyer Werft at their shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, and Meyer Turku at their shipyard in Turku, Finland. The first, AIDAnova, entered service for AIDA Cruises in 2018.
Carnival Panorama is the current flagship of Carnival Cruise Line. As such, the 133,868 GT, 323 m (1,059.7 ft) long Vista-class cruise ship is the largest in the fleet. She is also Carnival's 27th operating vessel and the final Vista-class ship in the fleet, which includes Carnival Vista and Carnival Horizon.
Mardi Gras is an Excellence-class cruise ship under construction for Carnival Cruise Line. She will be Carnival's lead vessel of the fleet's XL class, a subclass of the Excellence class, with a sister ship scheduled to be delivered in 2022. At 180,000 GT, she will become the largest ship in Carnival's fleet upon her delivery. The ship has often been incorrectly referred to as Carnival Mardi Gras, though Carnival has specified that her name, Mardi Gras, will not include the "Carnival" prefix, a first since the Fantasy-class vessels originally omitted "Carnival" in their names upon their debuts.
