Carnival Festivale Floats Out at Meyer Werft Ahead of May 2027 Debut
If you want to sail the Festivale, plan around Port Canaveral and a May 2027 start, with six- to eight-night Caribbean itineraries that include Celebration Key. If Galveston is your homeport, the Tropicale enters service there in April 2028 with weeklong Caribbean and Bahamas cruises. Families should note that Sunsation Point and the six-slide Carnival Waterworks Ultra are planned for these ships. Delivery is scheduled for 2027, so check Carnival's booking pages for the sailings you want.
My read is that this float-out is a shipyard scheduling step more than a cruiser milestone. Meyer Werft says flooding the dock let the Festivale move inside the hall, which clears room for another hull, and the Tropicale's steel cutting in early September fits that sequence. The yard can build two large ships at once in its enclosed Papenburg dock, so the Excel series wraps up on a tight rhythm: Festivale from Port Canaveral in May 2027, Tropicale from Galveston in April 2028. Port Canaveral families and Galveston regulars win, since both ports get a new ship, and the Sunsation Point zone with its largest waterpark is a clear pitch for them. The mild loser is anyone expecting a different design, because these are the last Excel ships. I would not book on the float-out alone, but I would watch the 2027 delivery date and compare the six- to eight-night itineraries once they are priced.