Two Carnival Cruises Hit With Parking Crunch at Port of Long Beach
If you're sailing on the Carnival Radiance on May 28, 2026, or the Carnival Firenze on May 29, 2026, from Long Beach, plan your transportation now. The terminal garage holds only 1,450 spaces for ships carrying up to 2,984 and 4,126 guests respectively. Consider the Passport transit line or a ride-share instead of driving. If you must drive, be ready to drop luggage at the terminal first and follow Carnival's directions to offsite City of Long Beach parking with a shuttle back.
The math here is stark: 1,450 spaces against ships that together can carry over 7,000 guests, and Carnival admits it can't guarantee terminal parking for these two sailings. My read is this is a capacity mismatch that's been building as Carnival deploys larger ships like the 135,156-ton Firenze into a terminal it solely owns but hasn't expanded. Cruise Hive flagged a similar squeeze back in December 2025, so this isn't a one-off. The offsite City of Long Beach overflow lot with the shuttle-and-boarding-pass shuffle sounds workable but adds friction on embarkation day. If I were sailing either of these dates, I'd book a ride-share or use the Passport line to the Queen Mary rather than risk being routed offsite. Bigger ships, same terminal footprint — something eventually has to give.