Carnival (NYSE:CCL) stock is falling on Tuesday after announcing that its new Mardi Gras ship is facing yet another delay.
According to a news release, Carnival doesn’t plan to have the Mardi Gras ready for passengers until Feb. 6, 2021. That’s a major pushback from the company’s previous launch date of Nov. 14, 2020.
To go along with this, Carnival says that all scheduled trips for the Mardi Gras from Nov. 14, 2020, to Jan. 30, 2021 have been canceled. The company attributes the delay to the novel coronavirus.
When the Mardi Gras is finally ready to depart, it will do so from Port Canaveral, Fla. That’s the same location that the company was planning to have cruises launch from later this year.
Christine Duffy, president of Carnival, said this about the Mardi Gras delay.
“While we had hoped to make up construction time on Mardi Gras over the summer, it’s clear we will need extra time to complete this magnificent ship. We share our guests’ disappointment and appreciate their patience as we work through this unprecedented time in our business and the lives of so many people. We remain committed to working with government, public health and industry officials to support the response to the pandemic and to return to operations when the time is right.”
Carnival had initially announced plans to launch the Mardi Gras back in 2018. At that time, the company was expecting a 2020 departure. The Mardi Gras is a significant new ship for Carnival as its the first to sport an at-sea roller coaster.
CCL stock was down 5.6% as of Tuesday afternoon.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
