Carnival Cruise Line Postcards

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Carnival Cruise Line

Page 1 - Acquired Ocean Liner Tonnage


These pages are devoted to postcards and photographs of the Carnival Cruise Line. An alphabetical list of ships covered on this page is shown below. The Table beneath gives links to complete postcard history pages on selected individual ships. Below the table are official postcards of the fleet in chronological order.

On the Carnival Header Page there is an Alphabetical List and a Chronological List of all ships in that have been in the Carnival Fleet. Links to other Carnival Pages:- Header Page - Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 4

Carnival began operations with the ex-British liners Empress of Britain, Empress of Canada and Transvaal Castle, and went on to become the world's largest cruise line, owning Holland America, Cunard, Princess, P&O and Costa. They also bought a 25% interest in Airtours, although this share was subsequently sold.

This page shows the secondhand ocean liner tonnage which Carnival began operations with. Carnival-Page 2 shows the four first generation cruise ships of between 35000 and 47000grt. Carnival-Page 3 shows the eight second generation 70000grt cruise ships of the Fantasy Class, delivered between 1990 and 1998. Carnival-Page 4 shows the third generation Mega-Ships, beginning with the Carnival Destiny of 1996.


Ships on This Page:-
Carnivale
Festivale
Mardi Gras

Carnival Pages:-
Carnival Header Page
Carnival - Page 1 - Secondhand ocean liner tonnage - This Page!
Carnival - Page 2 - The four first generation cruise ships of between 35000 and 47000grt.
Carnival - Page 3 - The eight second generation 70000grt cruise ships of the Fantasy Class.
Carnival - Page 4 - The third generation Mega-Ships, beginning with the Carnival Destiny of 1996.
Costa Cruise Ships
Cunard
Holland America
P&O/Princess Cruises

Associated Web Pages:-
Simplon Carnival Releases - All the Simplon Carnival postcards released so far
Simplon Holland America Line Releases - Holland America are part of the Carnival Group
Carnival Cruise Lines - The official Carnival website





Table of Ship Histories
Name Other Names Built Carnival Conquest 2002 Carnivale Empress of Britain, Queen Anna Maria, Olympic, Topaz, PeaceBoat 1956 Festivale Transvaal Castle, SA Vaal, IslandBreeze 1962 Mardi Gras Empress of Canada, Olympic, Star of Texas, Lucky Star, Apollon 1961






Carnival Fleet List


Mardi Gras
(Carnival: 1971-1993)

Mardi Gras was built for Canadian Pacific as the Empress of Canada, and made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Canada on 24th April 1961. In 1968 she received the latest CP funnel design, which was adapted as the Carnival symbol when sold to them in February 1972, after completing her 121st and last Atlantic crossing in November 1971. As the Mardi Gras, she became Carnival's first ship. Despite extensive internal changes, her external profile remained largely unchanged through Carnival and subsequent owners.

Following the arrival of new purpose-built tonnage for Carnival, Carnivale was sold to Epirotiki in 1993, becoming Olympic, Star of Texas, Lucky Star and finally Apollon. In 1999 she was chartered to Direct Cruises, for a series of cruises from the UK, marketed as Apollo. Direct Cruises were acquired by Airtours, in which Carnival later look a 25% interest. In 2000, the scheduled cruises of Direct Cruises were cancelled, and Apollon returned to Greece to be laid up, but was in service again in 2001 following the late delivery of Olympic Explorer.

A complete postcard history is available on this link.


Carnival official card of Mardi Gras, with funnel logo modelled on the final CP colours.
Appears to be a retouched image of the final CP colours.
Scan: Rudy Friederich



Carnival official card of Mardi Gras.
Scan: Rudy Friederich



Carnival official card of Mardi Gras.
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window



Carnival official card of Mardi Gras.
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window



Carnival official card of Mardi Gras.
It has Carnival logo and printing "Posted on Board TSS Mardi Gras".
Scan: Rudy Friederich



Carnival official card of Mardi Gras, with funnel logo modelled on the final CP colours.
Externally little changed from CP days, and still a very attractive ship.



Carnival official card of Mardi Gras.



Carnival official card of Mardi Gras.



Carnival official card of Mardi Gras.



Editions FISA card of Mardi Gras (s/n 7).



Carnival fleet postcard, including the Mardi Gras.



Carnival fleet postcard FISA AC-13, including the Mardi Gras.
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window



Carnival fleet postcard FISA AC-13 A, including the Mardi Gras.
Scan: Rudy Friederich






Carnivale
(Carnival: 1975-1994)

Carnivale was built as the Empress of Britain in 1956 by Fairfields of Glasgow. She was sold to the Greek Line, and re-entered service for them as Queen Anna Maria in 1965, running a fortnightly service to New York calling at Naples and Lisbon. Following the collapse of the Greek Line, she was sold to Carnival, joining the the Mardi Gras (ex-Empress of Canada) in 1975 as the Carnivale. Following the numerous new deliveries to Carnival, she was transferred to subsidiary Fiesta Marine Cruises as Fiesta Marina. She was sold again in 1994 to Epirotiki as Olympic, and has recently been on charter to British tour company Thomson as the Topaz.

A complete postcard history is available on this link.


Carnival official card of Carnivale, with funnel logo modelled on the final CP colours.
Still an attractive looking ship.



Carnival official card of Carnivale, showing Greek Line additions aft, which at least followed the original lines.



Carnival official card of Carnivale.



Carnival official card of Carnivale
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window



Carnival official card of Carnivale (s/n 9).



Carnival official card of Carnivale.



Editions FISA card of Carnivale (s/n 10B).



Carnival fleet postcard, including the Carnivale.



Carnival fleet postcard FISA AC-13, including the Carnivale.
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window



Carnival fleet postcard FISA AC-13 A, including the Carnivale.
Scan: Rudy Friederich



The front cover of the Carnival Cruise Lines official postcard album of Carnivale.
There are two tear-out card copies of each photo, the larger at 'Continental ' size. The following 10 views are from this booklet. (FISA, Barcelona, s/n: 50)
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window



The back cover of the Carnival Cruise Lines official postcard album of Carnivale. (FISA, Barcelona, s/n: 59)
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window






Festivale
(Carnival: 1977-1996)

The Transvaal Castle was launched in 1961 by John Brown & Co, Clydebank. She was delivered to Union-Castle Line, and served on their route to South Africa from Southampton from 1962. She remained in Union-Castle colours only until 1966, when she was transferred to the South African Marine Corp (UK), remaining on the same service under the British flag, with Union-Castle crew and management as S.A.Vaal. In 1969 she was transferred to the South African flag.

S.A.Vaal was withdrawn in Southampton on October 10th, 1977 and sold to Carnival Cruise Line, who rebuilt her in Japan with extra decks, almost doubling the passenger capacity. The external appearance was not spoilt, however, and she has remained the handsome ship of Union-Castle days. She returned to service in 1978 as Festivale.

Following the delivery of purpose-built cruise ships to Carnival, she was sold to Dolphin Cruise Line in 1996 who renamed her IslandBreeze. She was chartered to UK holiday company Thomson during the late 1990s, and passed to Premier cruises with the rest of the Dolphin ships.

A complete postcard history is available on this link.


Carnival Cruise Lines official card of Festivale.
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click tomopen larger image in new window



Carnival Cruise Lines official card of Festivale.



Carnival Cruise Lines official card of Festivale.
Slightly different to the card above.
Scan: Rudy Friederich



Carnival Cruise Lines official card of Festivale (Ediciones FISA, Barcelona s/n: 16).



Carnival Cruise Lines official card of Festivale.
Scan: Rudy Friederich



Carnival Cruise Lines official card of Festivale (FISA 400)
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window



Carnival Cruise Lines official card of Festivale (Ediciones FISA, Barcelona s/n: 18).



Carnival fleet postcard, including the Festivale.



Carnival fleet postcard FISA AC-13, including the Festivale.
Scan: Rudy Friederich
Click to open larger image in new window



Carnival fleet postcard FISA AC-13 A, including the Festivale.
Scan: Rudy Friederich







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Name	Other Names	Built
Carnival Conquest		2002
Carnivale	Empress of Britain, Queen Anna Maria, Olympic, Topaz, PeaceBoat	1956
Festivale	Transvaal Castle, SA Vaal, IslandBreeze	1962
Mardi Gras	Empress of Canada, Olympic, Star of Texas, Lucky Star, Apollon	1961