Key Aspects:
- All of Carnival Elation‘s 4-night Bahamas cruises will be visiting Celebration Key earlier than planned.
- Guests will enjoy the same amount of time in the private port destination, just shifted earlier in the day.
- A total of 50 sailing departure dates are impacted by this adjustment and guests are receiving email notifications.
Celebration Key in the Bahamas opened in July 2025 and is rapidly becoming a favorite port for many Carnival cruisers, but guests sailing aboard Carnival Elation over the next two years need to be aware of changed times for their visits to the private destination.
Carnival Cruise Line has emailed notifications to guests booked on 50 different Carnival Elation sailings to notify them that “port times for Celebration Key have been adjusted.”
Impacted sailings range from the June 18, 2026 departure and continue through the April 6, 2028 departure.
For example, on the 4-night July 30, 2026 departure, Carnival Elation was originally scheduled to visit Celebration Key from 2:30-8:30 p.m. The revised schedule has the ship in port from 12-6 p.m.
This is the same length of time to enjoy Celebration Key only moved earlier in the day.
The exact same change has been made to other dates that Cruise Hive has been able to verify, including the November 5, 2026 and June 3, 2027 sailings. Other sailings may still be updated on Carnival’s website, as it can take up to 24 hours for itinerary changes to be reflected on the website.
It is possible that select sailings may have different port time changes depending on the operational needs of individual voyages.
In total, 50 cruises are impacted by these changes, though all are the ship’s 4-night voyages. These include the following cruise departure dates:
- 2026: June 18; July 2, 16, 30; August 13, 27; September 10, 24; October 8, 22; November 5, 19, 29; December 3, 17, 26
- 2027: January 14, 28; February 11, 25; March 11, 25; April 8, 22; May 6, 20; June 3, 17; July 1, 15, 29; August 12, 26; September 9, 23; October 7, 21; November 4, 18, 28; December 2, 16, 26, 30
- 2028: January 13; February 10, 24; March 9, 23; April 6
Every single one of Carnival Elation‘s 4-night departures through mid-April 2028 is impacted. There are no sailing dates released past that point for the 71,909-gross-ton ship at this time.
According to the email, no other sailing dates are adjusted and the up to 2,190 guests onboard the ship will still enjoy Celebration Key at the times scheduled for the 5-night itineraries.
Why the Changes?
There has been no further information released about why so many Carnival Elation sailings have adjusted times to Celebration Key, but these types of mass changes are not unusual.
Cruise Hive has previously reported on mass changes in times for port visits, homeport departures, and other itinerary refinements aboard other Carnival ships. Most recently, nearly 100 cruises were adjusted for Carnival Panorama sailing from Long Beach, California.
Carnival Elation sails year-round from Jacksonville, Florida, offering different Bahamas itineraries. The 4-night sailings visit Celebration Key as well as Nassau, with just one day at sea on the schedule.
The ship’s 5-night sailings also visit Celebration Key but typically go to Princess Cays or RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay as well, depending on departure date.
Cruise lines regularly refine itineraries based on guest feedback, port schedules, and route adjustments. This particular shift to bring guests to Celebration Key earlier on the 4-night cruises gives guests prime time to enjoy the destination but still have a full, active schedule of onboard activities in the evening.
