Carnival Radiance

Originally constructed as Carnival Victory, the vessel that now sails as Carnival Radiance was ordered on January 30, 1997, and built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy. Her keel was laid on June 26, 1998, she was launched on December 31, 1998, and she was completed and delivered on July 28, 2000, at a reported cost of around 410 million dollars. The third member of Carnival Cruise Line's Destiny class, she entered service with a maiden voyage on October 15, 2000. For most of her first two decades she was homeported in Miami, Florida, where she operated year-round on a rotation of three-night and four-night cruises to destinations across the Caribbean, becoming a familiar workhorse of Carnival's short-cruise program.

By the late 2010s Carnival had committed to giving the aging ship a comprehensive makeover under its fleet-wide Fun Ship 2.0 modernization initiative. The project was structured as a massive refit carried out at the Navantia shipyard in Cadiz, Spain, and was originally slated to begin in the spring of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying shutdown of the global cruise industry forced Carnival to postpone the work substantially, stretching a project that had been planned for months into a much longer program. The roughly 200 million dollar overhaul was so extensive that the ship was often described as having been almost entirely rebuilt. As part of the transformation she was formally renamed Carnival Radiance in September 2021, shedding the Victory identity she had carried for more than twenty years.

Following the rebuild the ship measures approximately 102,000 gross tons, up slightly from her original figure near 101,500. She stretches about 893 feet, or roughly 272 meters, in length with a beam of around 116 feet (about 35 meters) and rises through 13 passenger decks. Her post-refit configuration provides about 1,492 staterooms and a double-occupancy capacity of roughly 2,984 guests, with a maximum that can climb well above 3,000 when berths are fully occupied, served by a crew of around 1,108. Interior signatures retained and refreshed from the Destiny-class design include a soaring nine-deck atrium fitted with glass elevators and a large two-level main show lounge.

Her propulsion remains a diesel-electric arrangement in which diesel generators supply electricity to drive the propulsion motors turning two controllable-pitch propellers, each rated at roughly 17.6 megawatts. This machinery gives the ship a service speed in the vicinity of 21 knots, comfortably adequate for the shorter West Coast and Mexican itineraries she now runs. The refit did not fundamentally alter her mechanical layout but concentrated instead on hotel, dining, and recreation spaces throughout the vessel.

The rebuild added a full slate of signature top-deck attractions and outdoor amenities. Sun-deck features include the WaterWorks aqua park with a lengthy waterslide of roughly 214 feet, multiple swimming pools, and a SportSquare recreation zone incorporating a ropes course, mini-golf, and open-air sports areas. For adults, the ship offers the Serenity retreat, a quieter sun-deck sanctuary, alongside the Cloud 9 Spa with its fitness center and treatment rooms. Evening entertainment venues added or updated in the refit include a main theater, the Limelight Lounge for the Punchliner Comedy Club, and an outdoor movie screen for poolside films.

Dining and bar options were a centerpiece of the modernization. The ship became a home for Big Chicken, the fried-chicken concept created by basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal, and also carries Guy Fieri's collaborations in the form of Guy's Burger Joint and the Guy's Pig and Anchor Bar-B-Que smokehouse. Casual and specialty venues include the BlueIguana Cantina for Mexican fare, the Cucina del Capitano Italian restaurant, the Fahrenheit 555 steakhouse, Bonsai Sushi, and the ship's main dining rooms and buffet. Bar options span the RedFrog Pub and its rum-focused lineup, the BlueIguana Tequila Bar, the cocktail-driven Alchemy Bar, and various pool and atrium lounges, giving the ship the branded food-and-beverage identity common across the modernized Carnival fleet.

Carnival Radiance was repositioned to the West Coast to open her new career, with Long Beach, California, established as her home port. She was christened at Long Beach on December 12, 2021, and began revenue service the following day with a four-day inaugural sailing that called at Ensenada, Mexico, and Catalina Island. Since then she has operated year-round short cruises from Long Beach, typically three-, four-, and five-day voyages along the California coast and to the Mexican Riviera, visiting ports such as Ensenada, Catalina Island, and destinations along Baja California. These itineraries mirror the short-cruise formula the ship long served in the Caribbean, now adapted to the Southern California market.

As Carnival Victory the ship had a largely routine operating record, participating over the years in the sort of at-sea assistance and weather-related itinerary adjustments common to a long-serving Caribbean vessel, without any single catastrophic incident defining her career. Under her Radiance identity she has continued to sail reliably from Long Beach and remains an active member of Carnival's fleet as of 2026, serving as one of the line's principal ships on the West Coast and continuing to offer the modernized dining, entertainment, and top-deck attractions installed during her extensive 2020 to 2021 conversion.