Carnival Cruise Line cancels additional Carnival Freedom cruises following fire

Carnival Cruise Line has cancelled two upcoming cruises aboard Carnival Freedom after a fire damaged the ship’s funnel and part of its upper deck.

Carnival Freedom’s March 25th and March 30th departures from Port Canaveral have been cancelled in order for the ship to go to a shipyard for repairs.

The announcement was made by Carnival after it previously indicated the ship’s upcoming schedule would not be impacted.

However, after Carnival Freedom arrived back in port, the damage to the ship was found to be greater than what repairs underway could address.

“The Carnival Freedom experienced a fire in the port side of the exhaust funnel on Saturday. Our onboard team acted quickly to contain and put out the fire,” the company said in a statement sent to booked guests.

“While we continue to investigate multiple eyewitness reports of a lightning strike, our technical team completed a thorough assessment during the ship’s visit to Freeport,” Carnival added. “Regrettably, the damage is more than we first thought and will require an immediate repair to stabilize the funnel.”

Carnival Freedom caught fire on Saturday during a storm at sea. The incident was reported shortly after 3:00 p.m. local time while the ship was approximately 20 miles off the coast of the island of Eleuthera.

Unconfirmed eyewitness reports posted on social media claimed that a lightning strike caused the fire, which only affected part of the ship’s whale-tail funnel.

After a visit to Freeport, Carnival Freedom returned to Port Canaveral to disembark guests on Monday morning, when the damage was found to be greater than initially thought.

“We sincerely regret the impact to our embarking guests, as we know they have been looking forward to their spring break vacation,” Carnival added in its statement.

Affected guests will receive a full refund, as well as a 100 percent future cruise credit.

Carnival Freedom is scheduled to visit a shipyard in Grand Bahama to begin the necessary repairs, and at the time of writing was underway bound for Freeport. The 2,974-guest ship is expected to resume service with a 4-night cruise to the Bahamas on April 4th, 2024.