Carnival Cruise Line has announced that Costa Luminosa will join the Carnival fleet in September and start guest operations as Carnival Luminosa in November 2022.

The acquisition of Luminosa means that Costa Magica, which had been expected to move to Carnival, will now remain at Costa Cruises.

The 2,826-guest ship will go through some “modest updates”, according to Carnival, over the coming months.

However, it will not initially have all of the Funship 2.0 branded spaces that are seen across the wider Carnival fleet.

Carnival Luminosa will operate from Brisbane from October to April, before repositioning to Seattle, where it will sail Alaska itineraries from May to September, before returning to Brisbane.

Itineraries for Costa Luminosa from September forward will be cancelled and Costa will be informing guests.

Carnival returning to Australia

Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy said: “With our full fleet back to guest operations and the pent-up demand for Carnival we are seeing every week aboard our ships, the chance to expand with Luminosa and then the arrival of Carnival Celebration in November provides our guests with more choices and new ways to enjoy a Carnival vacation.

“Our Spirit class ships are very popular with our guests and Luminosa will be a great addition, given the large number of balcony cabins which make her an ideal ship for this deployment.

“And equally important, this will allow Carnival to finally start our highly anticipated itineraries from Brisbane, so we’ll have two ships operating in Australia for the high season.

“The opportunity to deliver these bucket-list itineraries will be exciting for our guests and we are thrilled to see the growing number of guests from the US sailing on Carnival in Australia.”

Carnival Splendor will also arrive in Sydney to resume sailing year-round on 2 October this year.