Port Canaveral today welcomed back the Carnival Pride to its original homeport during the first of 18 calls scheduled this year from Baltimore. Carnival Pride was inaugurated in Canaveral in January 2002 and homeported here until fall 2003. It was replaced with the larger Carnival Glory, which today sails eastern and western Caribbean itineraries from Port Canaveral and will be replaced later this year by the largest Carnival ship ever, the Carnival Dream.

Carnival Pride will stop in Canaveral as part of Carnival’s Baltimore cruise program. Carnival expects the Carnival Pride to carry more than 115,000 passengers from Baltimore annually.

“Port Canaveral’s reputation as a world-class homeport has contributed to expanding our port of call business and the success we are experiencing with cruise lines such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian,” says Stan Payne, CEO, Port Canaveral.

Carnival Cruise Lines has scheduled a record 94 cruise ship calls to Port Canaveral now through 2011.

“Each port of call visit from a cruise line brings opportunity for Brevard and Central Florida businesses to capture some of the crew members and passengers who want to enjoy the natural beauty of our beaches or the diversity of our area attractions or spend their time ashore shopping,” says Tom Goodson, Chairman, Canaveral Port Authority Board of Commissioners.