Carnival Miracle Repositions to Galveston, Kicking Off Panama Canal Cruise Season
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Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Miracle wrapped up its summer season in Alaska and on September 26, 2026, departed Seattle on a 16-night repositioning voyage bound for Galveston. The itinerary includes calls in Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia before concluding at the Texas port in mid-October.
Ports of call on the repositioning voyage
Per the planned route, the 2,100-passenger ship will call at Cabo San Lucas and then Puntarenas before transiting the Panama Canal. Once in the Caribbean, it will make a port call at Cartagena de Indias before sailing directly to Galveston, where it will be homeported for the winter season.
Winter season out of Galveston
From its new homeport in Texas, the Carnival Miracle, built in 2004 and belonging to the Spirit class, will offer a series of alternating four- and ten-night cruises to the Western Caribbean, with calls at Cozumel, and to the Eastern Caribbean, with visits to George Town in the Cayman Islands, Roatán in Honduras and Puerto Limón in Costa Rica. The deployment also includes special ten-night cruises to the Eastern Caribbean and the Bahamas, as well as five-night Western Caribbean sailings for the year-end holidays.
Start of the Canal's cruise season
On October 7, the Carnival Miracle transited the Miraflores Locks northbound, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and with that passage officially opened the Panama Canal's 2026-2027 cruise season. The interoceanic waterway is projecting more than 220 cruise transits during this period, which typically runs from October to May.
Projections for fiscal year 2027
According to Albano G. Aguilar, Market Analysis and Forecasting Specialist at the Canal's Office of Corporate Affairs, cruise transits are expected to perform favorably during fiscal year 2027, with global passenger demand growing by 5% and the global fleet adding 16 vessels to reach 490 ships. The schedule includes 39 transits by Neopanamax vessels, among them Star Princess, Norwegian Bliss and Norwegian Joy, as well as five cruise ships transiting the Canal for the first time: L'Austral, Le Lapérouse, Seven Seas Prestige, Spirit of Adventure and Explora III, along with smaller vessels such as Le Bellot, Star Legend, National Geographic Quest and Wind Star.
