Forget Florida. You can cruise to the Bahamas in this newer ship from SC

A newer and larger Carnival ship will soon call Charleston its home.

Carnival Cruise Lines announced Thursday that it will assign the Carnival Sunshine, a 3,002-passenger ship that goes on four- and five-day cruises. The Sunshine will start calling Charleston its home in May 2019.

“With its convenient location and strong tourism appeal, Charleston is one of our most popular homeports and we’re delighted to build upon this success with the deployment of Carnival Sunshine,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival. “Carnival Sunshine not only provides guests sailing from Charleston with a newer, larger ship with so much to see and do but also underscores our commitment to our year-round operations from this port.”

The Sunshine has already visited Charleston occasionally over the past two years, The Post and Courier reported. That’s because the company had been doing its homework to see if the port could sustain the passenger traffic for the ship and to “smoothly organize guest logistics,” according to Travel Agent Central.

The Sunshine’s four-day trips will head for Nassau, Bahamas, while five-day trips will include Nassau and the private Bahamian island of Half Moon Cay, Carnival’s news release stated. Carnival will also offer occasional 11-day roundtrips from Charleston to St. Thomas, Aruba, Bonaire, Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay.

Carnival Ecstasy, which holds 2,056 passengers and calls Charleston is home, will sail from Jacksonville, Fla., once the Sunshine arrives, according to the release.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 10:59 AM with the headline "Forget Florida. You can cruise to the Bahamas in this newer ship from SC."