After months of planning, no one likes to hear that their cruise has to be canceled, but cruise ships need regular maintenance, and sometimes scheduling conflicts are necessary.Carnival Cruise Line recently sent out notifications to guests booked on seven specific sailings from January 5, 2026, through January 26, 2026. The reason? Carnival Conquest’s scheduled dry dock has been moved.
ID 383129523 | Carnival Conquest ©
Photosvit | Dreamstime.com
The email sent to impacted guests read as follows:
“We have had to reschedule Carnival Conquest’s dry dock to January 2026, and we are sorry to inform you that the above cruises, including yours, have been canceled.”
Carnival hasn’t yet given a detailed reason for moving the dates for the ship’s dry dock. These changes usually happen because of things like shipyard availability, getting the right parts on time, or other operational issues that are outside the cruise line’s direct control.
Carnival Conquest was the first Conquest-class ship with the cruise line, and it debuted in November, 2002. The ship’s last dry dock was in 2022, during which it received basic maintenance in addition to the blue hull livery that was rolled out across the fleet.
If Your Cruise Was Canceled, Here Are Your Choices:
The impacted sailings were 3- and 4-night cruises out of PortMiami. Carnival is offering several options to those whose cruises were canceled:
- Rebook a Different Cruise: Guests can choose to book a different cruise. It can be on another Carnival ship, and it needs to be a similar sailing duration to the original booking. If you rebook, Carnival will give you a $50 onboard credit per person (up to $100 per stateroom) for your new cruise.
- Get Help with Flight Changes: If you had non-refundable flights booked, Carnival might help cover some of the change fees. They will reimburse up to $200 per person for these fees. You’ll need to submit documentation for those changes.
- Receive a Full Refund: If you’d prefer not to rebook, you can get a full refund for your cruise fare and any other items you pre-purchased for the trip. These refunds will start being processed after June 10, 2025.
Why the Date Change?
You might have seen some dry dock schedules for Carnival that showed Carnival Conquest’s dry dock happening in August and September of 2025. It’s important to know that the January 2026 dates are the new schedule.
We will have to keep our eyes open to see what Carnival does with the old dry dock dates for Conquest and what kind of sailings may be opened up in the near future.
This kind of dry dock rescheduling has also happened recently with other Carnival ships, like Carnival Magic and Carnival Horizon.
Recent news about some Carnival Magic sailings being adult-only now after a dry dock change have led to speculation about more offerings like this from the cruise line. Brand Ambassador, John Heald shut down rumors that Carnival is moving away from its family-friendly focus after news of the Casino Event on the ship forced the cruise line to remove children from the upcoming cruise.
Some are already wondering if the new gap in Carnival Conquest’s schedule will allow for more specialty type cruises like this, but for now we will have to wait for official word.
Appeared first on: Cruisefever.net
