From a reimagined culinary journey with Chef’s Table and Carnival Culinary Centre curated by Chief Culinary Officer Emeril Lagasse to new online enhancements aimed at making debarkation more convenient, Carnival Cruise Line is deploying a series of new features designed to elevate the guest experience in 2024.

Here’s a round-up of some of the new and notable:

 Dedicated cooking class

Debuting on Carnival Jubilee as part of the Carnival Kitchen offerings, the Carnival Culinary Center features a dedicated cooking class curated by Chief Culinary Officer Emeril Lagasse. As part of the program, guests will learn to curate a three-course meal with hand-selected recipes by Emeril, including his famed New-New Orleans Pasta, Shrimp & Okra Gumbo with Filé, and Strawberries Romanoff. Carnival Kitchen is also featured on Carnival Panorama, Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration.

Chef’s Table revamp

Carnival has launched a new option for its popular Chef’s Table, an immersive VIP culinary experience that includes a sumptuous multi-course dinner hosted by the Executive Chef onboard. The premium Chef’s Table 2.0 will offer new menu items for guests to enjoy. The experience starts with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres for a select group of 14, followed by a tour to see the galley in operation and concludes with a remarkable dinner of appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

The Chef’s Table 2.0 menu promises an exquisite array of new flavours with unique selections of food and wine selections on each Carnival ship. From tantalizing starters and main course offerings to world-class wine selections and decadent desserts, guests can fully immerse themselves in a unique and savory experience. Offerings are available fleetwide.

“Behind The Fun” ship tours

A guest favourite among Carnival tours, ‘Behind The Fun’ will now be available for bookings pre-cruise on Carnival.com starting Jan. 1. Until now, the popular tour was only available for booking once on board. The new feature will be rolled out fleetwide. To book, guests will select the tour as a shore excursion under their ship’s homeport. The tour will take place on a Fun Day at Sea during the cruise. An accessible, abbreviated tour is also now available for guests with disabilities.

New HUB app feature

To simplify debarkation, Carnival added a new feature on the HUB App. Instead of picking up zone tags for their luggage, guests can indicate a debarkation time via the app and list the number of bags to be placed outside their stateroom so the tags can be delivered directly to them. In addition, guests that would like to carry their own luggage off the ship are also welcome to use the new feature to choose the time they wish to debark by selecting a group suitable for them.

VIFP members and suite guests will still receive special tags with priority debarkation as normal, and guests who prefer not to use the app can still follow the traditional debarkation process and retrieve their tags.

The new feature is available on Carnival Conquest, Carnival Elation, Carnival Sunrise, Carnival Dream and Mardi Gras, while the rest of the fleet is targeting a rollout by February.