Carnival Splendor is a Concordia-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. As she is the only Concordia-class ship in the Carnival fleet, she is also referred to as a Splendor-class ship. Her other sister ships are part of the Costa Crociere fleet. The ship was originally designed and ordered for Costa Cruises but she was transferred to Carnival Cruise Line during construction.

The 113,323 gross tonnage (GT) ship entered service on 2 July 2008 as the largest Carnival ship until Carnival Dream debuted in September 2009.

Christening

Carnival Splendor's godmother is Myleene Klass, who on 10 July 2008 christened the vessel in Dover in a ceremony where she played Sailing on the piano, while a Royal Navy diver climbed up five decks on a rope, and broke the bottle of champagne on the bow by hand.

Areas of operation

Carnival Splendor's inaugural season began on 2 July 2008 with a cruise from Genoa, Italy to Dover, England, followed by cruises to Northern European ports. On 3 November 2008 she transited to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

In January 2009, Carnival Splendor moved to Long Beach, California, a journey which took 49 days. The ship was too wide for the Panama Canal at the time, so it made the journey by sailing around Cape Horn. It was the first Carnival ship to have ever made this voyage. From Long Beach, she sailed year-round cruises to Mexico.

In March 2009, Carnival Splendor was the host ship for Mayercraft Carrier 2, a four-day cruise from 27 to 31 March, from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico hosted by musician John Mayer and featuring music and comedy shows.

In February 2013, Carnival Splendor sailed again around South America, re-positioning to New York City to cruise to the Caribbean and Bermuda. In November 2014, Carnival Splendor was re-positioned to Florida to offer seasonal seven-day cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. In March 2014, Carnival announced Carnival Splendor would sail seasonally out of Norfolk, Virginia before heading back to New York beginning in 2015.

In October 2015, Carnival announced that Carnival Splendor would be re-positioned to China in 2018 offering year-round short cruises. However, Carnival subsequently announced in November 2016 that Carnival Splendor would instead relocate to Long Beach for the second time in January 2018, offering cruises to the Mexican Riviera. To move to Long Beach from the Caribbean, she sailed through the Panama Canal and became one of the largest ships to cross through the new locks.

In February 2018, Carnival announced Carnival Splendor would sail to Australia in December 2019 to operate year-round out of Sydney.

On 5 October 2019, the ship embarked on a 24-day Transpacific cruise to Singapore, where she was dry docked to undergo renovations before being homeported in Sydney. Stops along the voyage included Maui, Oahu, Guam, Kota Kinabalu, and Ho Chi Minh City. This was the longest voyage ever offered by Carnival, and was Carnival Splendor's final voyage out of Long Beach.

From 30 October to 24 November 2019, Carnival Splendor underwent renovations prior to sailing to her homeport in Sydney.