As cruise lines continue to build amazing cruise ships, there was one project by Carnival Cruise Line that is unlike anything else we’ve ever seen.
Around 2004, Carnival Cruise Line began working on a new class of cruise ships, Project Pinnacle. The cruise ship prototype from Project Pinnacle was so far ahead of its time, that many of the features are still are not found on cruise ships.
Here is a look at the features found on Carnival’s Project Pinnacle that would have made them the most incredible cruise ships at sea.
The cruise ships would have been over 200,000 gross tons in size, by far the largest in the world at the time. To date, the largest cruise ship built by Carnival comes in at 133,500 gross tons. The ships would carry over 5,000 passengers each.
Since the cruise ships would be larger than anything ever built, Carnival Cruise Line came up with an idea that we’ve yet to see on a cruise ship. The ships had a people mover system onboard. This monorail would circle the ship at decks 2 and 16. There would also be an elevator system that would take the monorail from deck 2 to 16. This would make it easy for passengers to not only get around the ship with ease, but provide incredible ocean views in the process.
There would a big public deck and a main great room where you could pass through. Carnival envisioned this great room to have everything from rock climbing walls to Cirque du Soleil shows.
The promenade deck was extra wide, and would have everything from loungers to a lazy river. Yes, the cruise ships would have a lazy river. Many new cruise ships including Carnival’s Vista class and MSC Seaside have extra wide promenade decks, an idea that started with Project Pinnacle.
There would be an indoor/outdoor pool on the top deck of the ships. An artificial mountain in the middle would have waterslides built in, making it the ultimate area for families. The back side of the mountain would have a rock climbing wall.
The ships would also have two great atriums, one in the front and one in the aft of the vessels. The Carnival Funnel, a trademark on all Carnival cruise ships, would be the largest at sea. The back area would be made of glass acting as a skylight for the rear atrium.
The aft section of the ship would be split, similar to the what the Oasis class debuted with several years later. There would be two massive waterslides located here that fed into an infinity pool.
The cruise ships would have been built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy. Why didn’t Carnival Cruise Line end up building these incredible Project Pinnacle cruise ships? The Euro jumped almost 50% against the USD in two years, making the ships too expensive to build.
Carnival ended up canceling Project Pinnacle in 2005.
You can watch a video of the project below:
Also, for an in depth look at Carnival Cruise Line’s Project Pinnacle, Bright Sun Films has an excellent video on YouTube which can be seen here.
It would be awesome to have some of the ideas of the this ship on the New Mardi Gras!
How awesome would a lazy river be in the Havana Section!
It seems that Carnival has the imagination but lacks the desire. Royal Caribbean, on the other hand, has built large ships that are awesome.
There should have been better tracking by Carnival of trips taken by passengers before mid-1990s. I’ve lost out on about 8-10 trips which I took starting in 1983. Since Carnival states that THEY kept records of trips taken, I didn’t keep all my old receipts. Several of the people I traveled with during that time are now deceased so can’t get records from them. I would now be in Diamond level instead of Platinum – I’ve taken approximately 30 cruises with Carnival but only credited with 92 days. That’s sad!