The Carnival Fascination failed a health inspection in February after Center for Disease Control and Prevention inspectors found live flies, roach nymphs, dried food waste, and many other violations throughout the cruise ship.

This latest public relations headache is accompanied by unusually low discounted rates on Carnival cruises.

Anyone looking for a vacation on the cheap can sail the Caribbean on the Carnival Imagination for just $43 a night later this month, according to NBC.

Jay Caulk, general manager of The Travel Experts, told NBC that Carnival was "desperate," and "They have a lot to do to get rid of the black eye."

The health inspection report, released this week, revealed the wide variety of "deficiencies" that earned the ship a score of 84 out of 100. Anything below 86 is failing.

Some of deficiencies were mundane, like no paper towels in some of the rest rooms, and lights not as bright as required.

Others were more serious, including the storage of toner cartridges, Purell hand sanitizer, and liquor in the same room.

Some were gross: Flies and roach nymphs were found in a drain below a juice dispenser, in a pantry, in a room service area, and in an undercounter compartment in a kitchen.

The report also notes, "there was a large fly around the uncovered raw hamburger patties."

The Fascination, which sails in the Caribbean, last failed an inspection in June 1997. It has received grades mostly above 90 since then.

The failing score caps off a string of terrible news for Carnival, which began in February when the Triumph was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days after an engine room fire.

Since then, two other cruises have been cut short due to technical problems, and the Triumph broke loose from port in Mobile, Alabama, where it was being repaired.

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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Carnival Corporation will spend up to $700 million to upgrade its fleet of 101 cruise ships.

$300 million of that money will be used to upgrade the 24 ships operated by Carnival Cruise Lines, with improved emergency generators, engine rooms, and fire systems.

The funds will also go to expanding the availability of hotel service for guests in cases where a ship loses power, Carnival announced Wednesday.

Carnival Corporation & plc operates ten lines, including Carnival Cruise Lines.

The upgrades to the 24 ships are a direct response to a string of high-profile failures in the past few months that started in February, when an engine room fire stranded the cruise ship Triumph. More 4,000 passengers were adrift in the Gulf of Mexico for five days, with no hot water and few working toilets.

That incident was followed a month later by problems onboard the Dream and Legend ships, just a week apart. The Carnival Fascination failed a recent health inspection after inspectors found live flies, roach nymphs, dried food waste, and many other violations throughout the cruise ship.

Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Gerry Cahill stood by the company's safety standards, but did not deny there's room for improvement. In a press release, he said:

However, by applying lessons learned through our fleet-wide operational review after the Carnival Triumph fire and by taking advantage of new technologies, we have identified areas for enhancement across our operations.

Carnival will also form a new safety and reliability review board, staffed by outside experts, to provide a third-party perspective on its operations.

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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Police in Australia are hopeful that two missing passengers, who are believed to have fallen from the deck of a cruise ship, are still alive.

Authorities are conducting an air and marine search off Australia' s east coast after two cruise passengers were discovered missing when their ship docked in Sydney Harbour at the end of a 10-day journey.

The 30-year-old man and 27-year-old woman were found to be missing after the Carnival Spirit docked at Sydney's Circular Quay this morning, said New South Wales State Police Superintendent Mark Hutchings.

The missing passengers - a couple from New South Wales - were believed to have fallen from the ship's mid-deck on Wednesday night.

"From the information that we received, we believe it's been now well over 13-14 hours that those two people have been in the water," he said.

"But as far as I'm concerned, as the commander, we are searching for them in the hope that we will find them alive out to sea."

A spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search, said an airplane and helicopter plus police boats were searching a thousand-square-kilometre (300-square-nautical mile) area of sea north of Sydney.

Carnival Cruise Lines is a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise operator.

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Carnival Corp. is replacing Mickey Arison, its CEO for 34 years, after a string of public relations crises have rattled the company in recent months.

Board member Arnold W. Donald will replace Arison, who will stay on as chairman and remain the company's largest shareholder, the cruise operator said today in a statement.

The last few months have seen little but bad news for Carnival. In February, the ship Triumph was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days, leaving more than 4,000 passengers on board without power and with very few working toilets.

In March, travelers on the Dream complained of similar problems while that ship was in port. That month, the Legend had a technical issue with its sailing speed, forcing Carnival to end its cruise early.

In April, the Triumph broke loose from its port in Alabama while undergoing repairs, further damaging the ship. A week later, the Fascination failed a federal health inspection.

Arison, who became CEO in 1979 and is also an owner of the Miami Heat basketball team, will step down as CEO on July 3. He led the company through a time of expansion, acquiring cruise brands Holland America Line, Costa Cruises, and Cunard.

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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The replacement of Carnival Corp's CEO Mickey Arison, announced yesterday by the cruise ship operator, has nothing to do with a recent string of public relations crises and weak bookings numbers, incoming chief Arnold Donald said in an interview today on CBS This Morning.

Arison served as CEO for 34 years. He will step down on July 3 but remain chairman, as well as the company's largest shareholder.

Donald said Arison had delayed the splitting of the chairman and CEO roles to deal with a series of problems on board its ships, most notably the engine fire on the Triumph, which left more than 4,000 passengers stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days without power and with few working toilets.

Replacing Arison as CEO is not an effort to put that bad publicity behind Carnival, Donald said.

"I could understand the juxtaposition of the time frames, and Micky had been considering this for a long time and actually delayed it because of the incidents. But he really, after 34 years, and in good governance practice in the UK and trends here in the U.S., felt it was important to separate the roles."

Asked by CBS travel editor Peter Greenberg how the company is dealing with "somewhat flat" bookings, Donald noted "the value that exists today," referring to deeply discounted fares, including four night cruises on sale for just $179.

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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Who’s king of the hill when it comes to the world’s largest publicly traded travel companies?

Skift compiled a list of the globe’s 15 biggest publicly traded travel companies by market cap, and in a cliff-hanger, hotel-casino Las Vegas Sands Corp. ($42.72B), which operates  The Venetian Las Vegas, The Palazzo, a convention center on the Strip, and properties in Macao and Singapore, edged out hotel-booking behemoth Priceline/Booking.com ($42.32B) as the largest publicly traded travel company.

Although Priceline and Expedia often are mentioned in the same breath, Expedia Inc., and its slightly larger offspring TripAdvisor, didn’t make the top 15, although they were close.

Skift relied on real-time market cap data from Google Finance and Bloomberg taken July 3 so it’s possible that leaders Las Vegas Sands and Priceline could intermittently change positions in the next moments or weeks as their stock prices fluctuate.

Hotels and hotel-casinos, including Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts ($12.74B), Marriott ($12.28B), and Starwood ($12.25B) made a good accounting of themselves in the list, taking four out of the 15 perches.

Along with these hotels, media company Walt Disney ($34.99B) gets nearly a third of its business from hotels, as well as its iconic theme parks, and place No. 3 on the ranking. (Disney’s total market cap was actually $114.56B, and we attributed $34.99B of its market cap to “travel” because in fiscal year 2012 its Parks and Resorts division generated 30.55% of Disney’s total revenue.)

It’s interesting to point out that InterContinental Hotels Group, with its nine brands and 4,600 hotels, and sometimes considered the largest hotel company in the world, didn’t make the top 15 when considering market cap.

As a sector, airlines were the heavy-hitters in Skift’s top 15 largest travel companies.

Of the six airlines in the top 15 largest travel companies, including Delta Air Lines ($15.77B), Ryanair ($15.35B), United Continental ($10.43B), Southwest Airlines ($9.28), Singapore Airlines ($9.21B) and Lufthansa ($9.11B),  three are headquartered in the U.S., two in Europe, and one in Asia.

And, among airlines, it wasn't all about network carriers. Budget airline Ryanair and domestic-service only Southwest Airlines proved their market clout, taking the sixth and 13th positions, respectively.

The new American Airlines, the US Airways-American Airlines hoped-for combo, wouldn’t make the the top 15 when combined at this point due to the stock-wallop that occurred in connection with AMR Corp.’s bankruptcy.

One airline-dependent company, Amadeus IT Holding, which is listed in Madrid and does a ton of airline IT work, in addition to its global distribution system business for airlines and travel agencies, took the seventh spot in the rankings with a market cap of $14.19B.

Amadeus’ chief rivals in the GDS business, Travelport and Sabre, are private companies so it’s unknown how their business dimensions hold up against Amadeus and other global travel companies.

While Priceline was the sole online travel agency to make the top 15, Carnival Corp. ($27.01B) was the solitary cruise line, as the fourth largest publicly traded travel company, and Hertz ($10.05B,) in 12th place was the only car rental company.

Skift’s Top 15 Publicly Traded Travel Companies

Disney’s total market cap was actually $114.56B, and we attributed $34.99B of it to “travel;” in fiscal year 2012 Disney Parks and Resorts unit generated 30.55% of Disney’s total revenue.

Sources: Google Finance, Bloomberg, company financial reports

SEE ALSO: The 10 Best Hotels In The World

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Seven months after the notoriously hideous 'Poop Cruise' left more than 4,000 people stranded in the Gulf of Mexico, Carnival is rolling out a $25 million advertising campaign to highlight some of the more pleasant experiences its passengers have had.

In a television advertisement from Arnold Worldwide, Carnival uses customer-submitted family photos and videos to show off the "unforgettable moments" people experience on its cruises. The spot will run starting Monday in conjunction with an online "Moment Tracker," which will display Instagram photos taken by ten passengers aboard the Carnival Breeze.

Carnival says it's hoping to re-ignite consumer interest in the brand prior to the beginning of the new year, the peak time people make cruise ship reservations.

Following a checkered recent past that has seen four Carnival ships catch fire in 15 years, the brand has a long road ahead of it. Carnival announced Tuesday it will let passengers off its ships and offer a 110% refund if they tell the company they want to leave at any point during the first 24 hours of the cruise.

 Here's the TV spot:

SEE ALSO: Corporate Executives Think These Are The 10 Worst Brands In America

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Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald is pushing for a “fundamental change in culture” at the struggling cruise behemoth.

With its portfolio of 10 brands in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn and Costa Cruises, Carnival Corp. previously allowed its brands to operate independently and they often jealously kept information away from one another.

But, with the company seeking to resurrect its reputation and profits following the Costa Concordia and Carnival Triumph debacles in particular, and following a CEO change in July, Donald is attempting a cultural makeover at the world’s largest cruise company that would be characterized by brands and their leaders “working together, communicating, collaborating,” he said.

By the way Donald described it during Carnival’s fourth quarter earnings call December 19, it sounded as though much of the information-sharing and collaboration would revolve around finding synergies and cost-cutting, although the cultural reset would not be limited to these areas.

Will the brands and their respective management teams be amenable to such changes in the basic ways they operate? Time will tell.

Some of the old guard have been stepping aside or have been pushed out, a development that could assist in kick-starting the new ways of doing things at Carnival.

Here’s how Donald described the new way of doing things at Carnival:

“But with regard to the culture, it is a fundamental change in culture, but is building on things that the leaders in the organization were kind of doing one-off or in pairs occasionally, anyway, and that is collaborating and coordinating, okay?

“And so that is the culture change, though, because the brands were fiercely independent in the past and even protected information from each other. And so it’s absolutely a culture change. Now in terms of the fundamental changes in how we work or the scale of targets and that sort of thing, the reality is we just have scale. So with 78 million passenger cruise days, little tiny changes adds up — add up to significant dollars, tens and tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of millions of dollars.

“And so while they’re small changes, they yield big impact. And by working together, communicating, collaborating, there are so many arenas that the team has already pre-identified.

“And as I mentioned, we’re in the process of sizing those and prioritizing them from a complexity, investment required, time to realization, all your normal things you would apply to prioritize projects and go after them. So there are significant opportunities.”

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(The headline and 1st paragraph of this March 10 story have been corrected to show passengers are not seeking $5,000 per month for life and corrects 11th paragraph quote to two hours from five hours)

MIAMI (Reuters) - Three passengers suing Carnival cruise lines for damages after an engine fire left their ship adrift for days are asking the company to pay $5,000 per year for life while the rest are seeking $2,500 to $5,000 for four to five years.

A lawsuit brought by 33 passengers of the ill-fated 2013 voyage could change how cruise lines insulate themselves from legal actions, according to maritime legal experts.

A second pending lawsuit with three-times as many plaintiffs has the potential to further undo the advantageous legal position cruise lines have long enjoyed.

Both cases stem from a February 2013 incident when the Carnival Triumph broke down after launching from Galveston, Texas for what was to be a four-day cruise with a stop in Cozumel, Mexico.

A fire broke out in the ship's engine room as it was returning from Cozumel. The Triumph was left without engine power, or air conditioning and working toilets. Stalled in the Gulf of Mexico for five days, passengers described human waste seeping into hallways, and being forced to sleep on deck under makeshift tarps with no cooked food.

A federal judge in South Florida last week finished hearing three weeks of testimony from passengers and is expected to issue a judgment in the next two months.

The Miami lawsuit is the first from the Triumph incident to go to trial, with others in preparation, according maritime lawyers.

In a statement, Carnival Corp said that while it recognizes its guests experienced uncomfortable conditions, everyone returned safely and were provided with a full refund, a free future cruise and an additional $500 per person.

"This is an opportunistic lawsuit brought by plaintiff's counsel and plaintiffs who seek to make a money grab," a company spokeswoman said.

One of the plaintiffs, Debra Oubre, 59, said she has experienced panic and anxiety attacks since the cruise, and also blames the experience for a urinary tract infection.

"It was chaotic. People were in dire need of help," said Oubre. "We were standing in line for food for two hours."

Federal judge Donald Graham has already ruled that the engine catching on fire is proof alone of negligence on the part of Carnival, a significant blow for the cruise line, according to Robert Peltz, a Miami maritime lawyer.

"It would seem rather obvious that ships shouldn't just catch fire and then have fire suppression systems that don't work," Peltz said.

Carnival has since started a fleet-wide "enhancement," including a major re-wiring of its engine rooms and improvements to fire safety and emergency power features.

Cruise lines like Carnival have successfully inoculated themselves against passenger lawsuits by printing stringent terms on their tickets that require passengers to waive their right to a class-action lawsuit.

Graham's ruling, which is expected to come in the next two months, could find the terms of conditions printed on the tickets, so-called "contracts of adhesion," to be overreaching.

The contracts have rankled some federal judges in southern Florida where several cruise lines are based, according to maritime lawyer, David Neblett. The splintering of myriad cruise cases for relatively meager sums clogs their calendars, he said.

One term of the ticket contract is that passengers can only bring their cases to the Southern District of Florida and plaintiffs lawyers complain that people coming from other states to litigate is too costly for them.

(Editing by David Adams and Grant McCool)

SEE ALSO: Mesmerizing Video Shows 24 Hours Of Flight Paths Over Europe

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If you scatter more than a thousand blue whales over the length of four football fields, you have Allure of the Seas, the world's largest luxury cruise ship.

Measuring approximately 1,200 feet long and weighing 223,000 tons, the size and and sheer magnitude of the ship is almost mind boggling.

And yet over 5,000 passengers are probably aboard, dancing the Congo at this moment.

FindTheBest helped us determine the biggest cruise ships on the seas right now. These mega-ships have everything from ice skating rinks to outdoor parks, and feel more like mobile cities than boats.

11. Disney Fantasy

Length: 1,115 feet

Weight: 128,000 tons

Passengers: 4,000

Disney Fantasy travels to the Caribbean and has a virtual sports simulator, and an 'AquaLab' with 1,800-square-foot area featuring pop jets, geysers and bubblers, and a 'Royal Tea' time with Disney princesses for the kids.

10. Disney Dream

Length: 1,115 feet

Weight: 128,000 tons

Passengers: 4,000

The Disney Dream ship has an early 20th-century design that's meant to evoke the "golden age of cruising." This ship, which usually travels to the Bahamas, has the AquaDuck, which is the first "water coaster" on a cruise, as well as seven different hang out areas for kids, tweens, and teens.

9. Carnival Breeze

Length: 1,004 feet

Weight: 130,000 tons

Passengers: 4,724

This massive Carnival cruise includes Guy Fieri's Guy's Burger Joint, a comedy club, 3-D theater, and separate rum and tequila bars. 

Shares of cruise ship operator Carnival Corporation fell nearly 2%, but recovered all of those losses following a report that a passenger onboard one of its ships is a Dallas health worker who may have come in contact with the Ebola virus.

Carnival is down 0.2%. Competitors Royal Caribbean and Nowegian Cruise Lines are down 0.6% and 1.9%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are all up over 1%.

The unidentified woman onboard the ship in the Caribbean has reportedly not shown any symptoms. Furthermore, she never had direct contact with deceased Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan. She may have processed some of Duncan's fluids.

Belize is not allowing the ship to dock. The Belizean government also refused to evacuate the woman off the ship. 

In the meantime, the Dallas health worker, who is traveling with her husband, has agreed to remain isolated in her cabin. 

Here's a five-day chart of Carnival: 

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A reporter is tweeting photos and updates from the Carnival cruise ship that turned around after the captain announced that someone on board might have been exposed to a Texas Ebola patient's fluids.

It's a pretty scary situation, but Eric Lupher, of Denver TV station KMGH, says that everyone on board has remained pretty calm:

#ebola scare on my vacay. Still a party on the ship though we weren't allowed to get off in Cozumel. pic.twitter.com/yobL4wnJ6O

— Eric Lupher (@EricLupher7News) October 17, 2014

Despite #Ebola scare...people still eating at the buffet @DenverChannelpic.twitter.com/cTIIx1C5lo

— Eric Lupher (@EricLupher7News) October 17, 2014

The captain of the ship issued this letter:

Letter from the captain regarding #Ebola scare on the Carnival Magic @DenverChannelpic.twitter.com/6B6Ecl3ySI

— Eric Lupher (@EricLupher7News) October 17, 2014

The ship tried to dock in Belize, but the government wouldn't allow it. Mexico also turned the ship away. The cruise is now reportedly heading back to Texas.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted the cruise operator on Wednesday that a guest on the ship was a lab supervisor at the hospital where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was treated.

Duncan contracted Ebola in Liberia and flew to the US for a visit before he started showing symptoms. He died in Texas last week.

The health worker on board the cruise ship is at very low risk for contracting Ebola and hasn't shown any symptoms. She is reportedly isolated in a cabin on board the ship.

"At no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection, and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with the testing samples," Carnival said in a statement.

Cruise passengers will reportedly get a partial refund to make up for missing a planned stop in Cozumel.

Lupher told The Daily Beast that it's mostly business as usual on the cruise: "[People] are trusting the fact that the CDC has cleared them. Everyone is in the pool … and at the computers to find out the latest information. ... Everyone, including me, is not afraid we'll get sick and die."

NOW WATCH: Scientists Discovered The Most Germ-Infested Item In The Office

SEE ALSO: A Caribbean Cruise Ship Can't Dock Because Of A Worker Who May Have Had Contact With The Ebola Virus

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(Reuters) - A cruise ship with about 170 passengers and crew members suffering from a gastrointestinal ailment caused by norovirus was met by public health officials when it docked in California on Sunday, a Carnival Corp spokeswoman said.

The outbreak marks the second time in less than a year that the highly contagious virus has spread on the company's Crown Princess ship. On the latest trip, the ship carried more than 4,100 people on a cruise that departed nearly a month ago from Los Angeles and included stops in Hawaii and Tahiti.

More than 100 people aboard the cruise ship were sickened by the virus during an April trip.

"Over the last few days, the ship began seeing an increased number of gastrointestinal illnesses, caused by norovirus," said company spokeswoman Susan Lomax. "In response, we have enacted our stringent disinfecting protocols developed in conjunction" with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The ship, which docked in San Pedro early in the day, will undergo a deep cleaning before embarking on its next voyage Sunday night, Lomax said.

Outbreaks of norovirus have been reported by nearly a dozen cruise lines sailing from U.S. ports in recent years. The outbreaks are unpleasant but usually mild and typically stem from many people confined to a small area, lackluster hand-washing and buffet-style dining, experts have said.

Norovirus is the most common cause of contagious gastrointestinal illness, with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea the typical symptoms. 

The CDC estimates that there are about 20 million cases of norovirus in the United States each year, resulting in 570 to 800 deaths. The virus usually clears up in one to three days, the CDC says.

(Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Eric Walsh)

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As if the poop cruise wasn't enough, Carnival has come up with a new worst way to travel.

The fathom cruise is a new 7-day cruise to the Dominican Republic, which doesn't bill itself as a cruise, but rather "a social impact travel experience that happens at sea on a small repurposed ship," the CEO told BuzzFeed.

According to CNBC, "travelers will work side by side with Dominican school teachers to help students learn English. They will also have the opportunity to work on environmental issues, including helping to build much-needed water filters in communities."

There will be "three impact activity days on the ground," according to BuzzFeed.

But don't call it voluntourism! 

Carnival says this is not a cruise or "voluntourism" it is "a social impact experience that happens at sea"http://t.co/TwbldxB15H

— Mariah Summers (@mariahjsummers) June 4, 2015

Contacted by Business Insider, a spokesperson for Carnival said that once the ship reaches the Dominican Republic, it will remain docked in the same place, "but there are several service activities for the travelers" in that place.

This seems like a step up from a regular cruise. But the problem with "impact travel" or voluntourism is that so often the goal seems to be making the travelers feel good about themselves, rather than focusing on doing good work for others. If a few hours a day of volunteering for three days is all it took to alleviate poverty, it would have been done by now. 

Take this quote that the CEO of fathom, Tara Russell, gave to BuzzFeed: "“We make it really easy for a traveler to plug in and have a meaningful impact experience. We want them to see themselves as a giver of themselves on the trip.”

The goal here is for the trip to mean something to the passengers paying upwards of $1,500 for the experience. It doesn't matter if it means anything to anyone in the Dominican Republic. 

Imagine you are an English teacher in the DR. A mob of American tourists land in your classroom for a day to "have an impact experience." And then the next week, a new group. Does that actually help any students, or just create chaos? 

I'm sure that most people choosing this trip really want to make a difference. But it's nearly impossible to do anything meaningful in three days' time, no matter what your intent. 

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MIAMI (Reuters) - Carnival Corp  has won U.S. approval to operate culturally-themed cruises to Cuba and plans to start taking travelers there next May, joining a growing list of maritime companies hoping to profit from a thaw in relations between Washington and Havana.

The United States and Cuba have been working for months to improve relations after more than five decades of animosity that led to a trade embargo against the communist-led country.

The countries formally agreed last week to restore diplomatic relations on July 20.

Miami-based Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, said it was still in talks with Cuba for approval to start specialized humanitarian and cultural visits there that fall within U.S. embargo guidelines.

Americans are still banned from going to Cuba as tourists but are allowed to go for a dozen approved motives such as visiting family or participating in academic, professional, religious or educational programs.

Despite the ongoing restrictions, the news was welcomed by the travel industry.

"A lot of Americans want to visit Cuba and this is one of the first real mass ways to get to Cuba," said Brad Tolkin, chief executive of World Travel Holdings, a major booker of cruises.

Cuba currently doesn’t have the infrastructure to handle an influx of American visitors so docking at a port would alleviate pressure on hotel accommodations, he added.

Carnival is the first major U.S.-based cruise ship company to venture into Cuban waters. Two other Miami-based companies, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, have expressed interest but say the U.S. embargo remains an obstacle.

Frank Del Rio, the Cuban-born president and chief executive officer of Norwegian, said Carnival's move took the island one step closer toward an overall easing of leisure travel

"I extend my congratulations and best wishes to Carnival for pioneering this critical first step," he said, adding he hoped it would help ease U.S. leisure travel restrictions on Cuba.

Swiss company MSC Cruises last week became the first cruise line to base a ship in Cuba, announcing that the 2,120-passenger MSC Opera will take up winter residence in Havana from December to April, in partnership with a Cuban state-owned travel firm.

In May, the U.S. Treasury Department approved several licenses for passenger ferry services between the United States and Cuba.

Such services were cut off in the 1960s, following the Cuban revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.

Last week, the Treasury Department issued a license authorizing a Palm Beach luxury yacht company, Paul Madden Associates, to provide charter services to Cuba.

Carnival said its cruise license was approved by the Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Commerce and would be launched in May under its new "fathom" brand, set up last month to run cruises with humanitarian and cultural themes to the Dominican Republic.

Carnival will use the 710-passenger vessel, the MV Adonia, for its Cuba cruises, on the small side for the company, whose ships typically carry 2,000 to 3,000 people.

Carnival said the cruises would focus on education, the environment and economic development and feature Spanish lessons and workshops on the country's heritage. There will be no casinos or stage shows.

The Cuba cruises will start at $2,990 per person excluding taxes and other fees. They will be more expensive than typical regional cruises because of visa costs, paperwork, and the fact that the U.S. rules require passengers on cruises to Cuba to spend at least eight hours a day on the ground and participating in academic, professional, religious or educational programs.

Carnival shares closed up 0.84 percent at $50.20 on the New York Stock Exchange. 

(Reporting by David Adams in Miami; Additional reporting by Ramkumar Iyer in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Plumb, Andrew Hay and Leslie Adler)

SEE ALSO: Business Insider goes to Cuba

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For most people, a vacation is supposed to be a relaxing, light-hearted escape from the stresses of everyday life.

So it's not surprising that vacationers are scaling back in a region where humanity of Europe's migrant crisis is on full display.

Carnival, the world's largest cruise line, addressed this with its quarterly earnings a few weeks ago. Here's CFO David Bernstein during the conference call after earnings were reported:

"Overall, Continental Europe is probably more challenging. When you think about all of the economic difficulties and the geopolitical issues and the growing refugee concerns, that's the area that has had the most challenges in terms of pricing for 2016, but we've had these challenges all year in 2015 to some extent and we are forecasting that we are going to get yield improvement for our EAA brands for 2015. So hopefully despite all these challenges, we'll be able to do that in 2016 as well."

The European part of the business is critical for the company because about 28% of its 2015 available cabin space is deployed to the region, the second highest after the Caribbean, according to its latest annual report.

The situation has slowed ticket buying in the region, said CEO Arnold Donald in the conference call, which has forced the company to drop prices in order to fill their cabins.

"By the time we get to December maybe those things won't be the same, but today with some of the headwinds in Europe, geopolitical, macroeconomic malaise, the intense tension over there around the refugee situation, that has affected all travel, not just cruise but all travel," said Donald. "So those things may still be present or they may wane between now and when we get to December, but we will give you full guidance then."

About half of the company's European operations are in the Mediterranean, which thousands of migrants have attempted to cross in the last few months resulting in a large number of drownings. 

For what it's worth, Carnival beat earnings per share expectations but came in lower on its revenue yields, or how much the company is making per available room, and EPS expectations for the fourth quarter.

The stock is down about 7% since the earnings report on September 21.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Carnival Corp's Princess Cruise Lines will plead guilty to seven felony charges of polluting the seas and trying to cover it up, and pay a record $40 million criminal penalty, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

The charges against Carnival's Santa Clarita, California-based unit stem from "illegal dumping of oil contaminated waste from the Caribbean Princess cruise ship," the department said in a statement on the company's "deliberate pollution of the seas and intentional acts to cover it up."

Shares of Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, were down 1.8 percent at $50.50 in late-morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange after the announcement. In London, its shared were off 2.8 percent.

Company representatives could not be reached immediately for comment.

The Caribbean Princess had been making illegal discharges since 2005 using bypass equipment — including a so-called "magic pipe"— to circumvent pollution-prevention equipment that separates oil and monitors oil levels in the ship's water, the department said.

U.S. investigators began to probe the ship's actions after a whistle-blower engineer reported illegal dumping off the coast of England in August 2013. Two other top ship engineers then ordered a cover-up, called on subordinates to lie and sought to remove the pipe.

"This is a company that knew better and should have done better," Assistant Attorney General John Cruden said in the statement. "Hopefully the outcome of this case has the potential not just to chart a new course for this company but for other companies as well.”

The Caribbean Princess ship visited ports in ports in nine U.S. states and two territories, including Florida, New York, Maine the U.S. Virgin Islands, the department said.

U.S. investigators found the Caribbean Princess and four other Princess Cruise Lines ships engaged in two other illegal practices affecting water discharge, it added.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer in Miami called the company's conduct overall "particularly troubling," given its "documented history of environmental violations," including in southern Florida.

Cruise ship travel has generated concern among environmental groups and governments over water contamination and waste as the industry adds passengers, routes and larger ships.

Some environmental groups have criticized the cruise industry for not being more proactive in reducing air and water pollution, and for not being transparent about their efforts.

Cruise Line International Association, which represents the industry, has pledged to take steps to reduce cruise travel's environmental impact and has said cruise lines must follow international standards.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Dan Grebler and Steve Orlofsky)

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Carnival has canceled 12 cruises on two ships so it can update the vessels' fire-fighting and power systems, the cruise line announced Tuesday.

The changes will be made on the Triumph, which was stranded for five days in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire knocked out onboard power, and the Sunshine, which is undergoing a previously scheduled full-ship makeover that will be extended.

10 of the sailings canceled were scheduled for the Triumph, which operates four- and five-day cruises in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Triumph will re-enter service on June 3, and the Sunshine, which cruises mostly in the Mediterranean, will begin sailing again on May 5.

Passengers who had bought tickets for a canceled cruise will receive a full refund, reimbursement for non-refundable transportation costs, and a 25 percent discount on a future similar cruise.

The company has suffered a spate of bad news recently. The Triumph fire in February was followed by incidents on two more ships in March: Cruises on the Dream and Legend were cut short by ship malfunctions.

On a conference call last week, Carnival executives said the company had increased its spending on regular maintenance, as its fleet of ships ages.

Planned upgrades include enhanced operating redundancies, the ability to run more services on emergency power, and improvements to fire prevention, detection, and suppression systems.

The Triumph and Sunshine are not the only vessels Carnival will work on: The company's statement described the repairs as "the first implementation phase of its fleetwide comprehensive operational review."

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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The Carnival Triumph cruise ship, which became infamous in February for being stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days after an engine room fire, broke loose from its port Wednesday afternoon.

The ship, which was undergoing repairs in a Mobile, Alabama shipyard, drifted across the 700-foot wide Mobile River, crashing into its western bank and hitting another ship docked there, according to a local NBC station.

The Triumph has sustained damage, including a large hole in the right side of its stern, visible in the above photo.

A Carnival spokesperson said all crew members and contractors working aboard the Triumph, about 800 people in total, have been accounted for.

The ship, knocked loose by 70 mph wind gusts, has been moved back to the eastern bank of the river by tug boats.

According to a Mobile Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson, a guard shack nearby the Triumph was knocked into the water with two people inside. One was recovered and taken to a local hospital.

The search for the second person was suspended Wednesday night at 9 p.m., after 15 hours. Coast Guard boat and helicopter crews, and the Mobile fire and police departments "saturated a search area covering three square miles" near the mouth of the Mobile River, and the investigation continues, a Coast Guard spokesperson said.

After the 14-story Triumph was left adrift in February, it took five days to tow the enormous vessel back to port. Passengers were stuck onboard without power and very few working toilets.

Repairs included updates to the vessel's fire-fighting and power systems. The Triumph was scheduled to return to service on June 3.

Here's where the Triumph ended up, on the western bank of the river:

And here's what the Triumph's engine room looked like after the February fire:

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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The Carnival Fascination failed a health inspection in February after Center for Disease Control and Prevention inspectors found live flies, roach nymphs, dried food waste, and many other violations throughout the cruise ship.

This latest public relations headache is accompanied by unusually low discounted rates on Carnival cruises.

Anyone looking for a vacation on the cheap can sail the Caribbean on the Carnival Imagination for just $43 a night later this month, according to NBC.

Jay Caulk, general manager of The Travel Experts, told NBC that Carnival was "desperate," and "They have a lot to do to get rid of the black eye."

The health inspection report, released this week, revealed the wide variety of "deficiencies" that earned the ship a score of 84 out of 100. Anything below 86 is failing.

Some of deficiencies were mundane, like no paper towels in some of the rest rooms, and lights not as bright as required.

Others were more serious, including the storage of toner cartridges, Purell hand sanitizer, and liquor in the same room.

Some were gross: Flies and roach nymphs were found in a drain below a juice dispenser, in a pantry, in a room service area, and in an undercounter compartment in a kitchen.

The report also notes, "there was a large fly around the uncovered raw hamburger patties."

The Fascination, which sails in the Caribbean, last failed an inspection in June 1997. It has received grades mostly above 90 since then.

The failing score caps off a string of terrible news for Carnival, which began in February when the Triumph was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days after an engine room fire.

Since then, two other cruises have been cut short due to technical problems, and the Triumph broke loose from port in Mobile, Alabama, where it was being repaired.

SEE ALSO: A Photo History Of Carnival Cruise Ship Disasters

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