Carnival Cruise Line shares news that will make many passengers happy

During the Olympics, many cruise passengers were upset about which games they could watch and which they could not. Cruise lines make deals and pay money for each video feed they get.

When it comes to most sports, ships sailing out of U.S. ports often have international feeds. That means for something like the Olympics, the cruise line might not offer the NBC/Peacock feed that focuses more on the American athletes.

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The sporting events shown on a ship depend on both the cruise line and the ship. Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships with sports bars, which are most but not all ships in their fleets, have more rights to sporting events than ships that don’t.

In some cases, a cruise line will not have access to a popular sporting event because it is not being broadcast on the channel that normally broadcasts that sport. It is also very likely that major events like the Super Bowl will be broadcast without commercials because they are getting it from an international feed.

Often both Royal Caribbean and Carnival will show a selection of games, but not every game. This can be frustrating for fans of the teams and it is often difficult to see which games are being shown on a ship.

Carnival brand ambassador John Heald recently shared some news about which games his cruise line will air during the NFL and college football seasons.

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Carnival will broadcast the most NFL games this year.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Carnival will feature lots of NFL football

Heald shared Carnival’s plans for the upcoming NFL season on his Facebook page.

“Okay, let’s talk about football. Not the one I watch, but the one with running quarters and wide ends who shoulder like Joan Collins, like she did in the TV series ‘Dysentery,'” he wrote, choosing the show’s name, “Dynasty,” on purpose. “To all our NFL fans, we are very excited to announce that for the 2024-25 NFL football season, we will be airing games that air on the ESPN Network in the NFL Syndication and Sunday Ticket package. This means we will have Monday night and, ummm, Thursday night football.”

This means that during Carnival, almost all NFL games will be shown, with the exception of the Christmas games that will be broadcast on Netflix.

“These games will be shown in sports bars, casino bars, pubs and breweries (not in cabins) and other locations around the ship. Some games will be shown on the big screen, but not all games as we also have a great Dive In Movie schedule to follow. We will of course be showing the Super Bowl on the big screens on Lido and in the main theater as we watch the Cleveland Brownpants win,” he added.

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Carnival has big plans for college football

Carnival will also offer a large selection of college football games.

“Now for college football. This season we have an agreement to show 12 games per week during the 14-week season, which is more specific to the home venues in our U.S. routes. Now I have no idea what that means because my knowledge of college sports is probably the same as many of you reading this and your knowledge of cricket. However, I’m sure this is fantastic news for college football fans,” he posted.

Heald’s comments were largely positive.

“That’s really great to hear. Some people can’t live without their football. I love watching college football,” Donna Shipp Golonska shared.

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Many posters expressed how much they enjoy watching the competitions on board.

“I watched my favorite team twice on the ships and it was actually super fun. The rest of the cruise we said hello to each other. We saw other people from the bar and they were like, where are your friends? I said I don’t even know those people, we’re all just Bills Mafia,” Michelle Sapanara wrote.

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