Carnival Cruise Line Tech Outage Triggers Embarkation Delays Across Three Ships

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Carnival Cruise Line has confirmed widespread technology issues across its fleet, leading to embarkation and debarkation delays for three ships on Monday morning, 9th February 2026. The disruption affected operations at multiple homeports, with guests asked to adjust their terminal arrival times as systems remain offline.

Carnival Glory

The impacted vessels are Carnival Breeze, Carnival Glory and Carnival Freedom, each scheduled to depart on short Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries. While the delays are currently limited to port operations, the cruise line has acknowledged that several onboard systems have also been affected.

Embarkation Delays And Revised Arrival Times

Guests booked on the affected sailings were contacted directly by Carnival Cruise Line via email, text message and phone call on Monday morning, advising them to arrive later than originally planned.

“We are managing a system-related matter that is impacting our debarkation and embarkation operations and your check-in time is being pushed back,” the notification stated.

“Please arrive two hours later than your pre-selected Terminal Arrival Appointment (for example, 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM appointment will become 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM).”

Despite the delays, all guests were still asked to be onboard by 4:30 pm to allow the ships to prepare for departure.

The three affected sailings are:

  • Carnival Breeze on a five-night Western Caribbean cruise from Galveston, visiting Cozumel and Progreso
  • Carnival Glory on a four-night Bahamas sailing from Port Canaveral to Nassau and Celebration Key
  • Carnival Freedom on a five-night Bahamas itinerary from Port Canaveral to Celebration Key, Nassau and Half Moon Cay

At this stage, there are no changes to ports of call. Carnival has advised guests to opt in to text alerts in case further updates are required.

The latest disruption follows similar issues on Carnival Liberty on Sunday, 8th February, when a system outage caused a two-hour embarkation delay in New Orleans.

Debarkation Slowed As Sail And Sign Cards Collected

The technology failure has also complicated debarkation procedures. With scanning systems unavailable, crew members have been required to conduct manual guest counts, significantly slowing the process of leaving the ship.

Sail and sign gold

As part of this workaround, Sail and Sign cards are being collected from guests rather than scanned and returned. For some passengers, this has been a disappointment, as the cards are often kept as personal souvenirs showing details such as the ship name, sailing date, dining time and muster station.

Carnival’s brand ambassador, John Heald, confirmed that the cards cannot be returned or reissued.

“I know many of you keep these as a souvenir,” Heald said. “I wish there was a way that we could give you those keys back, but we can’t. And we can’t reprint them for security reasons as well, so all I can do is hope that that won’t be the only memory you have of your cruise.”

Safety Systems Prioritised As IT Teams Work On Fix

Beyond embarkation challenges, the outage has raised broader concerns among guests after confirmation that critical systems were affected.

“It affected the navigation and safety systems,” Heald confirmed.

Carnival has stressed that resolving these safety and navigation issues is the top priority, with technology teams working to ensure all systems are fully functional before any ship departs its homeport.

Guests across the fleet have also reported ongoing problems with the Carnival Hub app, including frequent glitches and disconnections.

As a temporary alternative, paper copies of the daily Fun Times schedule are being distributed onboard. While this limits app-based features such as dining check-ins and messaging, it allows guests to stay informed about activities and entertainment.

Carnival has reiterated that, aside from the technology-related disruptions, most onboard experiences including dining, shows and activities are continuing as normal while repairs are completed.

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