Carnival Cruise Line will make San Diego its 15th home port in the continental United States, stationing the Carnival Miracle there starting in December 2019.
The deployment will be seasonal through February 2020. The ship will offer a variety of itineraries ranging from three to 15 days.
Carnival last sailed from San Diego seven years ago. Since then its fleet has grown and will expand again when its newest ship, the Carnival Panorama, arrives to be based in Long Beach, Calif., in 2019.
"We think San Diego is a great home port for us and as we look at the new capacity we've brought into our fleet with Vista in 2016 and Horizon this year. We've got Panorama coming at the end of next year," Carnival president Christine Duffy said.
"So we felt there was room in the market to bring some capacity here to San Diego" Duffy added.
The 2,124-passenger Miracle will be 15 years old in 2019. Its itineraries will include a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise departing Dec. 1, 2019, a four-day New Year's Baja Mexico cruise and 14-day and 15-day roundtrips to Hawaii.
Duffy noted the large military deployment in the San Diego area and said Carnival hopes to capitalize on attracting those potential cruisers by making it more convenient for them than driving to Long Beach.
"We may (also) have some people who would normally sail out of Long Beach that want to come down to San Diego for a particular itinerary and I think also for people who want to spend a day pre- or post-cruise in San Diego, it's a beautiful destination in and of itself," she said.