Carnival Cruise Line is expanding its capacity for short cruises out of New Orleans and Galveston.

The Miami-based cruise giant said late last week it would replace the 2,974-passenger Carnival Valor in Galveston with the bigger, 3,646 Carnival Dream in May 2019. The Dream will take over Valor's four- and five-day, year-round sailings to Mexico. That will expand Carnival's capacity on short cruises by 22%.

Valor will then move to New Orleans to replace the Carnival Triumph. It will operate four- and five-day voyages year-round to Mexico, increasing Carnival's short cruise out of the Big Easy by nearly 10%.

The Dream will be the newest and largest Carnival ship to sail short cruises out of Galveston. Valor becomes the largest ship to offer a year-round short cruise schedule from New Orleans.

Both ships will visit Cozumel, Mexico on the five-day cruises, and then either Progreso or Costa Maya, Mexico.

Carnival said that Galveston and New Orleans are two of its fastest-growing home ports.

In 2019, Carnival will have three ships operating out of Galveston: Freedom, Vista and Dream. (Vista is repositioning to Galveston in the fall of 2018.)

Together, the three ships will carry nearly 650,000 passengers annually from Galveston -- more than any cruise line.

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