<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Carnival Cruise Lines announced Wednesday it will base two larger ships in Galveston, Texas, and move two smaller ones to New Orleans, returning that port to capacity levels reached before Hurricane Katrina.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The company said the announcement marks the largest capacity commitment by a cruise line to Texas.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Carnival's new ship, the 3,690-passenger Carnival Magic, will be the largest cruise ship based at the Galveston, Texas, port year round.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The ship will operate seven-day cruises to the Caribbean from Galveston starting Nov. 14, 2011.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The company also said the Carnival Triumph, which holds 2,758 passengers, will move from New Orleans to Galveston to operate year-round running four and five-day Caribbean cruises. That will start Oct. 6, 2011.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Between the two ships, the company expects to carry more than 450,000 guests each year from Galveston. That is a 27 percent increase over the current year, Carnival said.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The company will move the Carnival Conquest, which holds 2,974 passengers, and the Carnival Ecstasy, which has 2,052 passengers, from Galveston to New Orleans. Both ships will operate year-round departures from there to the Caribbean. The move returns the line to capacity levels reached before Katrina, the company said. The two ships are expected to carry nearly 340,000 passengers a year from New Orleans, the most of any cruise operator.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Conquest will start operating Nov. 13, 2011 in New Orleans and the Ecstasy will start Sept. 22 that year.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shares of Carnival Corp. rose 1 cent to $33.20 in midday trading Wednesday.</span></p>