Troubled Carnival Offers Caribbean Cruises for $40 a Night

After a string of malfunctions this year that crippled some of its ships, Carnival Corp. (NYSE:CCL) is offering cruises for as little as $40 a night.

According to the company’s website, several five-day cruises set for departures in April or May are available for an average of $199 per person. Trips from Port Canaveral in Orlando, Fla., to the Bahamas and an Eastern Caribbean cruise that departs Miami next month are among the inexpensive cruises being offered as of Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, a four-day cruise from Miami to the Western Caribbean costs $169 per person, or $43 a night, as does a four-day trek from Orlando to the Bahamas.

A Carnival spokesman said the company has offered similar pricing in the past, adding that prices are typically lower before the start of summer and cruise industry pricing has its ebbs and flows. He also noted that other cruise lines are offering similar pricing for interior rooms.

A search on Royal Caribbean’s (NYSE:RCL) website revealed a four-night Bahamas cruise this month for $37.25 per person.

Miami-based Carnival, the world’s largest cruise operator, experienced this year a number of ship malfunctions, one of which made headlines in February when 3,100 passengers were stranded on a ship that was left adrift in the Gulf of Mexico.

Last week the same ship, the Triumph, was being repaired at a port in Mobile, Ala., when high winds caused it to break loose from its moorings.

Cruises on the Triumph were offered at discounts after the engine fire in February. Trips were available for as low as $80 a night. The cheapest Triumph cruise available on Carnival’s website Thursday is a five-day Western Caribbean trip from Galveston, Tex., for $289 per person, or $58 a night.

Cruise prices went down across the industry after Carnival’s Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people.

Shares of Carnival were up 3 cents at $34.11 in early afternoon trading. Royal Caribbean shares were trading 16 cents higher at $33.35.