Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany just released a one-minute video of the moment they bolted a propulsion pod onto Carnival Festivale, Carnival's fourth Excel-class ship, and I have watched it more times than I'd like to admit. There is a giant crane. There are engineers in hard hats nodding at each other. And then, right before the pod is locked into the hull, someone applies a generous smear of purple Loctite 128068 flange sealant.

Yes. The 182,800-gross-ton ship that will one day haul thousands of you to Celebration Key is being held together, in part, by the same category of goop that lives in Trevor's garage. Industrial-grade goop, to be fair. It cures without air between two metal surfaces, which is more than I can say for most of the group chats on this show.

Two Thrusters, Zero Propellers

Here's the part that'll make first-time cruisers nervous: Festivale now has both of her azimuth thruster pods mounted, and neither one has a propeller. The shipyard says that's completely normal — "the final propellers will only be installed shortly before the launch." Once they're on, the pods generate enough thrust to push Festivale to a top speed of 21.5 knots, roughly 25 miles per hour. Majestic. A very fast ship, moving at the speed of a school zone.

In the background of the video you can spot welders working, scaffolding hanging, and the words "Carnival Festivale" on the aft hull, not yet painted but unmistakably there. This is a ship being assembled in a hundred directions at once.

When Can You Actually Board

Festivale's timeline so far: steel cut April 8, 2025, keel laid August 14, 2025, engines installed March 2026, and now pods. She's scheduled to welcome her first guests on May 19, 2027 for a 4-night Bahamas sailing from Port Canaveral, then settle into 6- and 8-night Caribbean and Bahamas runs — every one of them stopping at Celebration Key.

So no, you cannot sail her yet. But you can watch her get glued together in real time, which is a genuinely lovely thing the shipyard keeps doing. Schedules can slip, of course. Weather, supply chains, labor. Purple glue can only do so much.