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TAMPA — Carnival Cruise Line is moving its Carnival Pride ship to Tampa from Baltimore.
Launched in 2002 as the flagship of the Carnival fleet, the 2,124-passenger Pride replaces the Legend, which heads to Australia.
The Pride, with multiple pools and a 72-foot twister slide, will begin seven-day western Caribbean cruises from Tampa in December.
Carnival cites new international standards, effective 2015, that require oceangoing vessels to burn cleaner, low sulfur fuel within 200 miles of the Canadian coasts, according to news reports.
Critics are lambasting the Environmental Protection Agency mandate saying it is negatively affecting the nation's East Coast, from the Mid-Atlantic to New England, say news accounts.
Baltimore officials are calling the ship's planned departure in November a major blow and a loss of $45 million to the region, say news reports.
It means Baltimore residents will have to fly to Florida or elsewhere to take a cruise.
At the Port of Tampa, cruise activity contributes an estimated $380 million to the local economy, including nearly $91 million in wages and salaries annually, according to the port. Nearly a million people cruised from the Tampa port in 2012.
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