Laid off from Carnival Corporation.

What Carnival Corporation layoffs have meant for employees

Carnival's 2020 job losses came in two kinds. Some jobs were set to end for good, and others became furloughs, with chief executive Arnold Donald saying he looked forward to many of those affected returning to work, according to ClickOrlando. Princess said it would work to bring many furloughed employees back, The Signal wrote, and Alaska's copies of the notices list the permanent layoffs and the temporary furloughs as separate letters. In Florida alone, the announced cuts and furloughs reached about 45% of the in-state workforce. Waiting to hear whether a furlough turns back into a job is hard. The shore side shrank as well, and by Carnival's 2020 annual report its average fell to 11,000 full-time employees that year from 12,000 in 2019, while the average aboard its ships dropped from 92,000 to 58,000. If a notice calls your job loss a furlough, it's worth asking in writing whether there's a recall date and whether any health coverage continues in the meantime.

When Carnival started outsourcing IT to Capgemini in 2016, it told about 200 IT employees, according to Computerworld, that they could take jobs with the contractor. Those were six-month contracts with a Monday deadline to sign, The Signal's 2016 story reported, and staff could also look for other jobs inside Carnival, while Capgemini was to decide in August who got permanent offers. Employees told Computerworld they anticipated taking part in a knowledge transfer, training someone else to do their jobs, and Carnival's spokesman said the move wasn't a cost-savings initiative. If work you do is being handed to an outside firm and it offers you a place, it's worth knowing how long any guarantee runs and who decides what comes after it, since the 2016 offers carried six months of certainty and a decision on permanent jobs months later.

Most North American shoreside staff are slated to share a new Miami-Dade headquarters by 2028, under the plan Princess laid out in a statement to SCVNews in February 2025, so geography is the open question for the people that plan reaches. Princess, in Valencia since 2001, already had senior leaders working from Florida and space in four Valencia office buildings up for sublease, and its statement framed the move around bringing teams closer together and trimming office real estate costs. If a move to Miami is offered, you can ask whether Carnival would contribute to it, when the Miami job would start and whether saying no leaves any severance in reach. If you're in Seattle, where Carnival plans to keep its one other North American office and ties it to the homeport there and to Alaska operations, it's fair to ask whether your role is one that office keeps.

Union contracts reach part of the shore side. In 2025, according to Carnival's 10-K for 2025, 21% of its shoreside employees were represented by collective bargaining agreements, which cover some workers in its hotel and transportation operations. The Alaska notices of May 2020 said none of the people they affected had a union representative or bumping rights, and they were set to take effect June 1, after the CDC stretched its pause on cruising into the Alaska summer season, when Carnival's Alaska tour company significantly increases its work force, by the 10-K's account. If you're covered by a union agreement, any layoff, recall and bumping terms in it are worth reading closely.

Carnival's filings in our WARN tracker were made in Alaska, California, Florida and Washington. For an Alaska hotel, lodge or tour job, the names to look under are Westmark, Tour Alaska and Royal Hyway as well as Holland America. Alaska unemployment benefits, Florida unemployment benefits, California unemployment benefits and Washington unemployment benefits each explain how a claim is filed in that state.

How Carnival Corporation's layoffs compare to other companies

Carnival's May 2020 cuts followed similar moves by its Miami neighbors. By then, according to ClickOrlando, Royal Caribbean had cut about a quarter of its 5,000 corporate employees and Norwegian Cruise Line had furloughed 20% of its staff.

A sourced history of Carnival Corporation layoffs

• June 2024, P&O Cruises Australia set to fold into Carnival

  Carnival planned to fold P&O Cruises Australia into Carnival Cruise Line, and ABC News put the jobs lost in Australia at 10 to 20, with crews to be reassigned to other ships. The brand was retired in 2025, as Carnival's 2025 10-K records.

• May 2020, Holland America's Alaska hotels and tours cut staff

  Westmark Hotels, Tour Alaska and Royal Hyway Tours listed 17 permanent layoffs, one a Seattle reservation agent, and 132 temporary furloughs at Westmark hotels, Denali lodges and tour operations from June 1, in notices to Alaska signed by Holland America Group's chief executive.

• May 2020, Princess cuts or furloughs half its California staff

  Princess said, according to The Signal, that it would lay off or furlough about half its California workforce and cut hours or pay for the rest of its shoreside staff, most of them in Santa Clarita and Seattle.

• May 2020, Carnival announces 820 Florida job cuts

  Carnival announced layoffs, furloughs, shorter workweeks and pay cuts across the company, and ClickOrlando, citing the Miami Herald, put Florida's share at 820 positions to be cut and 537 furloughs out of about 3,000.

• December 2016, Carnival outsources about 200 IT jobs to Capgemini

  Princess and Carnival began outsourcing their IT work to Capgemini, and The Signal counted about 200 jobs lost, 61 of them in Valencia. Staff could take a six-month Capgemini contract or leave without severance, a choice Computerworld described.

What to do if you're laid off from Carnival Corporation

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Carnival Corporation's biggest hubs: Florida, California, Washington, Alaska. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Carnival Corporation's hub states run: Florida, California, Washington, Alaska, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.