Carnival Funnel For the full history behind Carnival’s funnel, skip ahead to 23:28 in my recent interview I conducted with Joe Farcus, the designer of the Carnival funnel.
Costa Funnel Costa’s funnel features the colors gold and blue, each with a unique symbolism behind their colors. Costa Cruises was founded in 1854, originally operating cargo ships around the Mediterranean, which carried olive oil and textiles between Genoa and Sardinia. Later in Costa’s life, when the company began carrying guests, their logo took on the history of the company. The blue C represented the ocean for very obvious reasons and the gold was chosen to represent the olive oil the company once carried. While both colors are aesthetically pleasing together, they also hold significant meaning and symbolism for the cruise line and its long history.
Celebrity Funnel The meaning and design of Celebrity’s funnel dates back to the cruise line’s beginnings. Founded in 1988 as a subsidiary of Chandris Cruises, Celebrity Cruises was in need of a logo. Playing off of the Greek heritage of the Chandris family, who originally founded Celebrity’s parent company, Celebrity’s logo became the distinctive X, which is “chi” in Greek. “Chi,” the first letter in the family’s last name, aptly pays homage to the Chandris family. The X logo has served as Celebrity’s logo since its founding.
8 replies on “3 Cruise Line Funnels Explained”
I found this story very interesting. I now work on board Carnival ships in the Fun shops, but started my ship work back on the Britanis and the Amerikanis (Chandris) back in 1986. Thanks for the history lesson!!
Fascinating article, Mike! I love looking at funnel designs….and learned something new about each of the three companies here! My favorite funnel design is Cunard’s….with American President Lines’s funnel LOGO a historical favorite.
Fascinating article, Mike! I love looking at funnel designs….and learned something new about each of the three companies here! My favorite funnel design is Cunard’s….with American President Lines’s funnel LOGO a historical favorite….
Thanks for sharing these great photo Nicholas! I do like the bold look the APL’s logo impose!
Does anyone know how Carnival chose their funnel colors…When the company was formed in 1973 with the former Empress of Canada, They were on such a tight budget that they merely altered part of the old funnel logo. The part that is now red was a green..but they kept the blue and white areas. Thus the new logo on the funnel!
The story on the Carnival funnel has truth in it, but it is not the whole story. Although the France did have the fins which could eject smoke out of the ends, it also was a traditional funnel with smoke ejecting from the top. It was not successful as it could have been and was a maintenenace nightmare with the smoke diverting internal gear. I believe the side ejection feature was eventually abandoned. The main influenece on the Carnival funnel was an airplane wing which caused lift, which I envisioned would carry of the smoke up and not to the sides as the France’s did. The France’s projections were fins not wings as mine was and the funnel extended above the fins which negated any lift functioning. Plus I added a venturi in the front center of the wings to cause air flow through the wings and also help smoke acceleration upwards. Anyway I gave the design to Ted Arison as a birthday present since he asked me to make a design because the naval architects could not come up with a distinctive one. He loved my design and it was put in the contract to build the Tropical at Aalborg Vaerft in Denmark. The yard told him that my design was expenesive and wouldn’t work. They offered him a ‘proper’ ship smoke stack, which was a very tall cylinder plus a sizable credit to change. My funnel and the yard’s naval architect designed one were tested in a wind tunnel in Copenhagen and obviously mine won out. Many year later when I redesigned the funnel for the Carnival Dream because it had to be shorter for vertical clearance it was tested again in a lab in Vienna. The owner of the lab told me it was the very best funnel they ever tested. The second best one was also my taller design for one of the earlier Italian built Carnival ships.
Wow a great story and to have one of the Carnival designers weigh in on it it makes the whole article come alive. Thanks for the history lesson Mike & Joe.
I sailed on the Amerikannis back in 1968 on Chandris Lines! It was an awesome cruise!