Carnival Cruise Lines has launched the cruise industry’s most extensive on-line store, www.carnivalfunshop.com, offering a wide variety of “Fun Ship”-branded merchandise.

Designed as a unique and innovative means for leveraging the highly recognizable Carnival  brand, the new site provides consumers and cruise enthusiasts with a one-stop-shop for purchasing items that were previously only available in the line’s shipboard gift shops.

The comprehensive site offers dozens of different items – all emblazoned with Carnival’s name and logo – everything from hats, polo and T-shirts and other apparel to travel gear, tote bags, backpacks, and toys, including, of course, the ever-popular “Fun Ship” Freddy toy.

There’s also a special “Island Music” section where visitors can purchase CDs featuring steel drum and calypso bands that are so closely associated with the “Fun Ship” cruise experience. And for the gaming enthusiasts, there are a variety of items featuring the Carnival Players Club(R) logo.

“Carnival is the world’s best known and most recognizable cruise line and this new on-line store provides ‘Fun Ship’ cruise enthusiasts and our travel agent partners with an opportunity to purchase popular items typically only available aboard ship, while serving as an excellent way of reinforcing awareness of our brand,” said Ruben Rodriguez, Carnival’s executive vice president of marketing and guest experience.

Travel agents who visit the new on-line store via the Carnival’s travel agent Internet portal bookccl.com are eligible for a 10 percent discount on all purchases.  On-line gift certificates valid for a future purchase at carnivalfunshop.com are also available.

Carnival is the world’s largest and most popular cruise line, with 22 “Fun Ship” cruise liners operating voyages ranging from three to 18 days in length to the Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, the Panama Canal, Canada, New England, Bermuda, Europe and South America.

The line currently has three new ships scheduled for delivery between now and 2011. The first of those, the 113,300-ton Carnival Splendor, is scheduled to debut in Europe July 2, 2008.