Upping its order of new cruise ships to be delivered between 2016 and 2020 to a staggering 17, Carnival Corporation has announced plans to construct two newbuilds for Costa Asia and one each for Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises Australia.
Showing a continued commitment to the Asian market, the two new Costa ships will be deployed in China, sized at 135,500 tons with a capacity of 4,200 passengers. They will carry the line’s “Italy’s finest” branding and immerse guests in the Italian experience, altogether ranked as Asia’s Best Cruise Line in 2015’s Asia Cruise Awards.
Following the recent addition of the Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden to its fleet, P&O Cruises Australia will soon welcome its new ship to be configured with the same size specifications as the Costa pair. The 323-meter-long vessel will be the biggest ever with the greatest capacity to homeport year-round down under.
The new 143,700-ton Princess ship will be a fourth sister to the new Royal Princess, Regal Princess and forthcoming Majestic Princess and will accommodate 3,560 guests. Its overall design will follow its predecessors but also add some new features to classics like The Piazza multipurpose atrium and Movies Under the Stars outdoor cinema.
“We will deliver on our fleet enhancement plan with the construction of these four new, exciting ships that are consistent with our long-term strategy of measured capacity growth over time,” said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation. “These ships will be great additions to our fleet that support our goal to exceed guest expectations and create great vacation memories for each guest onboard our ships. These strategic investments in new ships that wow our guests are an important part of our measured growth strategy, which includes replacing less efficient ships with newer, larger and more efficient vessels over a very specific period of time.”
The new ships will be built at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone and Marghera shipyards in Italy with expected launches in 2019 and 2020. With three-quarters of the announcement dedicated to foreign source markets, a drawn conclusion might be a diminishing cruise market in the United States, but, in fact, it comes in addition to domestic growth. This year alone, Carnival Corp. will launch Holland America Line’s Koningsdam, Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Vista and Seabourn Cruise Line’s Seabourn Encore.
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