Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Cruise line adds ships
Carnival Corp. & PLC adds two vessels to Holland America Line and Princess Cruises brand.
Doral-based cruise giant Carnival Corp. & PLC on Thursday announced plans for two more cruise ships, which will be built for its Holland America Line and Princess Cruises brands.
The cruise company said it signed a memorandum of agreement with Italian shipyard Fincantieri to build the two new vessels, which would be scheduled for delivery to Holland America and Princess in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The contracts for the new ships — to be built at Fincantieri’s shipyards in Marghera and Monfalcone, Italy — are expected to be finalized early this year, Carnival Corp. said.
“Using our strategic fleet enhancement plan to introduce new ships is an important part of our measured capacity-growth strategy, which includes replacing less efficient ships with newer, larger and more efficient vessels,” Arnold Donald, company CEO, said in a statement.
The 99,500-ton, 2,660-passenger Holland America ship will be the third in its new Pinnacle class. It will join sister ships ms Koningsdam — now sailing from Port Everglades for the winter season — and the Nieuw Statendam, currently under construction and set to debut in November 2018.
Meanwhile, Princess’ new 145,000-ton ship will accommodate 3,660 passengers and will be its sixth Royal class of vessel. It will join currently operating sister ships — Royal Princess and Regal Princess, and the new Majestic Princess, which was built for the China market and is set for delivery in March. Two other yet-to-benamed Royal class ships are in the pipeline for delivery in 2019 and 2020.
The new Princess ship will feature Carnival Corp.’s new proprietary Ocean Medallion wearable technology, which the company says enables passengers to seamlessly connect to enhanced services both before and after they cruise for a more personalized and interactive vacation. The technology is set to debut aboard Regal Princess on Nov. 13 on Ocean Medallion Class cruises from Port Everglades, and will follow on Royal Princess and Caribbean Princess in early 2018.
In South Florida, Holland and Princess ships sail only from Port Everglades.
With Thursday’s agreement, Carnival Corp. now has 19 new ships scheduled to be delivered across its corporate fleet from 2017 to 2022. The company’s portfolio of cruise lines includes Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Cruises, Seabourn, Cunard, Fathom, P&O Cruises (U.K.), P&O Cruises (Australia) and AIDA Cruises.
Together the company’s 10 cruise brands operate 102 ships that visit more than 700 ports around the globe.
Carnival Corp. now has 19 new ships scheduled to be delivered across its corporate fleet from 2017 to 2022.