Carnival orders 2 new cruise ships

That didn’t take long. Within 24 hours of cruise giant Royal Caribbean announcing it was negotiating to build a new ship, along come rivals Carnival Corporation with news of an order for TWO vessels.
While the RCI plans are still in negotiation and under discussion, Carnival’s deal has already been inked with their regular shipbuilder, Fincantieri of Italy.
A memorandum of agreement has been signed to build a 99,000-ton ship for the Holland America brand, to be delivered in autumn 2015, and for a 135,000-ton vessel for Carnival Cruise Line, to be launched early in 2016.
Both ships are said to be of new designs. The 2,660-passenger Holland America vessel will be the biggest-yet for the company, which currently operates a 15-strong fleet ranging from the 835-capacity Prinsendam to the 2,106-passenger Nieuw Amsterdam, launched in in 2010.
The Carnival ship, for 4,000 passengers, falls somewhere between the size of the 128,000-ton Carnival Breeze, launched this summer, and the new 141,000-ton design being built for Princess and P&O.
“Today’s order continues the company’s strategy of introducing two to three ships per year across the corporation’s 10 brands. We have strategically timed the introduction of these new ships to allow ample time for those brands to further grow their passenger base and absorb the new capacity while minimizing revenue yield dilution in the remainder of their existing fleets,” said Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation.
Including the newbuilds announced today, Carnival Corporation currently has nine new ships scheduled for delivery – two for 2013, two for 2014, three for 2015 and two for 2016. Arison also noted that the addition of new tonnage is expected, to some extent, to replace existing capacity reductions from possible sales of older ships.
It may yet be some time, however, before Arison is ready to announce an order for a ship to replace Costa Concordia, which was lost in January.
Guiseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, pointed out that the new orders bring to 61 the number of ships his yards have built for Carnival brands.