Carnival Cruise Line is going big – really big. Parent Carnival Corporation has placed an order for three new ships for its namesake Carnival Cruise Line brand. The ships will be part of a new class of vessel, weighing in at nearly 230,000 gross registered tonnes and carrying almost 8,000 guests at full capacity
With over 3,000 guest staterooms, the new ships will be the largest in the Carnival Corporation global fleet. The agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri provides for the design, engineering, and construction of these liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered ships, which will be delivered in the summers of 2029, 2031 and 2033, respectively.
Christine Duffy President, Carnival Cruise Line (Photo Credit: Courtesy Carnival Cruise Line)
"We are proud to be known as America's cruise line with tremendous guest loyalty and an outstanding team that has enabled us to deliver memorable vacations to over 100 million guests," said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.
"For this next generation ship, we are focused on creating innovative guest experiences that will take Carnival Cruise Line into the future with new FUN features and excitement that we know our guests will love."
With today's order, there have been five new ship orders for Carnival Cruise Line announced in 2024. Earlier this year, Carnival Corporation placed its first newbuild orders in five years for two more Excel-class ships that will join the Carnival Cruise Line fleet in 2027 and 2028.
The company also recently announced a series of strategic shifts to further optimize the composition of its global brand portfolio and to increase guest capacity for Carnival Cruise Line, transferring a total of five vessels from sister brands to the Carnival Cruise Line fleet between 2023 and March 2025.
"We are doubling down on the growth of Carnival Cruise Line – our highest-returning brand – to keep up with the incredibly strong demand we continue to see for the world's most popular cruise line," said Carnival Corporation CEO Josh Weinstein.
Carnival Corp. CEO Josh Weinstein. (Photo Credit: Brian Major)
"At this point, our newbuild pipeline is just one delivery in each of 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2031 and 2033. We continue to take a disciplined approach to growth, strategically directing new capacity to the areas of highest demand at a rate of one to two new ships per year."
According to Weinstein, this order will take the company's overall measured capacity growth between 2025 and 2033 to an average of approximately 1.5% per year.
"This gives us the headroom to strategically provide new capacity to the brands in our portfolio like Carnival Cruise Line, which provide outsized returns while continuing to execute against our responsible capital strategy, using our strong free cash flow over the next several years to improve our balance sheet, significantly reduce our debt, and continue to transfer value from debt holders to shareholders," he said.
Once delivered in 2033, Carnival Corporation will have a total of 16 LNG-powered ships – including eight Carnival Cruise Line ships – making up almost 30% of Carnival Corporation's global capacity and delivering immediate greenhouse gas emission reductions. The new ships will also feature advanced energy efficiency, waste management, and emission reduction technologies to further reduce the company's environmental footprint.
Design details and itinerary information for the new Carnival Cruise Line ships will be announced in the future.
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