Carnival Corp. said it will build one new ship each for two of its largest brands: Carnival Cruise Lines and Holland America Line.
Carnival Cruise Lines will get a 135,000 gross-ton vessel scheduled for delivery in the winter of 2016.
Holland America Line will get a 99,000 gross-ton ship scheduled for the
fall of 2015. Both will be built by Italy's Fincantieri shipyard at a
cost of about $195,000 a berth, Carnival said.
The Holland America Line ship will be a new class for the brand and
will carry 2,660 passengers at double occupancy, while the Carnival ship
will carry 4,000.
"Today's order continues the company's strategy of introducing two
to three ships per year across the corporation's 10 brands," said
Carnival Corp. Chairman and CEO Micky Arison.
"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," he said.
The announcement Friday follows the recent order by Norwegian
Cruise Line of a 163,000 ton "Breakaway Plus" for delivery in 2015 and
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s disclosure Thursday that it was in talks to build a
new Oasis-class ship by 2016.
Follow Tom Stieghorst on Twitter @tstravelweekly