A fourth Excel-class ship is to be built for Carnival Cruise Line.
The 6,400-passenger vessel is the first newbuild order placed by parent company Carnival Corporation in five years.
The tenth Excel-class ship in the corporation’s fleet across four of its brands, including P&O Cruises, is expected to enter service in spring 2027.
It will join 180,000-ton sister ships Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration and Carnival Jubilee and be powered on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) technology platform, according to the corporation.
German shipbuilder Meyer Werft will build the new ship. Previous Excel-class ships cost of at least $950 million each.
Carnival Corporation chief executive Josh Weinstein said: “Building on our strong performance and growing momentum around the world, we are excited to resume our newbuild program and further enhance our global fleet with yet another state-of-the-art ship that will wow Carnival Cruise Line’s guests.
“With one newbuild scheduled for delivery in 2025, none for 2026, and this order being our only expected newbuild in 2027, our responsible capital approach will support utilising our substantial free cash flow over the next several years to strategically improve our balance sheet, significantly reduce our leverage levels and continue to transfer value from debt holders to shareholders.”
He added: “We are following through on our measured capacity growth strategy with the addition of one to two ships per year beginning in 2027, which will be allocated to our cruise lines that most need the capacity to satisfy outsized demand, delivering an attractive payback period.
“We also remain focused on driving revenue growth throughout our portfolio of world-class cruise lines by continuing to improve execution across all aspects of our operation, yielding higher return on invested capital.”
Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy said: “Our Excel-class ships have been a tremendous addition to the Carnival fleet and proven very popular with our guests.
“As the world’s most popular cruise line, this new ship enables us to continue the growth of our incredible fleet as we welcome our loyal guests back to cruise more frequently and attract new-to-cruise guests to experience all that a Carnival cruise has to offer.”
Mayer Group chief executive Bernd Eikens said: “We are very pleased that the partnership between the Meyer Group and Carnival Corporation will continue with this new order.”Carnival Crise Line