Carnival Corp has confirmed that a ship recently sold by P&O Cruises is headed to the Chinese market.
Last Friday, Carnival’s UK subsidiary P&O Cruises announced it had concluded a deal to sell the 69,800-gt Oriana (built 1995) to undisclosed interests, with the ship scheduled to be handed over to its new owner in August 2019.
Well-placed cruise industry insiders were this week pointing fingers at China Travel Service (CTS), a large state-owned travel conglomerate that for the past year has been indicating its intention to enter the cruise game in a big way, as a likely buyer.
CTS formed a strategic partnership with China State Shipbuilding Corp last April to collaborate on designing and building new cruiseships for the Chinese market.
In response to queries, P&O Cruises would only say that the Oriana had been sold to a company engaged in the Chinese domestic cruise market. CTS did not respond to requests for comment.
P&O Cruises says its aim for the future is to focus on larger ships. It has two 180,000-gt, LNG-powered cruiseships on order that will be delivered in 2020 and 2022. The Oriana is one of four midsize ships in its fleet of seven cruiseships.
No more sales?
The company claims it has no plans in the foreseeable future to sell further midsize cruiseships.
Holland America Line, another Carnival subsidiary, revealed on Monday that it had also sold a ship. The vessel in question is the 38,800-gt, 835-passenger Prinsendam (built 1989), which TradeWinds reported back in May was in the process of being sold to German cruise operator Phoenix Seereisen.
Holland America has now confirmed that the ship, considered to be the most luxurious afloat when it was built as the Royal Viking Sun, will join the Phoenix fleet next July.
The sale of the Oriana and Prinsendam follow on the heels of the March sale of the 55,900-gt cruiseship Pacific Eden (built 1993), a ship operated by Carnival’s P&O Australian subsidiary, to UK-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV).
These deals are all part of a tonnage clear-out that has been ongoing at Carnival for several years. The company has been shedding its oldest ships at a rate of two to three ships per year, although potential deals rumoured to be in the pipeline could see several more sold by the end of this year.
