Carnival Corp ended a five-year order hiatus with a deal at Germany’s Meyer Werft, but chief executive Josh Weinstein said the Miami company will continue its policy of “measured” fleet growth in the years to come.
The world’s largest cruise ship operator ordered an LNG-fuelled, 180,000-gt vessel that will be the 10th in the Miami company’s Excel class of ships and the fourth to join the fleet of flagship brand Carnival Cruise Line.
Meyer Werft is scheduled to deliver the 6,400-passenger ship in the spring of 2027.
No price was revealed, although the two previous Excel class ships, the Carnival Celebration (2022) and Mardi Gras (2021) each cost $950m.
Carnival has been in a period of order discipline that was lengthened by a worldwide cruise industry halt during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Weinstein said the company has just one newbuilding scheduled for 2025 and none for 2026, and it will only order one or two ships per year starting in 2027.
“Building on our strong performance and growing momentum around the world, we are excited to resume our newbuild programme and further enhance our global fleet with yet another state-of-the-art ship that will wow Carnival Cruise Line’s guests,” he said.
“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.”
Weinstein said that as “measured capacity growth” continues, newbuildings will be allocated to brands with outsize demand and need for the additional ships, which he said will deliver attractive payback.
“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,” he said.
Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy said the Excel ships have been popular with guests.
“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,” she said.
