Tourexpi
The ship, the 10th Excel-class ship in the
corporation's fleet across four of its world-class brands, is expected to enter
service in Spring 2027.
Joining current Carnival Cruise Line Excel-class
ships Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration and Carnival Jubilee, the new
180,000-ton ship will carry over 6,400 guests and be powered on a liquefied
natural gas (LNG) technology platform. This new ship is the first newbuild
order placed by Carnival Corporation in five years.
"Our Excel-class ships have been a tremendous
addition to the Carnival fleet and proven very popular with our guests,"
said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. "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."
"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," said Josh
Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation. "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 utilizing 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.
"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,"
said Weinstein.
"We are very pleased that the partnership
between the MEYER Group and Carnival Corporation will continue with this new
order," said Bernd Eikens, CEO MEYER Group.
Image Credit: © Carnival Corporation & plc
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