It's remarkable just how busy the handful of international cruise shipbuilding yards will be over the next five years, and-as of today's announcement for two more new vessels-Carnival Corporation is now behind a staggering 19 orders, 7 of which will be LNG-powered, to be delivered through 2022. To try to make sense of them and which brands they are heading for after some recent schedule shifting, we've prepared an updated timeline below.
2017
Compared to the years to come, 2017 seems like a light dozen months with only the Majestic Princess and AIDAperla coming out, both sister-ships to previously launched vessels. The Majestic Princess will be the third Royal-class ship for Princess Cruises being built by Fincantieri in Italy, this time dedicated exclusively to the Chinese market, and the AIDAperla will be German-based AIDA Cruises' twin to last year's AIDAprima being constructed at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan.
2018
By 2018, Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Seabourn will each have a new vessel in their fleet as they launch the Carnival Horizon, Nieuw Statendam and Seabourn Ovation, all from Fincantieri. The Horizon will follow the design of the existing Carnival Vista, the Nieuw Statendam will follow the Koningsdam and the Seabourn Ovation will follow the Seabourn Encore.
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2019
2019 will be the first monster year for Carnival Corp. as five new ships are scheduled to set sail including the company's first to be powered by environmentally friendly LNG (liquefied natural gas). Both set to measure in around 180,000-tons with a capacity of up to 6,600 guests include one for Costa Cruises built at Meyer Turku in Finland and one for AIDA Cruises built at sister-yard Meyer Werft in Germany.
During this period, Carnival Cruise Line will also launch a third Vista-class ship, and Princess Cruises will debut a fourth Royal-class vessel. Plus, Costa Cruises will build a 135,000-ton ship specifically for the China outbound market. All three will be built by Fincantieri.
2020
Meanwhile 2020 will see another Royal-class ship, the fifth for Princess Cruises from Fincantieri, and Carnival Cruise Line and P&O Cruises will each get their first LNG-powered vessels, also sized around 180,000 tons and being built by Meyer Turku and Meyer Werft respectively. The comparable scales potentially predict a similarity in design to the specifications of P&Os, perhaps including its all-weather upper Dome and half-mile uninterrupted al fresco promenade deck.
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2021
By 2021, there'll be another banner year with four new ships coming out encompassing a third Pinnacle-class ship for Holland America Line behind the Nieuw Statendam and a second 135,000-ton ship for the Chinese market from Costa Cruises, both from Fincantieri. Costa will also get its second LNG-powered twin from Meyer Turku while AIDA Cruises gets its second LNG-powered twin from Meyer Werft as well.
2022
Lastly, at least through 2022 for now, will be Carnival Cruise Line's own second LNG-powered sister-ship from Meyer Turku and a sixth Royal-class vessel for Princess Cruises from Fincantieri.
As we've indicated before, it's a bit surprising to see that Princess' fleet is not expected to see much variation. Most of the other brands-including the British equivalent of Princess, P&O Cruises-have multiple designs on order including LNG versions. However, Princess will have six nearly identical vessels with little hardware innovation. The line's future new Ocean Medallion Class wearable-technology will at least boost its software offerings.
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