• 29 Jan 2018

Carnival Corporation announced it had signed a shipbuilding contract for a second next-generation cruise ship for its P&O Cruises brand with Meyer Werft (Papenburg) that is scheduled to be delivered in 2022.

Similar to a P&O Cruises sister ship due for delivery in 2020, this second new vessel will be the largest cruise ship to be built specifically for the British market (both new ships will be registered in the UK).

The LNG-powered ship will be 180,000 gross tons and will accommodate approximately 5,200 guests (lower berths), Carnival said.

Carnival UK president Josh Weinstein said: “These two next-generation ships for delivery in the next four years are real and tangible evidence of our absolute optimism for future growth.”

Added P&O Cruises senior vice president Paul Ludlow: “We have a bold and ambitious vision for P&O Cruises to become Britain’s number one holiday choice and we can only do that by increasing our fleet and the build for our 2020 ship begins this spring.”

In addition to two dual fuel cruise ships (LNG/diesel) already launched in the last two years (Aida Prima launched in May 2016 and Aida Perla in service since summer 2017), in total, Carnival Corporation has agreements in place with  German and Finnish shipbuilders Meyer Werft Papenburg and Turku to build eight LNG-powered cruise ships across four of its 10 global cruise brands with delivery dates between 2018 and 2022: two for AIDA Cruises with expected delivery dates in 2018 and 2021, two for Costa Cruises with expected delivery dates in 2019 and 2021, two aforementioned ships for P&O Cruises UK with expected delivery dates in 2020 and 2022 and two for Carnival Cruise Line with expected delivery dates in 2020 and 2022