Carnival Orders Excel-class Cruise Ship

Fresh on the heels of its first newbuild order in five years, the world's largest cruise company has placed an order for an additional vessel.

U.S.-based Carnival Corporation on Tuesday announced it has signed an agreement with German shipbuilder Meyer Werft to build an Excel-class cruise ship for its Carnival Cruise Line brand for expected delivery in 2028.

The ship will be the 11th Excel-class ship for the corporation's fleet across four of its brands, and the fifth to be sailed by Carnival Cruise Line. The order is contingent upon financing, which is expected to be completed later this year.

In mid-February Carnival Corporation had announced a fourth Excel-class ship would join the Carnival Cruise Line fleet in Spring 2027. 

"Carnival's Excel-class fleet will soon be a quintet of these very popular ships that provide outstanding guest amenities and tremendous operating efficiencies," said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. "Since the introduction of Mardi Gras in 2021 and the subsequent expansion with Carnival Celebration in 2022 and Carnival Jubilee in 2023, these Excel-class ships are driving excitement, demand, and strong guest satisfaction ratings. With the arrival of Carnival Firenze in April, we are completing the addition of five ships to our fleet in less than 20 months, and then we will pivot to another phase of growth with these two Excel ships."

This fifth Excel-class ship will be around 344 meters long and built on the same platform as its sisters, with the 180,000-gross-ton ship powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and designed to carry over 6,400 passengers and 1,800 crew.

"This new order continues to balance our commitment to growth with our responsible capital approach to utilize strong 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," said Josh Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc.

"Carnival Cruise Line continues to perform at an outstanding level, and we are focused on adding capacity across the company where it aligns with demand and our position in the marketplace. This measured capacity growth strategy will result in our adding one to two ships per year beginning in 2027, and we will be identifying additional fleet plans over the coming months for our cruise lines to meet capacity demand and improve execution across all aspects of our operation, with the benefit of yielding higher return on invested capital," said Weinstein.

"The Excel Class from Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku has been contributing to Carnival Corporation's success for several years now. We look forward to continuing this success story together," said Bernd Eikens, CEO of the Meyer Group.

Since 2018 Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku have built nine cruise ships with LNG propulsion for four cruise lines in Carnival Corporation's portfolio on a joint technical platform. 

The shipbuilding group said it sees this second major order in just a few weeks as a sign of the turnaround in the cruise market, which has reached and in some cases exceeded the record level of 2019. "We can see that the Meyer Group's ships are operating very successfully and that we can therefore continue this ship platform," said Thomas Weigend, chief sales officer of the Meyer Group.

Meyer Werft's order book now includes six cruise ships, one research vessel and the steel construction for four offshore converter platforms.