Carnival Orders New Cruise Ship for Cunard Line

Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth meet in the Liverpool for Cunard’s 175th anniversary in 2015. Photo: Cunard/James Morgan

Carnival Corporation has signed an agreement to build a new cruise ship for its iconic Cunard brand with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.

The world’s largest cruise company said Monday it has signed a memorandum of agreement for the ship to be built at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy, with an expected delivery date in 2022.

The new ship will join Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth as the fourth cruise ship in the Cunard fleet. Delivery will mark the first time since 1998 that the luxury cruise brand will have four ships in simultaneous service.

With this order, Carnival Corporation now has 18 new cruise ships scheduled to be delivered to its portfolio cruise brands between 2018 and 2022, including seven LNG-powered cruise ships to be built by Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku.

For Cunard, the order follows the brand’s 175th anniversary in 2015 and a $172 million investment over the past two years to refurbish the flagship Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria.

Over the years Fincantieri has built 63 ships for Carnival Corp, including Cunard’s Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth which it delivered in 2007 and 2010, respectively. The shipbuilder’s orderbook also currently includes nine more ships for Carnival brands to be delivered through 2022.

Carnival Corp.’s portfolio of 10 cruise line brands operate a combined 103 ships with 231,000 lower berths.

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