Princess Cruises has reached a memorandum of agreement with Fincantieri to build two new next generations LNG powered cruise ships.
The cruise ships will be the largest ever ordered by Princess Cruises at 175,000 gross tons each. These two new ships will go into service in late 2023 and in the spring of 2025.
The new vessels will be Princess Cruises’ first ships to be dual-fuel powered — primarily by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the marine industry’s most environmentally friendly advanced fuel technology and the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel, which will significantly reduce air emissions and marine gasoil (MGO). The new ships, which will be the largest by capacity in the Princess Cruises fleet, will be built at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy.
The two ships will be 175,000 gross tons and will accommodate approximately 4,300 guests (lower berths). Specification details for the ship design, along with anticipated features and amenities of this all-new platform design for Princess Cruises, will be shared in the future.
In addition to today’s news, Princess Cruises has three new Royal-class ships on order with Fincantieri, including its next new ship, Sky Princess, which is currently under construction and scheduled for delivery in October 2019. The two other Royal-class ships are planned for delivery in 2020 and 2022.
The agreement for Princess Cruises’ next-generation cruise ships represent Carnival Corporation’s 10th and 11th contracted LNG-based vessels and are part of the company’s ongoing fleet enhancement strategy, aimed at creating excitement in the vacation market while accelerating demand for cruising, the fastest growing segment in the vacation industry. Carnival Corporation currently has 20 new ships under contract and scheduled for delivery between 2018 and 2025.
Jan Swartz, president of Princess Cruises, gave the following statement about the two new cruise ships: “This revolutionary platform for next-generation, LNG-powered cruise ships will introduce innovative design and leisure experiences driven by the future vacation and lifestyle trends of our guests – further evolving the already best-in-class Princess Cruises experience we deliver today.
We look forward to collaborating with Fincantieri to bring our vision for this next- generation premium cruise ship into service.”
