Carnival Corp to buy 4 more ships

[Jason]

-Published September 23. 2004 2:28PM, The Associated Press

Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise line, Thursday said it hired Italy's state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri SpA to build four cruise ships, in a deal worth up to $2.23 billion.

The contract also covers a redesign of the cruise-line operator's Queen Victoria ship, which it ordered in April and intends to sail under its Cunard Line brand.

The ships, each for around 3,000 lower-berth passengers, will go to Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, P&O Cruises and Seetours International.

Two ships are expected to be delivered in spring 2007 and the rest a year later.

Under the agreement, Miami-based company Carnival will pay for two ships in dollars and two in euros.

Carnival asked the Italian shipyard to lengthen the Queen Victoria by 36 feet, bringing its tonnage to 90,000 and its lower-berth capacity to 2,000.

"With these extensive modifications, Queen Victoria will incorporate the 'grand ocean liner' style of the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2," Carnival Chairman and Chief Executive Micky Arison said.

Fincantieri has already made 29 ships for Carnival, and has eight orders from the company in addition to the four new ships.

Carnival has 77 ships.

For the year ended Nov. 30, Carnival earned $1.19 billion, or $1.66 a share, on revenue of $6.72 billion.

[Dan]

In The Carnival release, they state that 2 of the ships will Conquest class (110,000 tons) and 2 will be Caribbean Princess-class (116,000 tons). They also state that Carnival and Fincantieri are working on the Pinnacle Project, the long rumoured 170,000 ton ship (or ships) to become the biggest in the world. No announcements yet about design or timeframe though.

This will be followed shortly thereafter by the RCI Super Duper Ultra Voyager, which will in fact be Coney Island with propellers (Stuck that in just for you Jeff LOL)

[rogue]

Maybe more ships will mean cheaper cruises. You know, supply and demand. :wink:

Howard

[Dan]

I don't know. All the cruise lines are saying fares have been going up in the last year. It depends on what you want to sail on. The new ships will have higher demand, and higher prices. The older ships will be the ones where prices fall, which is great if you like a particular older ship.