Carnival Corporation Exercises Option for New 130,000 Ton Ship

[Jason]

Carnival Corporation & plc Exercises Option for New 130,000-Ton Ship for Carnival Cruise Lines

3,652-Passenger Vessel Set to Debut in Summer 2010

MIAMI/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc(NYSE: CCL; LSE) (NYSE: CUK) today announced that it has exercised anoption for a new 130,000-ton ship for its Carnival Cruise Lines brand.The new vessel, which will have 3,652 lower passenger berths, will bebuilt by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri at its Monfalcone yard at anestimated all-in cost of 565 million euros. The ship is scheduled fordelivery in summer 2010.The vessel will be a sister ship to a previously announced 130,000-tonship slated to enter service in fall 2009 that will begin a new class forthe line.

The two sister ships will be the largest ever constructed forCarnival Cruise Lines."Carnival Cruise Lines remains the undisputed leader in contemporarycruising and these new ships represent the most spacious and innovativedesign ever created for a Carnival 'Fun Ship,'" said Bob Dickinson,Carnival president and CEO. "In addition to introducing a host of new andexciting facilities and features, this groundbreaking class of ship willenable us to build upon our distinction as world's most popular cruiseline," he added.With today's announcement, Carnival Cruise Lines now has four new shipson order or under construction with Fincantieri representing a combined13,284 total lower berths.

Corporate-wide, Carnival Corporation & plc now has 19 new ships onorder - - 13 of which are being constructed by Fincantieri.Commented Enrico Buschi, Fincantieri merchant ship general manager,"Once again the excellent relationship between industry leaders CarnivalCorporation & plc and Fincantieri is underlined. We wish that such a strongrelationship may continue with the same success in the future. The Carnivalgroup operates some of the world's best known cruise brands and we aretruly pleased that the company has placed its trust in Fincantieri's expertise one more time."

Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest cruise vacation group in theworld, with a portfolio of cruise brands in North America, Europe and Australia, comprised of Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line,Princess Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises, AIDA Cruises,Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises, Swan Hellenic, andP&O Cruises Australia.Together, these brands operate 81 ships totaling approximately 144,000lower berths with 19 new ships scheduled to enter service between March2007 and summer 2010. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates the leadingtour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon, Holland America Tours andPrincess Tours. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges,Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included inboth the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices.

[TheSkipper]

That's one big ship! With the upper berths we are probably looking at right around 4000 passengers. That's one long buffet line! I'm not sure that bigger is better as it relates to cruise ships.

[sailingrose]

I'm with you Skipper. After watching the Freedom of the Seas last night on TV I confirmed that she's just not for me.

[JoeyandDavid]

Aint NO Way....That is not cruising to me ......How the HECK do they expect to keep up with 3600 PAX talk about a cattle call..[/size]

[jtutak]

For me Bigger [/size]is Better

Try it you will Like it.

If you haven't Cruised on a larger ship you really shouldn't pass judgment.

[JoeyandDavid]

You are 3000% correct Jim.

I do know, we prefer not to be around large groups of people and really dislike waiting so I doubt I will ever really "know what mega ship cruising is like" with taht said you are so right, One should never judge unless they walked where the other has.. [/size]

[sailingrose]

We've cruised the Voyager class ships about 5 times but they certainly aren't my favorites. I much prefer slightly smaller ships with less than 3000 passengers.

[JoeyandDavid]

Rose for you guys what would you consider the next size down.....?

[elva]

in october when we were on the miracle at the previous guest cocktail party they showed the new ships and ideas and the first thought that came into my head(and those around me) were memories of the titanic when they talked about this huge wonderful ship. hope its just a bad feeling and not history repeating itself.

[jacketwatch]

The largest ship we have been on is the Sapphire Princess, about 117K tons, and 952 ft. long accomodating about 2.4 k passengers IIRC. Actually I thought it was well designed in that it didn't seem crowded nor were the lines that long. The one time the large # of PAX became evident occured the day we had to tender in Juneau. Ouch!! That was a disaster. All the pier spots were taken and the crew simply wasn't prepared to tender in so many. There were basically two gals trying to coordinate all these passsengers, some of whom proved the frustration-aggression theory to be very true These two gals were ready to jump overboard I think. Conversely we had to tender in most stops on the much smaller Tahitian Princess (700 pax.). Piece of cake. No issues at all. That being said I don't know about a ship with 4K passengers. To me thats pushing it.