Carnival Corp has announced an order of another new cruise ship for British-based P&O Cruises. An agreement has been signed with well-known shipbuilding company Meyer Werft based in Papenburg, Germany. The ship will arrive in 2022 and will be the second in its class.
P&O Cruises already has one new class cruise ship on order and arriving in 2020 and the ship in today’s announcement will be the sister ship arriving in 2022. The vessel will be purpose-built for the UK market and a giant 180,000 gross tons, the largest class ship ever built for the British market. both of the future P&O ships will have a passenger capacity of 5,200 each and they will even be registered in the UK.
Read details about the first new P&O new generation cruise ship here.
Added P&O Cruises senior vice president Paul Ludlow:
“We have a bold and ambitious vision for P&O Cruises to become Britain’s number one holiday choice and we can only do that by increasing our fleet. The build for our 2020 ship begins this spring and it will offer all generations of British guests the holiday of a lifetime on the next generation of P&O Cruises ships.
“In four years’ time when her sister ship is launched, adding an additional 22 percent capacity, we will see an even greater rise in the popularity of cruising across all demographics and all age ranges including both Millennials and Generation Xers. Many of them have already learned to appreciate cruising by going on cruises with their families while growing up. Additionally, there are millions more we will attract in the future by retaining the amazing onboard and on-shore experiences and itinerary choices P&O Cruises is known for, while reflecting forward-thinking trends and tastes of British holidaymakers.
“This evolution of the guest experience will be evident over the next few years but will be underpinned throughout with in-depth market insight and feedback we receive from the best source: our current, past and prospective guests.
“The first of our new ships will go on sale in September and we will be announcing key elements of the design and build this year. Our P&O Cruises signature features in dining and entertainment will be across all our ships, but the space and build of the two new ships allows us to have innovative new experiences to create the most memorable holidays.”
The future P&O cruise ship ordered by parent company Carnival Corporation will be built at the Papenburg shipyard in Germany and will be powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Bookings for the first ship will be open from September 2018 and the British cruise line will reveal specific details this year. We’ll have to wait much longer for the second new cruise ship details to be revealed.
In total, Carnival Corporation has agreements in place with leading German and Finnish shipbuilders Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku to build eight LNG-powered cruise ships across four of its 10 global cruise brands with delivery dates between 2018 and 2022 – two for AIDA Cruises with expected delivery dates in 2018 and 2021, two for Costa Cruises with expected delivery dates in 2019 and 2021, two for P&O Cruises UK with expected delivery dates in 2020 and 2022 and two for Carnival Cruise Line with expected delivery dates in 2020 and 2022.