Tag Archives: LNG-powered ship

Carnival Cruise Line to boost fleet with two more ships

Posted on by
Reply

Carnival Cruise Line will take delivery of an Excel-class cruise ship (pictured is arendering) source: CCL

One of the vessels is an Excel-class ship that had previously been assigned to sister line AIDA Cruises that will arrive in late 2023, as well as taking ownership of Costa Magica from another of its European sister lines. Costa Magica will go through a drydock, renaming and Carnival-branded conversion before joining the fleet in mid-2022.

These two ships are in addition to the new capacity growth represented by Mardi Gras, Carnival’s first Excel-class, LNG-powered ship which starts sailing from Port Canaveral on 31 July and its sister ship Carnival Celebration, which will be delivered and sail from Miami starting late-2022, as part of Carnival’s 50th birthday festivities.

The addition of these four ships will bring the Carnival fleet to 27 by year-end 2023. The cruise line said these ships “bring many new amenities and features for guests, as well as environmental benefits and enhancements as Carnival continues to exceed and expand targets for emissions efficiencies”.

“We are excited about these additions to our fleet which reflect the strong position Carnival has established in the US, the pent-up demand we continue to see for cruise vacations, and the overall plans by Carnival Corp to optimise capacity and growth in key markets,” said Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy.

“While our immediate focus is on our restart of guest operations this summer, this is another cause for excitement at Carnival, and we will be announcing more detailed plans about homeports, itineraries and ship names very soon.”

PortMiami Set to Continue Record-Shattering Growth Pace

Posted on by
Reply
Discussions are underway for another terminal for Norwegian Cruise Line.
Norwegian Getaway turning in Miami port.

“We do have space. I want that to be very clear, that we have space for growth here at PortMiami,” said Juan Kuryla, port director. “We are growing and need to continue investing.”

Miami is coming off a record year, with 5.3 million cruise passengers, and a similar, slightly better year is expected in 2017-2018. After that, Kuryla is forecasting a continued pattern of record-breaking cruise traffic.

Going from 4.9 million to 5.3 million passengers in a year, the most ever recorded anywhere; Kuryla is juggling multiple projects for a 20 percent bump up in 2019, and even more growth behind that.

“We will likely be at 6.4 million passengers,” he added.

Multiple Projects

The biggest bump up in numbers last year came from Royal Caribbean, with 350,000 more passengers. That figure will grow exponentially when the company opens Terminal A for its Oasis-class ships come 2018.

Talking to Cruise Industry News on a November Monday, there were a staggering seven cruise vessels docked and Kuryla was weeks away from the grand opening of Terminal F, a new facility developed for MSC Cruises and the MSC Seaside.

That terminal is only the beginning, as MSC has bigger plans, including the deployment of the Meraviglia in the Caribbean, sailing from Miami alongside the Seaside in summer 2019.

Discussions are ongoing with Virgin and Norwegian for new terminals.

“Both would be additional to the terminals we have,” Kuryla said. “We are taking some land on the north side from the cargo operations to create a footprint for additional terminals.”

Not to be overlooked, Carnival Cruise Line has been the port’s largest customer dating back to the 1970s and accounted for more than 2 million passenger movements last year. This year the new Carnival Horizon will homeport in Miami after a brief summer in New York.

“We are also in discussions with them on how to work together to accommodate further growth,” explained Kuryla.

‘Total Commitment’

He attributed the growth to a total commitment to the cruise industry not only by the port but by the willingness of elected officials to accept the port’s and cruise line’s recommendations on investments.

New terminal projects must consider not only the space for the terminal, but land infrastructure ranging from parking to utilities, apron needs, traffic patterns and more, Kuryla said.

“The speed at which we need to grow to accommodate new ships is unprecedented,” he continued, “and we are moving quickly.”

Various studies have been conducted on LNG, and the port is moving toward a solution regarding whether bunkering would be a land or water-side operation. Kuryla said he expects Miami to receive its first LNG-powered ship in 2022.