Carnival Corporation Contracts For First Liquified Natural Gas Cruise Ships
According to a release from Carnival Corporation yesterday, the next four new ships on order will feature a revolutionary “green cruising” design.
The ships will be the first in the cruise industry to be powered at sea by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) — the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel, representing a major environmental breakthrough. Carnival has finalized contracts that will set the record for highest guest capacity for four next-generation cruise ships.
The contract with Meyer Werft is part of larger previously announced strategic memo of understanding with leading shipbuilders Meyer Werft and Fincantieri S.p.A for nine new ship orders between 2019 and 2022.
The company said two of the ships will be manufactured for AIDA Cruises at Meyer Werft’s shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. Additional information about the ships, including which new ships will be added to each brand, will be made available at a later date.
Based on Carnival Corporation’s innovative new ship design, each of the four next-generation ships will have a total capacity of 6,600 guests, feature more than 5,000 lower berths, exceed 180,000 gross tons and incorporate an extensive number of guest-friendly features. A major part of the innovative design involves making much more efficient use of the ship’s spaces, creating an enhanced onboard experience for guests.
Pioneering a new era in the use of sustainable fuels, the four new ships will be the first in the cruise industry to use LNG in dual-powered hybrid engines to power the ship both in port and on the open sea. LNG will be stored onboard and used to generate 100 percent power at sea – producing another industry-first innovation for Carnival Corporation and its brands. Using LNG to power the ships in port and at sea will eliminate emissions of soot particles and sulfur oxides.
In addition to the two ships being built in Germany, Meyer Werft – which had the capacity to accommodate these four ship-building orders in its production schedule — will also build the two additional ships detailed in today’s announcement at its shipyard in Turku, Finland. Each new ship will be specifically designed and developed for the brand and the guests it will serve, underscoring the company’s goal to consistently exceed guest expectations and provide first-time and repeat guests with the vacation experience of a lifetime on each and every cruise.
Bernard Meyer, CEO of Meyer Werft, said: “In past years, we have built seven highly successful ships for AIDA Cruises. We are honored that Carnival Corporation has entrusted us with the implementation of this ambitious shipbuilding program, and we look forward to building these four magnificent ships.”
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I cannot believe that these 180,000 ton ships will carry more passengers than RCCL’s 240,000 ton ships. Over 6,000 passengers, what must the embarkation and dis-embarkation be like? I note that 2 of the ships will be for Costa. Having worked as Canadian Manager for Costa in the 70’s and 80’s with our 750 passenger ships, what must it be like today to sail in these monsters? I avoid them and sail in the Azamara ships with about 700 passengers where you and ship personnel get to know you in a few days. Much like the old days, when cruising was a pleasure.
In the name of profit it seems the cruise ship industry forgot the lessons learned.
I took a mega cruise last month and came away with a few observations.
The first is that it would be impossible to evacuate 4,000 people in an emergency situation. Second the use of fireproof material has been abandoned. Third, watertight compartmentation has been supplanted by gigantic atriums and open spaces. With the introduction of LPG as a fuel, the industry might just have the next Hindenburg.
Note: these ships will be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), not liquified petroleum gas (LPG). The fuel storage regulations for LNG are much tighter than those of marine diesel, and while no system is foolproof, I do think cmments about the “next HINDENBURG” are a tad excessive.
Also bear in mind that large LNG-powered ferries have been in service for some years now, without problems.
@John cant
people today not interested in the old days of cruising thats why most cruises today didnt cruise back then.
I can care less to get to know my cabin Stewart, waiter etc…. i want to go to a different restaurant every night, I dont want to sit with people i dont know. I dont want to be on a ship so small you run into the same people over and over.
Not quite sure why all of the ‘haters’ pile on to every single news story regarding these large cruise ships. If you don’t like them don’t sail them, and don’t comment on them. The whining is pathetic and sounds like a small child that’s had his binky taken away.
As for mega-ships: they are here to stay. Forever. Unlike the very few small niche-vessels that cost the equivalent of my annual salary for a 2-week cruise, tens upon tens of millions of people can actually afford these big ships, and, believe it or not (oh! the horror!!!) have a GREAT time. For all of ‘us’, this style of cruising is a pleasure, and we love it!
“CLIA 2013 global passenger numbers are estimated at 21.3 million, with a 2014 forecast expected to reach 21.7 million passengers.” What were the actual 2014 numbers? I don’t know. But I can guarantee you the vast majority of those sailed on ships that hold more than 700 passengers.
And all of your ‘Hindenburg’ and ‘Titanic’ false equivalences are a joke, any educated person knows that. People have been saying for decades and decades, as the ships continued to get larger and larger, that disaster was only a heartbeat away. Costa Concordia was the result of one man’s lunatic stunt. There are multiple new safeguards in place to keep things from happening. Or is it that you’re just waiting with eager bated-breath for some tragedy to happen to say “Ah-hah! I was right. Tried to warn them and bla bla bla.”
As for me personally, I don’t care to meet and know the ship’s crew. I want them to do their job, clean my stateroom, and provide the services they’re required to do, and in a timely manner. I’ll be cordial, friendly, smile at them and say ‘Hello’, ‘Good morning’, and ‘Thank You’, and actually mean it. I don’t want to become pen-pals with them or leave them a fruit cake at the end of my cruise.
There was a time when passengers and crew/staff were friendly to one another, when one another were eager to learn about their home life and talk about their homeland. Nothing too formal, just nice chit chat. And there were the ones that met at the beach, and we all shared in buying rounds of pinas coladas from the bar. Some of my best times were at the beach with the crew.
I have to this day friends from former cruises on former ships that are no longer in service that I am still friendly with and enjoy having them around me on ships sailing to this day. Home Lines, Royal Viking, Ocean Cruise Line, Cunard, Chandris and others, still at sea, sailing with Celebrity and Cunard. I can call Cunard and see which Maitre d’ is in which dining room on a given ship, or see after a specific bar or dining steward by name the ship and book accordingly.
To erratically panic about the safety of a ship as noted above is perhaps foolish. Time will tell. This is as ridiculous as those that harp about the things on a ship and yet have never sailed one.
Hi Kenneth – I didn’t mean to take that away from those who enjoy, or have enjoyed, mingling and befriending the crew. On my last cruise I learned how to saw about a dozen phrases in Tagalog so that those housekeeping staff and waitstaff I spoke with would get a kick out of my broken attempts to communicate. My sister-in-law is from the Philippines, and she taught me ‘Merry Christmas’ as well as a few other phrases, so it’s a nice icebreaker to let them know I’m not an old stuffed-shirt.
However, just like I prefer the largest ships with the most amenities and features when others prefer the much smaller intimate ships, my goal when cruising may be differnent from that of others: to simply relax, dine on some good food, and enjoy some quality ‘me time’. I typically work 6-days a week, occasionally working up to three months without a single day-off from work. So relaxing and being able to completely unwind is key for me. I’ve got 50 cruises under my belt, but only joined Roll Calls on the last four cruises. In the future that most likely won’t happen, as I am very independent and travel solo, not clinging to and being dependent on other Roll Call members for company and companionship.
Reads to me like some of the people who love the mega ships so much are also kind of arrogant, in that they aren’t interested in meeting the crews who provide all the services for them. Kind of like saying to the chauffer, “HOME JEEVES, and make it snappy!”
Truth be told, LNG is FAR more deadly than regular old bunker grade oil. In a leaking situation it can be deadly to anyone who happens to be near the leak. Moreover, it can permeate throughout the vessel, unlike bunker fuel. It is worse than carrying a huge tank of gasoline, which was the underlying cause of the WW-II carrier Lexington. It survived all the bombs and torpedo’s, but leaking gasoline for the airplanes blew up and that led to the end.
Not saying that LNG cannot be done with safety, but I am saying that the day will come where a few thousand people aboard one of these boats COULD wind up wishing they’d been on a boat that burns bunker fuel.
The railroads are currently testing the use of LNG in locomotives. They are very aware of the issues at hand and are training service personel AND first responder people in how to handle situations that so far are only imagined situations. With diesel fuel in the locomotive tanks, it wasn’t ever a special concern. LNG brings up many new safety issues and we won’t know what all of them are until something happens that nobody thought about beforehand.
Mark D.
Hi David
I guess that my beginnings with cruises, on genuine ocean liners, not cruise ships, began when I was young, the basic crew was as well, as they hungered for info from the USA and were eager to learn more English, those days were when a Greek ship, French , Norwegian and Dutch sailed as “Ships of State”, and I was eager to learn of their countries and lives back home. Same thing today, although, no more real ships of state, most Europeans are getting better jobs back home and the pool of countries has changed, a dynamic that is as old as ship travel.