A new cruise ship is in the works. What that means for vacation travelers and Miami
The cruise industry, which employs thousands of people in South Florida and brings millions of tourists to the region, has a new ship in the works.
Doral-based Carnival Corp. has ordered a new Excel-class ship, the 10th in that class in the company’s global fleet, the company said on Tuesday. Carnival signed an agreement with German shipbuilder Meyer Werft to have the 180,000-ton vessel ready for passengers by spring 2027. Excel is Carnival’s largest and newest category of cruise ship.
The development is yet another sign that the cruise industry is back from COVID.
What Carnival executive says
“Coming out of the pandemic, demand is great,” Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said Tuesday at an Axios event at The Hanger in Coconut Grove. “You see a lot more capacity moving into particularly the U.S. market.”
That has been evident at Florida’s major seaports: PortMiami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, which have built new terminals or welcomed new cruise companies.
During the 12-month fiscal year 2023 —which for the cruise industry began Oct. 1, 2022, and ended Sept. 30, 2023 — PortMiami, Florida’s largest port, set a record for annual passengers. During that time, 7.3 million passengers traveled in and out, nearly twice the four million passengers the prior fiscal year.
Travel through PortMiami exceeded by 7% its previous record of 6.8 million passengers set in fiscal year 2019, before the pandemic disrupted the popular vacation industry.
Carnival’s new ship
Carnival’s new ship, its first new order in five years, can carry over 6,400 guests and will be powered on a liquefied natural gas technology platform.
It will be the fourth Excel-class ship in the company’s namesake Carnival Cruise Line brand and a sister to Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Jubilee.
The company, which carries 13 million passengers per year, said that Excel-class ships have proven popular with passengers and will allow it to offer more cruises.
This would be the company’s second new ship to be completed between now and 2027. The other is expected to be delivered in 2025.
Starting in 2027, the company sees itself adding one or two ships a year.
The Miami-Dade company is also seeking to improve its financial performance, including reducing its approximately $36 billion in debt, Duffy said.
“We are very committed to focusing on the balance sheet,” the executive said in a 16-minute Q&A with Dan Primack, a business editor at Axios.
Carnival currently has 93 ships and 120,000 employees.
Duffy, who as a teenager sought to work as a flight attendant but was rejected by Pan American Airways for being too short, got her start in the travel industry as a receptionist.
At her Coconut Grove appearance, she also addressed several other issues related to the company:
▪ On whether the company felt pressure to outdo competitor Royal Caribbean’s recently launched Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship: “Years ago, Carnival Cruise Line delivered and built the biggest ship — Carnival Destiny. I think at this point, size does not really matter so much.”
▪ On the case of two Americans who last week alleged they were attacked and raped while onshore in the Bahamas during a Carnival cruise: “That specific incident is under investigation. And until that’s concluded we are advising our guests not to go to that beach or resort. ... We met with Bahamian government officials on Friday and we are working closely with them.”
She did not address an incident involving a Carnival ship hitting a pier last week in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The chartered rock and roll cruise was forced to abandon the first pier it docked at due to high winds after many passengers were already on shore.
