Carnival Corporation has announced that they’ve signed a shipbuilding contract for a third next-generation ship for their rapidly-growing AIDA Cruises brand, which is the leading cruise line in Germany.
Scheduled for a 2023 delivery, the new 180,000 ton ship will be built by Meyer Werft at their shipyard in Papenburg. It will include around 2,700 staterooms and feature Carnival Corporation’s “green cruising” design and the marine industry’s most advanced fuel technology. It will also be fully powered both at sea and in port by Liquefied Natural Gas.
With this announcement, AIDA Cruises now has three LNG ships on order. AIDAnova is scheduled to debut in December as the first cruise ship in the world to be fully powered by LNG. The second in the class will be christened in spring 2021.
This next generation of ships will combine onboard innovations with evolutions of successful concepts already offered on the existing fleet. There will be over 40 restaurants and bars onboard, an enhanced theatrium, an onboard TV studio, and new event restaurants. Guests will also be able to choose from a whopping 20 cabin types.
With its three new LNG ships on the horizon, as of 2023 over half of AIDA’s guests will be spending their vacation on a ship that runs fully or partially on LNG. In total, Carnival Corporation has agreements with Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku to build nine LNG-powered ships across four of its cruise brands with delivery dates between 2018 and 2023. Three will be for AIDA, two for Costa Cruises, two for P&O Cruises UK, and two for Carnival Cruise Line.
