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25 ocean cruise newbuilds ordered during 202425 ocean cruise newbuilds ordered during 2024

After the near drought of pandemic-era cruise ship orders, 2024 opened with Carnival Corp. & plc nailing an Excel-class newbuild and continued with multiple companies firming new capacity.

Anne Kalosh, Editor, Seatrade Cruise News & Senior Associate Editor, Seatrade Cruise Review

October 18, 2024

2 Min Read
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Fincantieri leaders toasted the eight-ship NCLH order during Seatrade Cruise GlobalPHOTO: FINCANTIERI

At a Glance

  • Series extensions and prototypes
  • Numerous multi-ship orders
  • Orderbook extends to 2036, further than ever before

The running total is 25 newbuilds, plus an additional five known (publicly announced) options.

These span Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Group, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Viking, A&K Travel Group, Scenic Group, Disney and Oriental Land Co.

Many notable orders

There have been many notable orders. The NCLH eight-ship deal with Fincantieri on the eve of Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami was a blockbuster, with four ships for Norwegian Cruise line and two each for Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, stretching the orderbook out to 2036, further than ever before.

Royal Caribbean Group extended its Oasis series to a seventh ship and its Icon fleet to a fourth, and Carnival added another Excel and broke out with three of a 230,000gt prototype for its namesake brand. Disney Cruise Line will be fielding five more ships — one of them ordered by Oriental Land Co. continuing the Wish series but the rest unspecified; are they Wish vessels or a new class?

In Viking's prospectus and filings as a public company this year, it talked about entering into loan agreements during 2021 and 2022 to finance multiple ship deliveries through 2028, and its orderbook now extends into 2029.

Two years after A&K Travel Group acquired Crystal in June 2022, it ordered a pair of classic ships for the brand, and has talked about expedition newbuilds as well.

Scenic Group continued its Emerald Cruises yacht series to a third from Halong Shipbuilding.

The 2024 orders are spread across Fincantieri (15), Meyer Werft (seven) and one each at Meyer Turku, Chantiers de l'Atlantique and Halong Shipbuilding.

The 2024-contracted ships, by order of announcement (cruise line, nunber of ships, shipyard, lower berths, gross tonnage, year of delivery):

Feb. 13

Carnival Cruise Line  1   Meyer Werft   5,400  180,000   2027

Feb. 15

Royal Caribbean       1    Chant de l'Atl  5,668  227,000  2028

March 26

Carnival Cruise Line  1   Meyer Werft   5,400  180,000  2028

April 8

NCL                            4  Fincantieri   5,000  200,000  2030, 32,

34, 36

Oceania Cruises        2  Fincantieri   1,400  86,000   2027, 29

Regent                        2  Fincantieri      850   77,000   2026, 29

April 9

Emerald Cruises        1    Halong           128   5,755   2026

June 21

Viking                          2  Fincantieri     998    54,300  2028, 29

options                       2                                                   2030

June 27

Crystal                        2  Fincantieri     690    61,800  2028 + ?

option                  1                                                    2032

July 9

Oriental Land Co.      1   Meyer Werft  2,500  144,000  2028

July 23

Carnival Cruise Line  3  Fincantieri     6,000  230,000 2029, 31, 33

Aug. 12

Disney Cruise Line    4  Meyer Werft      ?          ?         2027-31

Aug. 27

Royal Caribbean       1   Meyer Turku   5,610  250,800  2027  

options                      2                                 

Total:  25 (Plus five announced options; there are likely more.)

Orderbook resources and analysis

The Seatrade Cruise Orderbook, updated monthly, can be downloaded at www.seatrade-cruise.com/the-orderbook/updated-seatrade-cruise-orderbook-october-2024.

For a deeper orderbook analysis and commentary, see the current issue of Seatrade Cruise Review with a white paper by Christian Savelli, director cruise analytics at Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company. 

About the Author

Anne Kalosh

Editor, Seatrade Cruise News & Senior Associate Editor, Seatrade Cruise Review

Anne Kalosh covers global stories, reporting both breaking and in-depth news on cruising's significant people, places, ships and trends. A sought-after expert on cruising, she has moderated conferences around the world, including the high-profile State of the Industry panel at Seatrade Cruise Global. She created and led the acclaimed itinerary-planning case study for Seatrade's cruise master classes held at Cambridge and Oxford universities. She has been the cruise columnist for AFAR.com, and her freelance stories have appeared in a wide range of publications, from The New York Times to The Miami Herald.

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