CRUISE LOG

New Carnival, Holland America cruise ships on the way

USATODAY

The 3,600-passenger Royal Princess under construction at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy.

Add Carnival and Holland America to the list of cruise lines with new ships on order.

Industry giant Carnival Corp. today announced it had reached an agreement with Italy's Fincantieri shipyard to build a 2,660-passenger vessel for Holland America and a 4,000-passenger vessel for Carnival.

Carnival Corp. owns both of the brands as well as Princess Cruises, Cunard and several other major cruise lines.

Carnival says the Holland America ship will be delivered during the fall of 2015 and the Carnival ship will arrive in winter 2016. The company is paying about $1.3 billion for the two vessels, with the deal subject to customary closing conditions including execution of shipbuilding contracts and financing.

The announcement comes just a week after rival Norwegian Cruise Line ordered two new ships for delivery in 2015 and 2017, and a day after Royal Caribbean said it was close to ordering a sister to Oasis of the Seas -- the world's largest cruise ship.

At 99,000 tons, the new Holland America ship will be the first of a new class of vessel for the line. It'll arrive after a five-year drought of new vessels at the brand. Holland America's last new ship, the Nieuw Amsterdam, arrived in 2010.

At 135,000 tons, The new Carnival ship also will be the first of a new class of vessel for the line. It'll arrive four years after Carnival's latest ship, the Carnival Breeze.

"Today's order continues the company's strategy of introducing two to three ships per year across the corporation's 10 brands," Carnival Corp. chairman and CEO Micky Arison said in a statement accompanying the announcement. "We have strategically timed the introduction of these new ships to allow ample time for those brands tofurther grow their passenger base and absorb the new capacity while minimizing revenue yield dilution in the remainder of their existing fleets."

With the new orders, Carnival Corp. now has nine ships on the way for its 10 brands, including two new Princess Cruises vessels scheduled to debut in 2013 and 2014.