i was just on the carnival website and it said that they were going to build a 130k ton ship. anyone know when tis will be in the water and what the name is?

It will be a while before the ship is named. They don't currently plan on it being in service until 2010. Much of the design is probably still in the planning stage.

thanx dave. what is the other 130k ton ship they were referring to????

Same story for the first ship - details are slim to none at this point although the first ship will debut in 2009. This will be a new class of ship for Carnival - no doubt a response to Royal Caribbean's Freedom class ships. I would expect the new Carnival ships to be stretched versions of the Conquest class.

quote:

I would expect the new Carnival ships to be stretched versions of the Conquest class.

Dave,

hopefully not. I actually like the "Conquest"-class ships but there are already too many of those "Destiny"- and "Conquest"-class vessels now.

Raoul,

I agree - those classes seem to be everywhere. But it would be easier from a cost and engineering perspective to modify existing designs. I would dearly love to see something totally different!

I'd like to see a Carnival ship in the 50-60K ton range with more balconies. The Holiday (as much as we both like her) will eventually be retired, sold, etc...

Hope the market "bigger=better" slows down. As much good stuff as I've read about Freedom of the Seas, 4500+ people in one area is what I go on vacation to avoid.

Just my 2 cents...

A good thing about smaller ships is they can be more easily handled in small ports (such as Mobile) and this means more homeports could be established. It would be great to have more than one ship in Mobile, or even Gulfport. Jax and Charleston too.

I am kind of tired of having to go to south Florida to board new ships.

Happy New Year

Have a look at the latest CARNIVAL's press release:

today:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=140690&p=ir...ID=946155&highlight=

and few days ago here:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=140690&p=ir...ID=942962&highlight=

Regards,
HeinBloed (only 3 days until my next cruise...)

Well, that shoots the idea of smaller ships out of the water!

Dave- While I agree with you on the smallers ships allowing the use of the smaller ports, I'm sure there is an advantage for CCL to operate the larger ships. More paying customers per cruise. You are burning the fuel and paying the crew anyway, you might as well get as many passengers as you can on the ship...

It would be nice to see a new class of ship in the 50 to 60 ton range that offers some of the newer ships services, but I doubt that will happen.

Oh for sure, the economy of scale makes megaships more attractive for the suits who make the decisions. But they may be too one-dimensional in their strategic thinking. The main reason ships came to Galveston, Mobile, Jax, etc., is that they simply ran out of port space in south Florida.

Sales figures seem to indicate that there is a good market for those smaller ports. It would sure be nice if they had newer, yet still medium sized ships for those little ports. Realistically, Holiday and Celebration will move on at some point in the next very few years and be replaced by Fantasy class ships rather than new-builds. But it is nice to day dream about it.

Yup, that would be nice.. but Galveston has a Conquest now, so the suits may not see the size as a libility now. But I agree. I don't think you need anything bigger than a Fantasy class and the smaller ships are really nice from a service perspective (less passengers means the crew can be more attentive)