Carnival Cruise Line announced that the first steel was cut for the company’s first LNG-fueled ship, as part of the company’s green cruising platform. The vessel will be the largest Carnival cruise ship ever constructed and the first-ever ship operating in North America to use LNG. A steel cutting ceremony was held in Finland on 15 November.
The traditional steel-cutting ceremony held at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland, signified the official start of construction of the 180,000-ton XL vessel, to be delivered in 2020. A second XL ship will start construction in 2020 and be delivered in 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Carnival Cruise Line’s founding.
The hull design, developed by New York-based Bluarch Architecture, will be a new red, white and blue design that celebrates its legacy as America’s Cruise Line.
Following the steel-cutting ceremony, construction began on the 5,200-plus lower berth ship which will offer a variety of innovations and will be the first North American-based cruise ship to be powered by LNG, part of Carnival Corporation’s “green cruising” design platform.
We are extremely pleased to work together with Carnival on this large and highly innovative ship. With the first steel cutting, our efforts in designing the hull, features and interior of the ship start to take shape. We are also very proud to build the first-ever LNG powered cruise ship for North American market, making this state-of-the-art green technology a reality,
…commented Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku.
As previously announced, the as-yet-unnamed ship will operate from Port Canaveral, beginning in 2020. The ship’s name is scheduled to be revealed in early December.
