Costa Newbuilds

Costa Cruises’ new 135,500gt Costa Venezia was floated out at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone yard in Italy on 22nd June. The ceremony, including the cutting of the ribbon and the breaking of the bottle, was performed by the float-out Godmother, Chiara Ustulin, an employee of the Monfalcone shipyard. The Costa Venezia will enter service in March 2019. The 5,224 passenger capacity Costa Smeralda will enter service in October 2019 from Hamburg and the ship will then offer Western Mediterranean itineraries until April 2020. A sister ship to the Costa Smeralda will be delivered from Turku in 2021.

Brodosplit Newbuilds

Oceanwide Expeditions’ Polar Expedition Cruise Vessel, Hull 484 (to be name Honduis), was launched by Brodosplit, Croatia, on 9th June in Split. The cruise ship will be the world’s first such vessel of the LR PC6 class that will meet the latest Lloyd registry requirements for the Polar Class 6 vessels. The ship is 107.6m long with a 17.6m beam, a speed of 15 knots and will have two main engines with a total output of 4,260kW. Capacity will be for 196 passengers in 85 cabins plus 70 crew members. The shipyard has also entered into an agreement to construct a ground-breaking new polar expedition ship for Quark Expeditions, a member of the Travelopia group and the Leader in Polar Adventures. Built to Polar Class 6 standard, the ship is designed to be the most versatile expedition ship operating in the Polar Regions. The vessel, which will be built specifically for the high latitudes of the Arctic and Antarctica, will accommodate 200 passengers in 103 luxury cabins and will have116 crew members. The 128m long vessel will have a 21.5m beam, a speed of 16 knots and will be powered by four main engines with diesel-electric generator sets producing a total output of 4,400kW. The project is scheduled for completion in time for the 2020/2021 Antarctic sailing season.

Royal Caribbean Goes Shopping

On 14th June Royal Caribbean Ltd. and Manfredi Lefebvre D’Ovidio announced an agreement for RCL to acquire a stake in privately owned Silversea Cruises, bringing together two companies with long-term visions for the cruise industry.  Under the agreement, Royal Caribbean will acquire a 66.7% equity stake in Silversea Cruises based on an enterprise value of approximately $2 billion.  The purchase price of the equity being acquired is approximately $1 billion.  RCL plans to finance the purchase through debt.  In addition, Lefebvre will qualify for an estimated contingent consideration of approximately 472,000 RCL shares, payable upon achievement of certain 2019-2020 performance metrics. This new partnership gives Silversea, described as the “jewel in the crown” by RCL’s Richard Fane, the opportunity to accelerate the growth of this successful luxury and expedition cruising brand the world.

MSC Triple At STX France

On 14th June MSC and STX France signed an order for the construction of a fifth Meraviglia class cruise ship for delivery in 2023. This vessel will be equipped with a new generation of dual-fuel engines designed to run on LNG and will also be equipped with other innovative environmental technologies, notably an advanced wastewater treatment system compliant with the world’s most stringent regulatory standards, including the provisions set out in Resolution MEPC.227 for the Baltic Sea. The newbuild announcement was made at a ceremony held at the Saint-Nazaire shipyard in the presence of Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister of the Economy and Finance. STX France and MSC Cruises celebrated three major ship building milestones, namely the Steel Cutting Ceremony of the 4th Meraviglia class vessel, to be christened MSC Virtuosa, the Coin Ceremony of the MSC Grandiosa and the Float-out of the MSC Bellissima. For the first time in the shipyard’s history, three cruise ships belonging to a single cruise brand are under simultaneous construction at the shipyard. The MSC Bellissima will be christened at a ceremony in Southampton on 2nd March 2019 while MSC Grandiosa will be named in Hamburg in November 2019.

New Partnership Formed

Seabourn Cruises announced a letter of intent for two ultra-luxury expedition vessels on 4th July with T. Mariotti, leading Italian luxury cruise Shipbuilding Company, and Damen Shipyards Group. The two parties have created a new partnership to build such cruise vessels. T. Mariotti, which will celebrate its 90th anniversary this year, has a long-standing reputation within the cruise industry and Damen, which celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2017, operates in different sectors across the maritime industry and had recently announced its intention to move into the cruise market.

Another Viking

Viking Cruises took delivery of the Viking Orion at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Ancona, Italy on 7th June. Seven days later the 47,861gt ship arrived in Livorno to be positioned by the city’s historic Medici-built Fortezza Vecchia (Old Fortress). Here she was officially named by her ceremonial Godmother, Dr. Anna Fisher, American chemist, emergency room physician and retired NASA astronaut that night. The next newbuild will be the Viking Jupiter in  2019.

A Changing Saga

SAGA Cruises’ first newbuild, the Spirit of Discovery, had her keel laying ceremony as Yard No. S714 on 28th June at Meyer Werft’s Papenburg yard. The hull will be assembled in Building Dock I with the ship scheduled to be delivered in the summer of 2019. A total of 54 blocks will be used to create this, the first of two 58,250gt ships on order. The duo will be 236m long with a beam of 31.2m and a passenger capacity of 999. Delivery is scheduled for 20th June 2019. The current flagship, the 37,049gt/1981 built Saga Sapphire, which has been carrying Saga guests since 2012, is to bow out with an epic 33-night Grand Finale sailing from 6th May to 8th June 2020 immediately after a circumnavigation of the British Isles. Before her last return to Southampton, the Saga Sapphire’s final port of call will be Gibraltar, marking the start of a farewell party for up to 720 guests and 415 crewmembers. The 18,627gt/1981 built Saga Pearl II is already set to leave the fleet in 2019.