Carnival recently revealed that its fleet is about to get larger – and not just the number of ships. In addition to the two additional Excel class ships already set to be built, Carnival announced that it has ordered three ships in an entirely new class.
The new ships will be delivered in 2029, 2031, and 2033, and will be about 230,000 gross tons. For context, this is approximately 27% larger than the cruise line’s largest Excel class ships and would be on par with Royal Caribbean’s massive Oasis Class ships.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line shares why it won't build new small ships
There’s a clear trend towards mega-ships in the cruise industry. Royal Caribbean has been one-upping itself for the title of “largest cruise ship in the world” for years now, and even in Carnival’s case, the Excel class ships were significantly larger than anything they had ordered before.
Image source: Carnival Cruise Line
Should Carnival think smaller?
There’s clearly demand for massive cruise ships, but there’s also a major problem that Carnival is addressing. Its smaller ships are aging rapidly, and there is a subset of the cruising population that feels overwhelmed by mega-ships.
Plus, smaller cruise ships can get to more ports than their larger siblings. For example, anyone who wants a cruise that stops in Key West isn’t going to sail on a mega-ship – it’s a port that can only accommodate cruise ships on the smaller end of the spectrum.
Royal Caribbean has recently indicated that a new, smaller class of ship is in the works, but Carnival doesn’t seem to feel the same way.
Although many passengers have asked for new, smaller ships, Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald has addressed the issue as recently as March on his Facebook page, where he said:
“There are no plans at all for us…to build smaller ships. It is not profitable, it is not something that is affordable, and it is not something that attracts the new cruiser,” Heald wrote.
To be fair, Heald makes some valid points. Larger ships achieve economies of scale in several ways that boost profitability. As a basic example, they only need to pay one Captain and one cruise director even though they’re collecting fares from many more guests.
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It’s also worth noting that Heald mentioned that with the profits the cruise line earns from attracting new cruisers to its larger ships, it plans to continue to invest in the smaller ships it already has.
But there is only so much that can be done as part of dry dock renovations. It simply doesn’t give the same design freedoms as a brand-new ship. Plus, some of Carnival’s smaller ships are more than 20 years old, and ships have a finite realistic lifetime.
Carnival’s loyal cruisers voice their opinions
After Carnival announced its mega-ships, Heald’s page was flooded with comments and questions about the line’s plans. To his credit, Heald answered “almost 1,500 questions” in the three days since the announcement, but it’s clear that many cruisers aren’t thrilled with the decision to focus on building larger and larger ships.
Facebook user Todd Narehood commented that he has sailed “approximately 15 times” and said his favorite class of ship is Spirit (one of Carnival’s smallest).
Others said they were overwhelmed by the Excel class. Brenda Carroll Ewing commented that “ships are getting too big, too crowded, and too far removed from the charm of cruising.”
AJ Parsons opined that they’re “Not a fan of Carnival copying Royal and trying to create a theme park on the sea in a floating city.”
On the other hand, some cruisers were fine with the idea of renovated smaller ships.
As Heald follower Shawn Caccia said, “I love the Excel ships but honestly, if some of the smaller ones could just get some updates (real updates) and some of the newer restaurants, I would probably not care at all which ship I was on.”
Of course, there is a certain subset of cruiser that loves the larger ships and the “ship as the destination” concept and plenty of comments on Heald’s page said things to the effect of “we don’t care what size the ship is – we just want to be on a cruise.”
Heald has made clear that Carnival doesn’t have any concrete plans to build smaller ships, at least through 2033. But this is of course subject to change. In simple terms, if cruisers want something and are willing to pay for it, Carnival will likely consider it. After all, until very recently, Carnival didn’t have any definitive plans to build ships larger than its Excel class.
There aren’t any plans to do anything – until there are.
