The Excellence class,
including the sub-classes Helios class and XL or Excel class,
is a class of cruise ships ordered by
Carnival Corporation & plc for its
subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...
brands
AIDA Cruises,
Costa Cruises
Società per Azioni, S.p.A. (), operating as Costa Cruises, is an Italian cruise line founded in 1854 and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc since 2000. Based in Genoa, Genoa, Italy, the cruise line primarily ca ...
,
P&O Cruises and
Carnival Cruise Line. The ships are being constructed by
Meyer Werft at their shipyard in
Papenburg
Papenburg (; East Frisian Low Saxon: ''Papenbörg'') is a city in the district of Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany, situated at the river Ems. It is known for its large shipyard, the Meyer-Werft, which specializes in building cruise liners.
Geog ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and
Meyer Turku
Meyer Turku Oy is a Finnish shipbuilding company located in Turku, Finland Proper. The company is fully owned by German shipbuilder Meyer Werft GmbH. The main products are cruise ships and cruiseferries.
The shipbuilding facility is Perno shipy ...
at their shipyard in
Turku
Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. The first, , entered service for AIDA Cruises in 2018.
History
In March 2015, Carnival Corporation entered into a strategic partnership with Meyer Werft to build new ships between 2018 and 2022. In June 2015, four ships were ordered for delivery between 2019 and 2020.
In September 2016, three more ships were ordered for
Carnival Cruise Line and
P&O Cruises for delivery in 2020 and 2022.
The Excellence class will be the first cruise ships in the world to be dual fueled by
liquefied natural gas (LNG) and traditional
fuel oil
Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...
, which is intended to make them more environmentally friendly than traditional,
diesel-powered ships.
Each ship is expected to cost $950 million.
The first four ships in the class suffered delivery delays. The delays of ''AIDAnova'', ''Costa Smeralda'' and ''Mardi Gras'' were attributed to the ships being the first to be fueled by LNG, design complexities, difficulties coordinating subcontractors, and the large size of the ships.
The delay of ''Iona'' was due to a temporary suspension of operations by P&O Cruises, and slower construction progress, in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
''Mardi Gras'' was later delayed until 2021, also due to the pandemic.
Ships
References
External links
Costa Croisières commande deux paquebots géants propulsés au GNLMeyer décroche trois paquebots géants pour P&O et Carnival Cruise Lines
{{Carnival Cruise Line
Cruise ship classes