Carnival not occupied with building world's largest cruise ship

The line has a pair of 180,000-tonne LNG-powered vessels scheduled to enter service in 2020 and 2022 as part of a multi-ship order by parent company Carnival Corporation.

The “Excellence-class” ships will be the largest ships in Carnival Cruise Line’s fleet with an approximate double-occupancy passenger capacity of 5,200.

Asked by TTG if building the vessels was Carnival’s way of upping the ante on rival lines such as Royal Caribbean International, which launched the world’s biggest cruise ship Symphony of the Seas last month, Duffy disagreed.

Speaking during a press conference on the line’s newly launched flagship Carnival Horizon, she said: “For us, it has never been about build the largest ship.

“I think we are really looking to manage the density with crew and guests to make sure that people are able to have a great experience so, believe it or not, we are still working through between each of the [Carnival Corporation] brands [on] how many cabins we will have on each of those ships.”

Duffy also reiterated the line had yet to choose a homeport for the first of the vessels.

Adolfo Perez, senior vice-president of sales and trade marketing, told TTG he believed the new ships “are going to be a totally different to the last ships that we have been deploying”.

Speaking alongside Perez, Iain Baillie, vice-president UK and international sales, maintained their creation was not a means of tempting passengers away from competitors such as Royal Caribbean.

“We don’t look at getting people from Royal or any other lines," be said. "[We] just want to promote how good cruise is. Together we are growing this market."

Discussing how the line would “ramp up” its Travel Agents Rock initiative in the UK, Baillie said he believed British agents would have the opportunity “in time” to “experience all our new capacity and new ships” including Horizon sister ship Carnival Panorama, set to launch next year, and the two LNG-run vessels.