Following news last week that a British cruise line was considering adding two new ships to its fleet, the news has now been confirmed by the cruise line and by the shipyard that will build the vessels.
In a major step forward for both companies, Fincantieri and TUI have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for the design and construction of two brand-new cruise ships for the Marella Cruises brand – marking Marella’s first-ever foray into newbuilds.
Marella Cruises has released a statement confirming the “re-fleeting” plans, with an order placed with Fincantieri for two brand-new ships for the British market. The order is worth over €2 billion.
Fincantieri has released its own statement, confirming that the ships are due to be delivered in 2030 and 2032 respectively.
Marella’s statement confirms that the ships would not be due to launch until 2031 and 2033, suggesting plans for the ships to be delivered later in 2030 and 2032, with time for the cruise line to carry out tests and invite industry partners onboard before the official maiden voyages.
As per other Marella ships, the vessels will be specifically tailored to the British market, with a design that emphasises refined elegance, spacious accommodations, and premium guest experiences.
Environmental sustainability will also play a central role in their development, as the cruise industry continues its push toward greener operations.
“We are proud to welcome Marella Cruises as a new customer and to support its vision as it enters the newbuild segment… This agreement is a testament to Fincantieri’s ability to forge strategic partnerships with an expanding client base, reinforcing our long-term visibility and ensuring a high level of capacity saturation for our shipyards.
“The project will bring together our expertise in ship design, innovation, and sustainability to deliver vessels that meet the evolving expectations of modern cruise passengers.”
Pierroberto Folgiero, Fincantieri CEO and Managing Director
Confirmation of older ships being sold?
In Marella’s statement on the ship order, it confirmed that the new order would begin the re-fleeting process, “thereby replacing a significant proportion of the capacity of the current fleet”.
Therefore, it’s likely to assume that several of the current ships in the Marella fleet will be sold, either to another cruise line or for scrapping.
Marella Cruises currently has five ships in the fleet. None of them were new builds for the cruise line – all have sailed for other lines previously.
The oldest ships are Marella Explorer 2 and Marella Discovery 2, both of which were first build in 1995. Marella Explorer and Marella Discovery were built in 1996, while Marella Voyager was built in 1997.
It’ll be interesting to see which of the ships are retained, if any. None of the ships have a guest capacity over 2,000 so depending on the capacity of the new ships, the entire guest capacity could easily be catered to across two vessels.
However it’s more likely that the two new ships will exist alongside at least one of the current ships. Marella Voyager is more likely to be retained, having only joined the fleet in 2023.
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I can understand that the cruise industry wants to go pollution-free and new ships with modern technology is the way to go. The ship to me is still 70% of the holiday and unfortunately, the new orders given to Fincantieri are for 120,000-ton 3,000-passenger ships which will not appeal to the older more traditional cruisers, sadly cruising is now a long way from what it was and the new market of younger cruises have accepted the ugly behemoth floating holiday camps and if the price is right whatever is offered will sell.