CARNIVAL Corporation has announced it will add two ships to its China fleet in 2016, making it the first global cruise company with six total ships based in China and boosting its total capacity in the country by 58 percent.
Costa Cruises and Princess Cruises, subsidiary brands of Carnival Corporation, will each add a new ship to their China-based cruise fleet next year.
Together, the Costa and Princess brands will have three year-round ships and three seasonal ships in the market, potentially offering about four million passenger cruise days in 2016.
Joining Princess Cruises is the Golden Princess, sailing out of the city of Tianjin on a seasonal basis to several destinations in northern Asia. Together with sister ship Sapphire Princess, which has been homeported in Shanghai since 2014, both ships will serve China’s luxury cruise segment.
Costa Cruises will debut Costa Fortuna in April 2016 as its fourth ship in China, complementing three China-based sister ships Costa Serena, Costa Atlantica and Costa Victoria, and increasing the brand’s total available capacity in China by 43 per cent.
Another ship for Princess Cruises is currently under construction in China. It is slated to set sail in the summer of 2017 and will be based in Shanghai for year-round deployments.
