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CRUISE LOG
Carnival Cruise Line

New Carnival, Holland America ships on the way

Gene Sloan
USA TODAY
Introduced with its namesake ship, the Carnival Dream in 2008, Carnival Cruise Lines' Dream Class trio is its newest and largest cruise ship platform.  The second vessel (Carnival Magic -- shown) and third vessel (Carnival Breeze) represent an important evolution in style for the company.

Add Carnival and Holland America to the list of cruise lines ordering more new ships.

Industry giant Carnival Corp. today announced it had reached an agreement with Italy's Fincantieri shipyard to build a 3,954-passenger vessel for Carnival and a 2,650-passenger vessel for Holland America.

Carnival Corp. owns both of the brands as well as Princess Cruises, Cunard and several other major cruise lines.

Carnival says the Carnival ship will be delivered in March 2018 and the Holland America ship will arrive in late November 2018.

The announcement comes just two weeks after rival Celebrity Cruises ordered two new ships for delivery in 2018 and 2020. Luxury line Seabourn also ordered a new ship earlier this month for delivery in 2018.

The new Holland America ship will be a sister to the Koningsdam, the first of a new class of vessel at the line scheduled to debut in February 2016. The two vessels are arriving after a five-year drought of new capacity at the brand. Holland America's last new ship, the Nieuw Amsterdam, debuted in 2010.

The new Carnival ship will be a sister to the Carnival Vista, which is scheduled to debut in the spring of 2016 and also is the first of a new class of vessel. But Carnival says the ship ordered today will have some new features that are different than those on the Carnival Vista.

With the new orders, Carnival Corp. now has 10 ships on the way for its nine brands, including a recently ordered vessel for Princess scheduled to debut in 2017.

For a deck-by-deck look at Carnival's last new ship, the Carnival Breeze, click through the carousel below.

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