October 26, 2012.

Last week Norwegian Cruise Line surprised everyone by announcing one, and possibly two, new ships called the “Breakaway Plus” class. Yesterday Royal Caribbean confirmed an earlier story we covered here, admitting they were in discussions to build a third Oasis-class ship. Now comes word this morning from Carnival Corporation that they will build a new ship for their flagship Carnival Cruise Line, and another ship for Holland America.

The new Carnival vessel will be the first of a new class of vessels and be 135,000 GRT. The ship is expected to be finished in the winter of 2016.

The Holland America ship will also be a new class and come in at 99,000 GRT, and is expected to be completed sometime in the fall of 2015.

This news brings with it speculation about whether, or more likely when Carnival will retire one or more Fantasy-class ships, and the same for Holland America and it’s venerable Statendam class.

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