Seabourn orders two ships at Mariotti

Today, 19/10/2006, at the Seatrade Conference & Show in Naples, Italy. , Carnival Corp chairman Micky Arison announced that Seabourn Cruise Line will build two 32,000gt luxury ships at the  Mariotti shipyard in Genoa for delivery in 2009 and 2010.

The contract, worth an all-in dollar cost of $250m for each ship, was signed yesterday in Naples and is subject to financing and other terms, Arison said.

Each ship will accommodate passengers in 225 suites, 90% of which will offer private verandas. Combined, the two vessels will more than double Seabourn's current fleet of 634 berths.

The design was actually developed with Fincantieri over the past 18 months but as it progressed Carnival Corp had to extend the project to worldwide bidding. Arison thanked the Mariotti team for their work in the last few months on a project that was put together, 'very very quickly. We shook hands on the concept less than 10 days ago.'

Marco Bisagno, president of T. Mariotti, said the decision on where the hull will be constructed will be decided in the next weeks.