Last week Carnival announced its new brand "fathom" as the first "first voluntourism cruise line." It said that the new cruise line will focus on the "environment" and "sustainability," which seem like ridiculous propositions to me given Carnival’s deplorable record of polluting the air and water. Plus the new brand is going to operate the bunker-fuel burning and smoke-belching ship Adonia cruise ship.    

Today, Carnival released a PR statement that it signed a multi-billion dollar contract to build four "next-generation" cruise ships with the largest guest capacity in the world. The new ships will be able to carry 6,600 passengers which is 200 more passengers than Royal Caribbean’d gigantic Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. However, the news ships will at 180,000 gross tons which is 45,000 gross tons less than the Royal Caribbean "monsters of the seas." 

Most significantly, Carnival says that it’s four new ships will feature a revolutionary "green cruising" design. "The ships will be the first in the cruise industry to be powered at sea by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) — the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel, representing a major environmental breakthrough."

The four new ships will be the among the first in the cruise industry to use LNG to power cruise ships in port and on the open water which will eliminate emissions of soot particles and sulfur oxides. I have written many times about the harmful effects of the tremendous amount of bunker fuel burned by the cruise industry. Carnival’s announcement, admittedly long overdue, is truly unprecedented by a major cruise line.  

Carnival and its PR agency just won an award for improving a brand’s reputation after a crisis. They recovered from an "onslaught of negativity" over the last two years. Some of the initiates of the new successful PR campaign include launching a “good news” storytelling campaign to change the tone of the conversation about the brand, and positioning CEO Arnold Donald as a "leader, change agent and collaborator."

I may be skeptical that "fathom" will be anything other than another polluting cruise line, but it certainly seems that the new ships Carnival announced today will be a major step in the right direction in reducing air pollution.

The new ships will sail for the AIDA and Costa brands.     

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