There are bold moves in cruising, and then there are decisions that quietly redraw the map. This week in Miami, amid the usual hum and handshake theatre of Seatrade Cruise Global, Princess Cruises and Fincantieri did precisely that, signing off on three new LNG-powered ships that won’t even see water until the back end of the next decade.
Yes, 2035, 2038 and 2039. Not exactly tomorrow morning. But in cruise terms, this is how the serious players think—long horizons, steady hands, and a willingness to commit capital well before the first cocktail is poured poolside.
Each of the new Voyager-class vessels will weigh around 183,000 gross tonnes and carry up to 4,700 guests. That’s less a ship, more a postcode with a buffet. And importantly, they’ll run primarily on liquefied natural gas, currently the industry’s best available option for reducing emissions without sacrificing operational muscle.
Let’s be clear: LNG isn’t perfect. But it is progress. It cuts greenhouse gas emissions and dramatically reduces air pollutants compared with conventional marine fuels. In a sector that’s spent years fielding environmental criticism, that matters and increasingly, so do the optics.
Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of Fincantieri, didn’t dance around the significance:
“We are pleased to announce this new agreement with Princess Cruises, which further strengthens a long-standing partnership.”
There’s more beneath that polite understatement. This deal effectively keeps Fincantieri’s Monfalcone yard humming through to 2039, locking in years of work and giving the builder enviable visibility in a market where certainty is often in short supply.
Familiar, but smarter: Princess refines its formula
Over at Princess, the mood is less about reinvention and more about refinement. No grand declarations of tearing up the rulebook, just a careful evolution of what already works.
President Gus Antorcha put it neatly:
“The Voyager class will delight both our loyal guests and attract the next generation of Princess guests.”
And then the line that really matters:
“We are leaving no area untouched as we thoughtfully evolve the Princess experience.”
That’s cruise-speak for: everything gets a polish. Dining sharper, entertainment tighter, public spaces reworked so they feel fresh without alienating the regulars who know exactly where their favourite bar stool lives.
A relationship that keeps paying dividends
This isn’t a new courtship. Over the past 35 years, Fincantieri has built 21 ships for Princess, an industrial relationship that’s become one of the most reliable pairings in global cruising.
More recently, the Monfalcone yard delivered Sun Princess in 2024 and Star Princess in 2025, both part of the Sphere class. Those ships nudged the brand forward. These new Voyager-class vessels suggest Princess is now settling into its stride.
The quiet confidence behind the headlines
If there’s a subtext here, it’s confidence. Real confidence. You don’t place orders stretching into the late 2030s unless you believe the fundamentals are sound, demand will hold, customers will keep coming, and the product will continue to evolve just enough to stay relevant.
There’s also discipline in this approach. No wild swings. No desperate reinvention. Just steady, deliberate investment in ships that are bigger, cleaner and, crucially, better aligned with what passengers actually want.
In an industry prone to grand gestures, this feels almost old-fashioned. And that may well be the point.
Because sometimes, the smartest move isn’t the loudest one, it’s the one that quietly locks in the future while everyone else is still talking about it.
by Anne Keam – (c) 2026.
Read Time: 3 minutes
About the Author.
Anne Keam’s story begins in Queensland, on a grain farm in the state’s wide western reaches, where the days were long and the lessons simple: work hard, look after your own, and don’t make a fuss. Those early years left their mark.
She later studied Arts at the University of Queensland, before doing what felt natural at the time, heading back home to the family property. But the world was calling. Anne packed a backpack and went looking, spending years on the road and finding herself most alive in South America. She wrote everything down along the way. Those notebooks, full of dust, colour and curiosity, eventually became her blog, a quiet, personal record of seeing the world and learning from it.
