French luxury cruise company Ponant will add two new expedition cruise vessels for its recently acquired South Pacific division, Paul Gaugin Cruises, after inking a deal with shipbuilder Fincantieri.

Work on the first of three Windstar Cruises’ Star Class ships to have a 25.6-metre insertion added is underway in Palermo, Italy. Star Breeze had the final cut to its hull last week ahead of its ‘stretching’ exercise which will see it  transformed into a larger and more versatile ship with additional deck space and new restaurants.

Cunard commenced construction of its 249th ship, holding a steel cutting ceremony at Fincantieri’s Castellammare di Stabia shipyard in Italy last Friday.

At Fincantieri’s shipyard in Trieste, Italy last week, Windstar Cruises’ John Gunner, Vice President of Expansion Project, triggered the button to activate the torch to commence the first cut in the new steel that will become the first of three new ship sections.

MSC and Fincantieri have signed final contracts for the construction of four luxury cruise ships.

Shipbuilder Fincantieri has announced that Viking has signed the contracts for a further two new ocean ships under a tentative order for up to six additional ships placed in March 2018. The vessels will be delivered in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

Shipbuilder Fincantieri has announced that Virgin Voyages has signed a contract valued at approximately 700 million euros for the construction of a fourth cruise ship, to be delivered at the end of 2023. Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson has revealed Havanna, Cuba as one of the first destinations the ship will sail.

MSC Cruises and Fincantieri have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the construction of four ultra-luxury cruise ships for a total value in excess of EUR 2 billion. The ships, the first of which will be delivered in Spring 2023, will have gross tonnage of approximately 64,000 GT and will feature 500 cabins. The remaining three ships will come into service one per year over the following three years.

Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam, the second Pinnacle Class ship in the fleet, returned to Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard in Italy after successfully completing two sets of sea trials. The 2,666-guest ship will enter service in December 2018.

To be named Silver Dawn, the signing of the new $507-million vessel comes weeks after Silversea Cruises finalised a contract with Fincantieri for the construction of Silver Moon, another sister ship to Silver Muse, which is due to be delivered in 2020.