At their press conference at the Seatrade Cruise Global convention, French luxury expedition operator Ponant announced that they will build two more ships. The two new ships will be sisters to the current Explorer-class of vessel.
The new ships will be named Le Bellot and Le Surville. They will both debut in 2020.
These are the newbuilds that are partially built in Romania and then towed to Norway for final outfitting. The yard, VARD, specializes in offshore supply vessels for rigs and platforms. Because that industry is still slumping, Ponant is able to get extremely quick turnaround on their orders.