Mystic Cruises today officially announced it had signed a contract for two more ships to be built at West Sea in Portugal, as reported by Cruise Industry News earlier this week.

The 200-guest, 9,300-ton ice-class ships will be named the World Voyager and World Navigator, with delivery dates in 2020 and 2021, respectively, following the World Explorer, which debuts next year.

“They are ships that have been created and thought out in detail to offer a true combined experience of luxury and adventure to its passengers. Not only offering extreme comfort and bespoke service on board but also offering the possibility of visiting more exclusive ports and navigating right to the heart of the cities they will visit,” revealed Mário Ferreira, CEO of Mystic Cruises.

“We are going to cruise some of the purest and most beautiful regions of the world. To reduce our impact, we worked with Rolls-Royce to integrate an ultra-sophisticated hybrid propulsion system that dramatically reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, as well as a dynamic positioning system that allows us to avoid using anchors, thereby protecting the maritime environment,” Ferreira added.

These two new ships represent an additional investment of 140 million euros, in addition to 70 million already invested in World Explorer, and are backed by a financing agreement between Mystic Cruises and ICBC Leasing.

The financing model is supported by Portuguese banks during the construction period and ICBCL Leasing funding is granted following delivery, according to a statement, through a sale and charter-back operation, with an obligation to repurchase the ships on maturity.

“Given the current market demand, we believed it important to anticipate our expansion project for Mystic Cruises by a few years,” continued Ferreira. “We have chartered the entire inventory on Antarctica cruises aboard the World Explorer until 2023, and are fully booked on the majority of our other 2019 departures. The cruises to the Arctic, Norwegian Fjords, Greenland and Baltic are a huge success on the German market, where Mystic Cruises’ sister company, Nicko Cruises, operates World Explorer voyages. With this positive scenario, it was essential to move forward with the construction of more ships, these being the firsts of a fleet of 10 Ocean vessels that we intend to develop and build. “