Tag Archives: NCL cruise

Norwegian Prima is to sail from Southampton in 2025

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The ship, launched this summer as the first of six Prima-class vessels will operate a series of 10 and 11 “open jaw” cruises between Southampton and Reykjavik from May to September 2025.

The news comes after Norwegian Cruise Line president and chief executive Harry Sommer confirmed in August that a Prima-class ship would be based in Southampton.

Norwegian Prima’s 2025 itineraries from Southampton will include trips to Geiranger in Norway’s fjords, as well as ports such as Alesund, Flam and Bergen, plus Iceland, Zeebrugge in Belgium and Amsterdam.

The ship, which will sail from the US in 2023 and 2024, offers attractions such as the largest racetrack at sea, increased deck space and a three-deck theatre that converts to a nightclub.

NCL made the announcement as part of the release of its winter 2024/25 and summer 2025 programmes in Europe, the Caribbean and Alaska.

The line’s European deployment plans also include basing Norwegian Viva from Athens between May and November 2025. Viva will be the second Prima-class ship when it debuts next summer.

Meanwhile Norwegian Breakaway will sail a series of round-trip itineraries from Barcelona between April and October 2025.

Sommer said: “Our itineraries are designed to provide longer port hours and fewer sea days to truly allow our guests the opportunity to dive into the cultures and destinations they are visiting.”

Before heading to the UK in 2025, Norwegian Prima will operate a series of round-trip itineraries from New York to the Caribbean in winter 2024/25.

CANADA TO CONDITIONALLY ALLOW RETURN OF CRUISE SHIPS IN NOVEMBER

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Canada will allow cruise ships back into its waters starting in November as the COVID-19 pandemic fades, but they must fully comply with public health requirements that have yet to be finalized, Ottawa said on Thursday.

Earlier this year, Canada extended a ban on cruise ships until February 2022, citing the need to protect public health. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement that the restriction would now be lifted on Nov. 1, 2021.

“We will welcome cruise ships – an important part of our tourism sector – back in Canadian waters for the 2022 season,” he said.

The news should please major operators who complained that Canada’s ban was hurting their business on the West Coast. U.S. law obliges foreign-flagged cruise ships sailing from Washington state to Alaska to make a Canadian stop.

Canada, however, has not yet lifted a ban on non-essential travel with the United States. A Canadian government official said Alghabra’s announcement would allow both countries to work on ways of safely managing the cruise sector.

“We’re working hard through our embassy, through our officials, myself, through our department, and ensuring that we maintain business as usual,” Alghabra told reporters.

He gave no indication of when the border between the United States and Canada would reopen to tourists.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Montreal on Thursday that Ottawa would make an announcement on the next steps to reopening the border in the coming weeks.

A day earlier he had said it “would be catastrophic and heartbreaking to have to go back into lockdown, as some countries are now looking at with surges in the Delta variant, because we were overly eager to reopen by a few weeks.”

Norwegian Alters Cuba Itineraries, Quantifies Financial Impact

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Norwegian Cruise Line ship in Havana
Norwegian Sky cruise ship in Havana Cuba. (Photo by Brian Major).

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has updated its itineraries across all brands and estimated the financial impact the changes will have on its 2019 financials.

Currently, the company is working to modify all of its itineraries that included Cuba to reflect the ban on ships calling on the island.

“Our three brands are working diligently to accommodate the needs of our guests and travel partners as we quickly modify itineraries to meet the new Cuba travel regulations,” said Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.

“We share in the disappointment that comes with these changes especially on such short notice and sincerely appreciate the cooperation and understanding of our guests for this inconvenience. Our brands have put in place generous compensation programs that offer guests and travel partners a compelling, value-packed alternative.”

Norwegian also pointed to the financial impact these changes will have given the “extremely abbreviated timeframe” the cruise line had to make modifications.

The new restrictions will impact all of Norwegian’s brands, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Sailings that included a Cuban port of call represented slightly more than 3 per cent of the Norwegian’s remaining sailings in 2019 for all three brands.

This impact will result in an adjustment to the company’s earnings for the year. According to Norwegian, the modification of these itineraries, the substantial discounts offered to guests for them to remain on their booked cruise, the accommodation of cancellations and changes to reservations, incremental marketing investment to support the compressed sales cycle for the modified voyages, along with the protection of travel agent commissions will result in an estimated impact to Adjusted EPS for full-year 2019 of approximately $0.35 to $0.45.