Norwegian Cruise Line is making changes to its upcoming ship delivery schedule, citing shipyard delays due to supply chain constraints.
The Miami-based cruise line will now not get a new Prima Plus class ship in 2024, and instead round out the Prima class with Prima Plus class deliveries in 2025, 2026 and 2027, with 2026 featuring two new ship debuts, according to an investor presentation.
Originally, the company was set to get a single Prima Plus class ship in 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027.
With the new Norwegian Prima debuting this past summer, the Norwegian Viva follows in 2023.
The Prima Plus class then rounds out the series of new Norwegian Cruise Line ships from Fincantieri, with four more ships scheduled for delivery. The Prima Plus ships are also bigger, going from 3,215 berths to 3,550 per ship.
Norwegian Cruise Line has commemorated the debut of its all-new Norwegian Prima, and the brand’s first-ever voyage from Galveston, Texas, with an exclusive concert by artist Kelly Clarkson, according to a press release.
The ship also served as the special venue for this year’s Norwegian’s Giving Joy awards ceremony, during which Norwegian Cruise Line and Clarkson recognized 100 teachers with a free cruise and nearly $170,000 for the top three Grand Prize winners and their schools.
“It was such an honour to celebrate the 100 deserving winners of Norwegian’s Giving Joy program at Norwegian Prima’s inaugural sailing, which embarked from my home state of Texas!,” said Clarkson. “Teachers are our true everyday unsung heroes, and they play an integral role in our society, not only shaping the future of their students but the future of their communities as well. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to participate in this program and give a special performance before they set sail on the trip of a lifetime.”
Norwegian’s Giving Joy is a month-long campaign launched during National Teacher Appreciation Week (May 2 – 6, 2022) to recognize deserving educators for their unwavering commitment to bringing joy to the classroom.
To celebrate these incredible individuals, and their often-times undervalued profession, as well as to kick off Norwegian Prima’s first voyage from the Lone Star State, Norwegian Cruise Line hosted a showstopping award celebration. Special guests included NCL President and CEO Harry Sommer; Norwegian Bliss Godfather Elvis Duran, American radio personality and host of “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show;” and superstar and godmother to Norwegian Encore, Kelly Clarkson, who delivered a stellar performance of her chart-topping hits including “Miss Independent,” “Stronger,” and “Since You’ve Been Gone.”
To conclude the Norwegian’s Giving Joy Award Ceremony, Sommer, unveiled the top three Grand Prize winners who received the most votes, awarding them with donations for their schools.
The Grand Prize winners are:
Patricia Hosmer from Bayonne High School in Bayonne, N.J. ($25,000)
Theresa Schrager from Falcon Cove Middle School, Fla. ($15,000)
Anthony Stirpe from New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, N.Y. ($10,000)
In addition to the expected donations to their schools, each of the Grand Prize winners received a big surprise – nearly $40,000 each in prize money thanks to Norwegian Cruise Line partners.
The new Norwegian Prima is helping to reimagine the cruise industry, according to Harry Sommer, president of Norwegian Cruise Line, speaking on the ship in New York City on Thursday.
“When we sat down in 2017 to decide what we wanted the next class of ship to be, we surveyed the universe and started primarily with what NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) had in its offering at the time,” he said.
That offering ranged from 2,000-guest ships to the Jewel class at 2,400, then ships in the high 3,000-guest range and up.
“We thought there was a gap as we had nothing between the Jewel class at 2,400 and the Epic, Breakaway- and Breakaway-plus class ships. We thought this would be a perfect thing to fill out our portfolio,” Sommer said, noting the Prima was “97 per cent perfect” and the company would make some minor adjustments on the Viva when it debuts in 2023.
Of note, Sommer pointed to the largest bathrooms the company has ever put in its staterooms and the largest balcony cabins as well.
“Different ship class sizes can go to different ports. There are different customers in our base and we appeal to a wide range of guests … we also wanted to reimagine the cruise industry.”
Thus, working with President and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Frank Del Rio, the idea was to build a ship that didn’t look like a cruise ship but was more similar to a high-end hotel.
“Part of that required us not to have those larger spaces, so we have smaller intimate spaces. There are no venues where you are with 500 or 600 people,” Sommer said.
“It was a little bit of a risk as all our competition keeps getting bigger and bigger. That is okay and there is a market for that too, but we did not want to create something that looked like a large indoor shopping mall.”
With the Norwegian Prima entering service in 2022, the Viva follows in 2023 and four more sister vessels are on order for Norwegian Cruise Line at Fincantieri through 2027.
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