Breaking: Norwegian Cruise Line Orders Four New Mega Ships; Options on Two More

[LauraS]

Check out the latest Norwegian Cruise Line news from Cruise Critic:

 

Breaking: Norwegian Cruise Line Orders Four New Mega Ships; Options on Two More

[Linda the Book Lover]

More choices and hopefully one of the older ships will base permanently on the West Coast. Please San Francisco!

[billfish]

Interesting . We got off a 6 day cruise on the Carnival Vista recently . While we enjoyed our annual cruise with " The Miracle Waiters " very few of us were impressed with the Vista. Our next years cruise will be on the Silhouette and our 10 year anniversary cruise will be on the Conquest. We find the older Carnival ships more passenger friendly. That being said last May we were on the NCL Escape with our 21 year old Grandson and thought the ship and the Staff were just Fantastic. Looks like they are going give Carnival a little Competition

[Loonbeam]

These look like a totally new class just slightly smaller than the Breakaway - by today's standards barely a mega ship.

 

I think you will see these on the secondary runs (Canada/NE, West Coast, Med, maybe Australia) where efficiency is more important (at least over time).

 

Initially, just to get exposure the first one or two will sail out of Miami I would expect.

[TheManitoban]

Interesting that this new class would be a bit smaller rather than going bigger, bigger, bigger. Perhaps feedback over the amount of passengers on current Breakaway Plus class ships? More efficiency in going slightly smaller?

[shof515]

the problem with bigger and bigger ships is your limited to the amount of ports the ships can dock and the logistics for tendering can be a nightmare.

 

a smaller size ship can dock pretty much anywhere and is an easier tendering operations.

[Cruiser Bruiser]

This is exciting, and it validates the story from the Italian newspaper a few months back indicating that a new class of six NCL ship was going to be built at Fincantieri.

 

140,000 GT seems like a good size, and when you consider they are 45,000 GT bigger than Jewel class (150%) but carry only an additional ~800 passengers (133%), that's a very good space to passenger ratio for NCL.

 

I'm reading the announcement to mean that the ships will be based on Joy/Bliss, not Escape/BA/GA. I would anticipate that the forward observation lounges on Bliss will carry forward with the new class and likely the inward lifeboat configuration.

[Two Wheels Only]

If reports are all true, MSC will have 6 ships larger than Escape by 2026. Star is going bigger than Joy for the Chinese market. RCCL already has plenty of ships larger than Escape and will continue to add more. Even Carnival is going with 2 new ships larger than Escape.

 

We'll have to wait and see how this all plays out.....

[eroller]

It's interesting that it is an existing design that Fincantieri developed and not developed from scratch for NCL. Also that NCL liked it enough they ordered several. You would think they would need to at least design some specs themselves to fit their brand, but I guess not? Also interesting it's a bit smaller, and not following the trend of being LNG powered. I wonder if any will be ordered by other brands since this is not a proprietary design for NCL? Since it is a new design by Fincantieri, it should look nothing like the current Breakaway/Escape/Joy Class of ships at least from the outside, and will most likely have a completely different general arrangement on the inside.

[Kenns10]

does this mean that the 2019 newbuild from Meyer (4th Breakaway+ ship) is not happening?

 

I'm sure NCL is aware that all the other lines are building bigger and some with LNG - but still very interesting as to why they are bucking the trend...maybe this is Del Rio truly inserting himself since these are "his" first real orders since taking over the top job

 

I will point out that Virgin Voyages is also building smaller and they are promising an innovative design as well - maybe they and NCL don't want to be the "biggest"

[Cruiser Bruiser]

I continue to believe that NCL, at least under FDR, wants to be the slightly more fun, more family friendly, more affordable version of Celebrity, at least in terms of perception. Smaller ships would be a step in that direction.

[eroller]

It would not surprise me if the new NCL ships resemble MSC SEASIDE. Seaside was also a Fincantieri design and its features would generally fit NCL. It offers a large exterior promenade (aka The Waterfront), large water park, and a ship within a ship concept (Yacht Club on MSC and Haven on NCL).

I'm still a little surprise NCL decided on an "off the shelf" design instead of coming up with something of their own.

[Cruiser Bruiser]

It would not surprise me if the new NCL ships resemble MSC SEASIDE. Seaside was also a Fincantieri design and its features would generally fit NCL. It offers a large exterior promenade (aka The Waterfront), large water park, and a ship within a ship concept (Yacht Club on MSC and Haven on NCL).

I'm still a little surprise NCL decided on an "off the shelf" design instead of coming up with something of their own.

 

Oh, I missed the memo about the design being a deriviative: http://www.marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=25114:norwegian-cruise-line-orders-four-ships-at-fincantieri&Itemid=230

 

The four 140,000 gross ton ships will be about 300 m long and will each accommodate approximately 3,300 guests. The new class of ships is based on a prototype project developed by Fincantieri and will build upon the highly successful offering of freedom and flexibility found on the brand's most recent Breakaway-Plus Class ships. A priority of the prototype design is energy efficiency, with the aim of optimizing fuel consumption and reducing the impact on the environment.

 

I hope you are correct about the prototype being Seaside.

[London-Calling]

I guess it is so much easier and quicker to buy a design 'off the shelf' than create one yourself from scratch.

 

 

I suppose this also guarantees truly a different 'class' of ship.

 

 

I am surprised that NCL did not want to join the big players and move towards 200,000 gross tonnes.

[FreestyleNovice]

Whoop whoop, joining the party! :)

[eroller]

I guess it is so much easier and quicker to buy a design 'off the shelf' than create one yourself from scratch.

 

 

I suppose this also guarantees truly a different 'class' of ship.

 

 

I am surprised that NCL did not want to join the big players and move towards 200,000 gross tonnes.

 

 

 

Perhaps it guarantees a different class of ship within your own brand, but not unique within the industry ... as it depends on whom might have already ordered a similar generic ship design from the same shipyard. In this case it might be MSC with the SEASIDE, and then it begs the question "why sail on NCL's version over MSC's or vice versa"? Personally I prefer when the cruise lines take a more active role in the design, creating something unique and specific for their particular brand that I can't find elsewhere. I was never a fan of Carnival Corp. using the same ship platform across multiple brands although I understood the economies of it. I just felt it diluted the distinctiveness of the various brands. I'm even less of a fan of two completely different cruise companies using a similar platform.

 

 

Not all cruise lines are going bigger. Celebrity's new "Edge" class is also slightly smaller than the existing Solstice Class. There are obviously some advantages.

[Two Wheels Only]

I hope you are correct about the prototype being Seaside.

 

 

The Yacht Club suites on Seaside are too small. There aren't any 2 bedroom Yacht Club suites on the entire ship. Even the Royal Suite (there are only 2) doesn't come close to the H2 on the BA/BA+ ships. The H4 is larger than the Royal Suite on Seaside. They'd have to work on that. ;)

 

 

The rest of the ship looks great (I'm already booked) but some of the stateroom sizes would need to be "NCL-ized" for the Haven.

[Cruiser Bruiser]

does this mean that the 2019 newbuild from Meyer (4th Breakaway+ ship) is not happening?

 

I'm guessing that it's still coming, and that it will be a Joy/Bliss class ship, not Escape class. Really, Escape is the only BA+ class ship; as it is just a bigger version of BA. Joy/Bliss/BA+ IV (I hope) are so different in their space configurations and number of passengers aboard that they are as different or more so than Dawn and Jewel classes.

 

 

The reliance on the BA plus label is now counterproductive. I wish NCL would stop using it.

[pspercy]

I suppose this means Jewel class will be going away as the monsters arrive . . .:eek::eek::(:(

[Froggitt]

I suppose this means Jewel class will be going away as the monsters arrive . . .:eek::eek::(:(

 

Star will obv be first to the scrapyard.

[eroller]

I suppose this means Jewel class will be going away as the monsters arrive . . .:eek::eek::(:(

 

 

No I don't think so, at least not anytime soon. These ships are still quite young and NCL has been pouring money into them. Also they were designed for Freestyle cruising so they fit the brand quite well.

 

It would not surprise me to see SUN and SKY sold off at some point. These ships really don't fit the brand that well and are the biggest oddballs in the fleet. I would like to see a Jewel Class take over for SKY on the short cruise run but they might be too big for Cuba. SPIRIT might work though and would still be an upgrade to SKY.

 

 

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[RJB]

I continue to believe that NCL, at least under FDR, wants to be the slightly more fun, more family friendly, more affordable version of Celebrity, at least in terms of perception. Smaller ships would be a step in that direction.

I think the key is how you run the ships from the inside. Food, service, decorations, etc. Mr. FDR knows how to run ships for an upscale market and I think he can create these new ships to mimic that to a degree without all the costs of the Oceania ships. I think he is the best out there and knows just what he id doing. Has proved it the last 12 years with Oceania.

[NLH Arizona]

I suppose this means Jewel class will be going away as the monsters arrive . . .:eek::eek::(:(

I hope not, the Jewel class ships are some of my favorite ships.

[luckyinpa]

will the new ships include bottled water

 

id love them to build a cold weather ship for sailings out of NYC.

[Cruiser Bruiser]

id love them to build a cold weather ship for sailings out of NYC.

 

 

If BA+ IV is a derivative of Joy and Bliss, it will have lots of indoor spaces for cold weather cruises. (Forward observation lounge; Galaxy Pavilion virtual reality center, etc.)

 

And if the new class of ships is based on MSC's Seaview, that might be encouraging as Seaview has a pool with a magrodome roof which might be useful on colder cruises.