Make that 19 ships within the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet.
The world’s fourth-biggest cruise model Thursday unveiled yet one more new vessel, Norwegian Viva, bringing its fleet dimension to 19 ships — probably the most it has operated in its 56-year historical past.
Constructed at a shipyard close to Venice, Italy, the three,100-passenger vessel will depart late Thursday from Trieste, Italy, on its first voyage with paying passengers. The nine-night, one-way crusing to Lisbon, Portugal, will embody stops in Italy, France and Spain.
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Norwegian Viva is the second ship in Norwegian’s long-awaited Prima class of vessels, which has been in growth since 2017. The primary ship within the collection, Norwegian Prima, debuted virtually precisely a 12 months in the past.
Norwegian has ordered a complete of six Prima-class vessels from the enormous Fincantieri shipbuilding agency in Italy. The subsequent 4 ships within the collection are scheduled to be accomplished between 2025 and 2027.
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The rollout of the Prima-class collection is destined to massively develop Norwegian’s footprint within the cruise enterprise and, if all goes based on plan, considerably remodel the model. As not too long ago as a 12 months in the past, the road solely operated 17 vessels worldwide. Assuming it would not retire any of its older ships over the subsequent few years, it is going to develop to 23 ships by 2027 with the addition of the six Prima-class vessels.
That is a 35% enhance in its fleet dimension in simply 5 years.
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At 143,535 tons, Norwegian Viva and the 1-year-old Norwegian Prima are notably smaller than the vessels Norwegian added to its fleet through the 2010s. The road’s final new ship earlier than the Prima-class collection started debuting, the 2019-built Norwegian Encore, was about 18% larger than Norwegian Prima at 169,116 tons.
Norwegian executives have mentioned the smaller dimension of the Prima-class ships would give the road extra choices in designing itineraries, because the vessels would be capable of entry smaller ports than a few of the larger Norwegian ships can.
That mentioned, the road not too long ago introduced that the subsequent 4 ships within the collection could be larger than the primary two ships.
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Like its sister Norwegian Prima, Norwegian Viva packs a whole lot of over-the-top facilities onto its high decks, regardless of its smaller dimension, together with a go-kart observe that spreads over three decks. Norwegian first put a go-kart observe on a ship in 2017 and now has them on 5 vessels. Dismissed as gimmicky at first by some cruise writers, Norwegian’s go-kart tracks have confirmed to be large hits with households, a giant marketplace for the road.
Norwegian Viva additionally boasts The Rush and The Drop, 10-story dry slides aimed toward households. The slides are touted as creating extra G-force than an accelerating System One racecar.
Moreover, Norwegian Viva is house to an modern, three-deck theater with movable seats that enable it to transform right into a Las Vegas-style nightclub. The versatile area will likely be house to a 90-minute adaptation of Broadway’s Tony Award-nominated “Beetlejuice The Musical” — a brand new present for Norwegian.
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The theater additionally might be configured to turn out to be a venue for interactive, real-life sport exhibits, together with an at-sea model of “Press Your Luck,”
Like Norwegian Prima, Norwegian Viva’s design will mark a extra upscale flip for the road. Each ships within the new collection supply an unusually massive number of suite classes (13) and the biggest three-bedroom suites of any new cruise vessel. In addition they have the model’s largest-ever inside, ocean-view and balcony cabins.
Amongst different standout options, the Prima-class ships are billed as having probably the most out of doors deck area of any new cruise ship, together with extra whole pool deck area than some other ship within the Norwegian fleet.
Norwegian Viva will initially sail within the Mediterranean earlier than repositioning to Galveston, Texas, for winter sailings to the Caribbean. Fares begin at $699 per individual, not together with taxes and charges, for a seven-night Caribbean crusing out of Galveston.
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