Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Norwegian Cruise Line’s new ships put travelers closer to sea
Norwegian Cruise Line gave a first look at what it plans for its Project Leonardo cruise ships, set to arrive in 2022.
The first of four 140,000-ton, 3,300-passenger ships to be built at Fincantieri shipyard in Italy will feature a lot of open deck space on the lower levels.
“Continuing the trend not only at Norwegian Cruise Line, but throughout the cruise industry of bringing the sea closer to our guests, this vessel has at the lower decks a huge expansive area where you’ll have infinity pools, restaurants, broad decks to be beach-like so people can really connect with the sea,” said Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Chairman and CEO Frank Del Rio at a news conference at Seatrade Cruise Global 2017 in Fort Lauderdale.
The first of the yet-tobe-named ships will arrive in June 2022, with three more coming in June 2023, June 2024 and June 2025. The line has the option to order two more for delivery in 2026 and 2027.
The ships are large, but significantly smaller than the ships Norwegian has rolled out the last few years. Those include the 165,300-ton Breakaway Plus Class ships such as the Norwegian Escape, which sails out of Miami, and its sister ships, Norwegian Joy (coming this year) and Norwegian Bliss (coming in 2018).
“Not all destinations in the world can handle 4,000-, 5,000-passenger ships effectively. So we believe these vessels are the perfect size to deliver the top return on investment for our shareholders while providing the flexibility we need as a company to deploy these vessels throughout the world,” Del Rio said.
The ships are a little smaller than the two Breakaway Class vessels — Norwegian Breakaway, which debuted in 2013, and Norwegian , which arrived in 2014.