Norwegian presents expansion plan / GALLERY
Monfalcone - New destinations,new ships, refitting of older ones, this, in a nutshell, is the business plan over the 2017-2019 triennium for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). In the cruise line’s trademark informal style, Christian Böll and Stefanie Hegener highlighted some new developments awaiting customers
Monfalcone - New destinations, new ships, refitting of older ones, this, in a nutshell, is the business plan over the 2017-2019 triennium for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL).
In the cruise line’s trademark informal style, Christian Böll, Managing Director EMEA, and Stefanie Hegener, Senior Director Marketing & PR EMEA, highlighted some new developments awaiting customers aboard the cruise ships of the brand created in 1966 by Knut Kloster. In the first place, plans for new ship construction with Meyer Werft are underway, with four Breakaway Plus-class ships expected to be delivered. The first one, the “Norwegian Escape” came into service last year, while a second ship will debut next year, and will be christened “Norwegian Joy”. It will be the company’s first ship to be purpose-built for the Chinese market, and will not be open to Western cruise passengers. During her deployment to China, the ship will call at Civitavecchia and Naples, bringing a bounty of over 5,000 Chinese passengers. Then, in 2018 and 2019, NCL will take delivery of its third and fourth vessel of the series; NCL’s stated goal is to grow from the two-million passenger mark, recorded in 2015, to 2.8 million, expected for 2019, an increase of 40%, thanks to the new ships.
Also planned for 2017 is NCL’s ship upgrading project, termed the Norwegian Edge, to gain momentum, with the aim of bringing the fleet’s older vessels in line with the newest ones; the plan calls for investments worth $400 million over two years. The refitting work that NCL’s “Norwegian Jade” will undergo early next year, at the Grand Bahama Shipyard, was presented in detail. For close to a three-week period the ship will be submitted to a radical revamp of the interior, following the example of sister ship “Norwegian Gem”, which has already undergone upgrading work.
As NCL’s “Jade” was originally conceived for the Hawaiian market, its decor, in part, still reflects its origin; the new look will reflect a more contemporary style, in line with the latest generation of the company’s vessels. NCL’s positioning on the European market will be strengthened with one additional ship. So, in 2017, NCL ships sailing in Europe will increase from four to five, with the deployment in the Baltic of the mega-ship “Norwegian Getaway”, in response to strong demand for cabins on that route.
Thus, the “Norwegian Star” will be redeployed to Venice, as its home-port, to join NCL’s other cruise ships that have starting points in Italy, that is, the Norwegian Epic and the “Norwegian Spirit”, which have Civitavecchia as their home port; NCL has therefore also opted to favour the Tyrrhenian Sea to the detriment of the Adriatic. Finally, the “Jade” will be dedicated to cruises between Norway’s fjords and the British Isles with home ports in Hamburg and Southampton. NCL also focuses greatly on the Caribbean market, and continues to invest in its island facilities: Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, and soon-to-be inaugurated Harvest Caye in Belize. Since the NCL brand became the domain of Frank Del Rio, he has brought to it know-how gained through his luxury brands, such as Oceania and Regent. As revealed by Böll, without doing away with Norwegian’s “freestyle cruising” concept, the company is now turning towards the upscale cruise segment.
This is reflected in the painstaking care given to the culinary aspect, to which the brand owes in great part its current breakthrough within the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Group.