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Norwegian's first new ship in nearly 3 years will sail from New York, Texas and Florida

Gene Sloan
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Gene Sloan has written about cruising for more than 25 years and for many years oversaw USA Today’s award-winning cruise site. He’s sailed on more than 150 ships.
May 10, 2021
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4 min read
Norwegian Encore
Norwegian's first new ship in nearly 3 years will sail from New York, Texas and Florida
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Norwegian Cruise Line's next new ship initially will sail in Northern Europe before moving to North America for voyages out of New York City, the line announced on Monday.

Scheduled to debut in August of 2022, the 3,215-passenger Norwegian Prima also will offer voyages out of Galveston, Texas; and Miami and Port Canaveral, Florida, during its first year in operation.

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Currently under construction at a shipyard near Venice, Italy, Norwegian Prima will be the first of a much-awaited new series of vessels for Norwegian that are scheduled to debut over the next six years.

Norwegian has announced few details of the new vessels other than that they'll measure around 140,000 tons — about 15% to 17% smaller than the Breakaway Plus Class ships the line has unveiled in recent years. But Norwegian has planned a big "reveal" of many of the features of Norwegian Prima for Wednesday.

Norwegian last unveiled a new vessel, Norwegian Encore, in late 2019.

Norwegian Prima will be smaller than Norwegian Cruise Line's last new ship, Norwegian Encore. (Photo courtesy of Norwegian)

The initial itineraries for Norwegian Prima announced Monday include:

  • Inaugural 10-night sailings out of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Copenhagen, Denmark, from Aug. 17 to Sept. 13, 2022, to Northern Europe, the Norwegian Fjords and the Baltic region.
  • A 12-night, transatlantic sailing from Southampton, England, to New York starting on Sept. 23, 2022, with calls at Lerwick, Scotland; Reykjavík, Iceland; and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  • A five-night, roundtrip voyage to Bermuda out of New York on Oct. 10, 2022.
  • A 12-night Caribbean voyage from New York to Galveston, Texas, on Oct. 15, 2022, with calls at Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba.
  • An 11-night trip from Galveston to Miami n Oct. 31, 2022, with calls at Curaçao, Bonaire and Great Stirrup Cay, Norwegian's private island in the Bahamas.

From Nov. 19 to Dec. 3, 2022, Norwegian Prima will sail seven-night Western Caribbean voyages from Miami with stops in Belize, Honduras and Mexico.

The vessel then will reposition to Port Canaveral, which will be its main home for its first winter.

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From Dec. 11, 2022, to March 19, 2023, Norwegian Prima will sail Western Caribbean voyages from Port Canaveral that range from five to seven nights. The trips will bring calls at such destinations as Cozumel, Mexico; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and Great Stirrup Cay.

Norwegian on Monday also announced that Norwegian Prima would return to New York City in the spring of 2023 for sailings to Bermuda. The ship then will head back to Northern Europe for a series of cruises out of Reykjavík, Iceland, and Southampton, England.

In a conference call with TPG and several other travel outlets in advance of the announcement, Norwegian president and CEO Harry Sommer said the unusually diverse first-year schedule is designed to build some buzz around the new series of ships, which will arrive at a pace of about one a year between 2022 and 2027.

"We think this itinerary [schedule], where we spend a little bit of time in different areas, will really allow us to expose the ship to many different markets," Sommer said. "Remember, we have six of them coming, so we want as many guests to see them as possible."

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Featured image by NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE
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