ORLANDO, Fla. — Norwegian Cruise Line revealed more details about the first of its new class of cruise ships, the Norwegian Prima, which is set to debut in 2022 and make its way to Port Canaveral.
“This is our first new ship class in 10 years, so we’re tremendously excited. It’s a complete redesign,” said NCL President and CEO Harry Sommer. “We started with a clean sheet of paper.”
That redesign will see a massive amount of public space on Deck 8 that rivals the space of the pool deck up top while also expanding the line’s ship-within-a-ship concept.
The Deck 8 layout is being called Ocean Boulevard, an expansion on The Waterfront concept found on its recent ships. Wrapping around the entire deck, the 44,000 square feet of space includes a pair of infinity pools, see-through walkways that look down to the ocean below, a sculpture garden with $2 million of original artwork and new food hall concept that promises 11 different restaurants with indoor and outdoor seating.
The Indulge Food Hall will include new venues Seaside Rotisserie; The Latin Quarter; Garden Kitchen; Nudls, featuring global noodle dishes from Italy to Thailand and elsewhere; Tamara serving Indian and vegetarian dishes; and Tapas Food Truck with Spanish-inspired street food.
“We’re going to have everything, you know: Italian, barbecue, Latin, tapas, healthy desserts, Starbucks, you know anything that you can possibly imagine,” Sommer said while also pointing out the three full specialty restaurants - Los Lobos with Mexican cuisine, Italian food at Onda By Scarpetta and the UK pub-style casual eatery The Local Bar & Grill. “So 14 dining options just on half of one deck of a ship.”
The sculpture garden is called The Concourse, including an art wall designed by David Harber and six installations designed by Alexander Krivosheiw, pulling inspiration from ancient mythology and contemporary abstract forms. The glass bridges and infinity pools are part of an area called Infinity Beach while La Terraza will be an open-air lounge with forward-facing sea views.
The Haven, an exclusive area for customers paying for private suites will be the largest on any ship in the NCL fleet.
“Instead of it being on the front of the ship and over three decks as it is on the previous four ships, the Haven now has 107 suites, by far our largest Haven and it spans over seven decks, from deck 10-17, on the back of the ship,” Sommer said.
The larger layout will also include its own private spa, dining, lounge, pool deck and infinity pool.
“Because two infinity pools on 8 are not enough, we needed another infinity pool for The Haven looking over aft of the ship, which is tremendously dramatic,” Sommer said.
He said customer demand has driven the decision to carve out more space with more offerings, and they continue to be the first suites to sell out on its other ships.
“One of the nice things is when you make them a little bit larger, you can add some more amenities to support it,” Sommer said. “So hopefully if becomes one of those virtuous cycles that you make them nicer, and you can then make them bigger, and because you made them bigger, you can make them nicer, etc. etc.”
The ship is the first of six planned for the line, and the first design headed up from scratch by NCL’s parent company Chairman and CEO Frank Del Rio, who oversaw the merger of NCL with his lines Regent Seven Seas and Oceania Cruises.
“He designed the last two Oceania ships, the Marina and Riviera, the last two Regent ships, the Explorer and Splendor, so I think you’re going to see a lot of those ships in terms of just sheer aesthetics and beauty,” Sommer said. “But of course, that’s sort of where the commonality ends. This ship was designed for the contemporary market, though we have just a tremendous number of activities, i.e. entertainment venues, dining, outdoors space that we’re really proud of.”
All six are being constructed at the Fincantieri shipyards in Italy. At 965 feet long, 142,500 gross tons and a 3,215-guest capacity, they come in smaller than the line’s latest Breakaway Plus class ships likes Norwegian Escape.
The hull artwork, which will for the first time spill over onto the forward superstructure of the ship, comes from Italian graffiti artist Manuel Di Rita who is also known as “Peeta.”
The line states Prima will have the highest guest-to-space ratio and guest-to-service ratio for similarly sized vessels in the premium and contemporary cruise market. Passengers will be able to choose from among 13 suite categories including what the line says is the largest three-bedroom suite of any new cruise ship and expanded inside, oceanview and balcony staterooms with larger bathrooms and showers in the standard stateroom categories.
“It’s about space. It’s about beautiful design. It’s about lots of outdoor areas and we think this is a real game changer for the brand, and hopefully for the industry in terms of what a contemporary brand can deliver,” Sommer said.
Most Norwegian Cruise Line ships have also highlighted their top-deck features such as the go-kart tracks on Norwegian Encore, Joy and Bliss as well as water parks and rope courses. Sommer said Prima’s offering won’t be announced until the summer.
“While I’m not yet prepared to announce our version of a roller coaster or a race track quite yet, you can be assured that there will be activities that appeal to our younger clientele as well,” he said.
The ship is set to debut in August in Europe, then make a series of sailings from New York, Galveston and Miami until a four-month run from Port Canaveral beginning Dec. 11, 2022.
It will be the first time Norwegian bases two ships at the port for an extended run, joining Norwegian Escape. Prima is slated to sail from Cruise Terminal 5.
The line opened up bookings for Prima’s itineraries on May 11 at ncl.com.
