SOUTHAMPTON TO HOST NEW NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE SHIP

Norwegian Cruise Line has announced that at least one of its six 3,300-berth Leonardo class ships will be based seasonally in Southampton.

The Leonardo class vessels are seen as the halfway vessels between the line’s 2,400-berth Jade class ships and the larger 4,028-berth Breakaway class. Which of the new ships will come to Southampton has not yet been decided. Deliveries of the new class are scheduled from 2022 through to 2027.

As Norwegian Cruise Line deploys Leonardo class ships to sail from Barcelona and Miami, Southampton will be added as well. Older vessels, such as the 2,400-berth Norwegian Dawn, will go to new ports, such as Baltimore, Charleston and ports in Texas, in 2022. Leonardo class vessels will then be free to sail from ports where the line’s older vessels had operated previously.

Earlier this year, Norwegian Cruise Line president Andy Stuart said, “The Leonardo Class will be a slightly smaller footprint, so that gives you more options in terms of ports. There are some ports which can’t take a big ship like Bliss. There are some where we’d prefer to start with 2,000, but 3,300 gives us something in the middle with a lot more flexibility to enter a destination a bit earlier than with a big ship.”

Norwegian Cruise Line will take delivery of its newest ship, the 4,000-berth Norwegian Encore, in the autumn of 2019.