It seems there’s no end to the announcements of new (and often bigger) cruise ships as lines add new ships and occasionally retire older ones. Last week, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings upped the ante with a huge order for eight new ships for its three brands.
The ships will all be built by the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy, one of the major builders of cruise ships. Norwegian says it is placing its order now to be at the head of the line when, as the company says it expects, its competitors decide on more fleet expansion, despite a slight tapering off in orders beyond next year.
Four of the ships will be for Norwegian Cruise Line, at about 5,000 passengers each, arriving at two-year intervals starting in 2030. Two with capacities just under 1,500 each will go to Oceania Cruises, and two 850-passenger ships are for the Regent Seven Seas brand. They will be delivered after a number of ships already on order.
Norwegian is also making another move, this one at one of its private ports in the Caribbean, Great Stirrup Cay. The private island has no pier, so passengers are ferried ashore in the ship’s tenders, an operation that takes time and can’t be done when winds and waves are strong. By next summer, the island will have a pier capable of handling two of the line’s largest ships at a time, raising the capacity of the island from 400,000 passengers a year to 600,000.
At least some of the funding for the pier is expected to come from additional pay-extra amenities and activities on the island.
