NCL names new ship "Prima;" wide inaugural planned for 2022

Sharing fresh details on what until now has been known as "Project Leonardo," Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) showed its Italian side on Monday (May 10) by revealing the name of its next ship and class: “Prima.”

Set to launch in summer 2022, Norwegian Prima will be the first of six 3,215-passenger new builds.

Prima means "first" in Italian, which is a fitting tribute to NCL’s new Italian shipbuilding partners Fincantieri, where the vessel is being constructed. 

The 142,500gt Norwegian Prima, at 965 feet long with double-occupancy capacity for 3,215 passengers, will be a fleet of slightly smaller vessels compared to the company’s Breakaway Plus ships like Norwegian Escape.

Back in 2017, NCL President and CEO Frank Del Rio hinted that the company would be investing in smaller-sized vessels to provide customers with more options.  

“Not all destinations in the world can handle 4,000-, 5,000-passenger ships effectively,” Del Rio said at the time, the Orlando Sentinel reported. “So we believe these vessels are the perfect size to deliver the top return on investment for our shareholders while providing the flexibility we need as a company to deploy these vessels throughout the world.”

Casting a wide net

NCL is casting a wide net for Norwegian Prima inaugural deployment, sailing from Northern Europe to Bermuda to the Caribbean to Galveston, Texas and then settling in Florida.

In Northern Europe, Norwegian Prima will sail from Aug. 17-Sept. 13, 2022, with 10-day sailings from Amsterdam and Copenhagen to Northern Europe, the Norwegian fjords and the Baltic regions.

After that, the ship will cross the pond to New York, where it will offer cruises to Bermuda and the Caribbean; then it’s off to Texas (an NCL debut), where it will sail once; a month of Miami-Caribbean cruises will follow. 

Norwegian Prima will eventually settle into its winter homeport of Port Canaveral from Dec. 11, 2022, to March 19, 2023, offerings sailings to much-loved ports in Cozumel, Mexico, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, as well as NCL's own private island Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas.

The ship will resume its New York-Bermuda for spring of 2023 before returning to Northern Europe, where it will offer a 2023 summer season of Norway, Iceland and Southampton, England sailings.

More details on Norwegian Prima are expected to be released on May 12, so stay tuned.

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