It’s been another busy week for new cruise ships.
Princess Cruises announced the name of its fourth Royal-class ship: the Sky Princess. A sibling vessel to Royal Princess, Regal Princess and Majestic Princess, the new ship will set sail in October 2019 on a series of Mediterranean itineraries.
The 3,660-passenger vessel will incorporate a number of signature Princess brand elements, as well as popular features from the previous three Royal-class ships. Entirely new features are expected to be announced in the coming months, Princess said. Bookings for the new ship’s inaugural season start December 14, 2017, or a day earlier for members of the cruise line’s Captain’s Circle loyalty program with Elite status.
Also this week, at a reveal event for the godfather of the Norwegian Bliss, radio personality Elvis Duran, Norwegian Cruise Line President and COO Andy Stuart shared a number of new details on the upcoming vessel with Travel Agent and other media.
Similar to Norwegian’s Asia-focused Norwegian Joy, Norwegian Bliss will sail with a 1,000 foot electric go-kart race track on its top deck, as well as a laser tag course and an Aqua Park with slides that extend further out over the ocean than Norwegian has previously attempted.
Duran, the host of a nationally syndicated radio show, will christen Norwegian Bliss May 30, 2018, at Pier 66 in Seattle, after which it will offer weekly seven-day Alaska cruises before heading to PortMiami in November 2018 for a winter season of seven-day eastern Caribbean cruises, departing each Saturday.
Finally, this week MSC Cruises signed an order for an entirely new class of cruise ship with Fincantieri, the “Seaside EVO.”
The announcement took place at the delivery ceremony for MSC Cruises’ new flagship, the MSC Seaside, which is the second newbuild cruise ship for the line this year. The Seaside EVO class is billed as a “further evolution of the Seaside Class prototype” and will have a maximum capacity of 5,646 passengers.
The first Seaside EVO ship is scheduled to be delivered in 20201, replacing a previously announced Seaside Class ship. A second Seaside EVO ship is scheduled for 2023.
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