Norwegian Escape to Sail Year-Round from Miami and Other Deployment News

Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed its newest and largest ship, Norwegian Escape, will homeport year-round at PortMiami, sailing a weekly Eastern Caribbean itinerary to Tortola, St. Thomas and Nassau.

The Norwegian Escape, currently under construction in Germany, will join the fleet in October 2015 at 163,000 gross-tons and 4,200 passenger berths. Also announced was the design of the Norwegian Escape's hull artwork crafted by Guy Harvey, a world-renowned marine wildlife artist and champion of ocean conservation. Norwegian's newest ship is Harvey's largest canvas to date, at 1065 feet in length, and will feature a dynamic underwater scene of marine wildlife.

Norwegian Escape, and sister ship Norwegian Bliss (2017), will be approximately 10% larger than the Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Getaway, but will boast all of their most exciting and innovative features, plus a number of new spaces and interactive experiences that are yet to be announced.

Norwegian Getaway will continue to sail year-round from Miami on a new Western Caribbean itinerary departing every Sunday starting Nov. 15, 2015. Ports include Great Stirrup Cay, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Norwegian Sky also sails year-round from Port Miami, which operates 3- to 4-night cruises to the Bahamas.

Other 2015/16 deployment news included the previously announced move of Norwegian Epic to Europe, sailing year-round from Barcelona. Norwegian Epic will set sail from Barcelona on 10-day Canary Islands & Morocco itineraries, and 10, 11- or 12-day Western Mediterranean itineraries.

Norwegian Cruise Line will return to South America for the first time since 2010, and the Norwegian Jade will be repositioned from Europe to Houston, Texas. Port Canaveral will become a seasonal homeport with the arrival of the Norwegian Spirit sailing alternating seven-day Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries. For the first time, Norwegian will base a larger, Jewel-class ship in Los Angeles for the winter season to sail seven-day Mexican Riviera itineraries. Norwegian Cruise Line will also offer a host of repositioning cruises during the 2015/2016 fall and winter seasons.

"Norwegian Escape's arrival to Miami coincides with Norwegian Epic's year-round Europe deployment, demonstrating the balanced approach we used to develop our winter 2015/16 deployment and ensuring that we had a varied offering of premium destinations that would be exciting to our guests," said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian's chief executive officer. "Much of this deployment was designed based on feedback from our guests and travel partners, and we know they will be happy with the changes and enhancements we have made."