A standing ovation for Norwegian Cruise Line’s latest launch

Emily Eastman boards Norwegian Encore, the line’s fourth and final
Breakaway Plus-class ship, and hears about their ambitious plans for the future

The Norwegian Cruise Lines growth story is a captivating narrative. Since its 2013 IPO, NCL has performed successfully as an industry pioneer –
a position backed by upbeat earnings and promising valuations. And those figures, in turn, are underpinned by the line’s unique approach to cruise, an approach that has earned it favour in the market and engendered a loyal customer following.

By actively pursuing a sea change in who cruises and how and where they do so, NCL has tapped into a market ripe for the taking. If the line’s order book is anything to go by, it’s been a successful strategy: between 2021 and 2027, six new Leonardo-class ships – the details of which remain a closely guarded secret – will be added to the fleet, which is currently 17 strong. And based on ship 17, an almost $1 billion megaship and the fourth and final Breakaway Plus-class ship, the coming vessels will offer a feast of entertainment designed to appeal to a global, multi-generation market. It’s an impressive encore to NCL’s already strong performance. 

The world of cruising has moved on massively

Eamonn Ferrin, NCL’s UK and Ireland MD

“It’s a global product,” Eamonn Ferrin, NCL’s UK and Ireland MD, tells me, as we sit down on board the brand new Norwegian Encore. “If you think about the staid images of what cruising is – that it’s only for old people, that you have to dress up for dinner – all of those clichés are incorrect. The world of cruising has moved on massively. Now, it’s about multi-generational travel. The grandparents might come and want to stay in The Haven suites [Encore’s ship-within-a-ship concept], but their kids and grandkids want to experience the laser tag. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re eight or 80. There’s no particular demographic we’re targeting – we want to build a product that everyone can enjoy.”

Norwegian Encore encapsulates this approach with ease. The ship is vast, housing an incredible 29 dining venues to please all palettes and going beyond traditional entertainment with an open-air laser tag arena, aqua park and the largest go-kart track at sea. The entirety of deck five is given over to kids’ and teens’ fun, with a nursery, sizeable kids’ club and enormous hang-out lounge for the teens, plus an arcade boasting VR elements. But the VR isn’t just for kids – head to deck 17 and into Galaxy Pavilion, a 900-square-metre immersive VR world where you can fly a UFO, paraglide and race Formula 1 drivers. 

Traditionalists are catered for as well: in the Encore Theatre, Choir of Man send tingles up spines with their a cappella renditions of pop music and Irish folk songs, while Broadway comes to the ocean in Kinky Boots, a two-hour-long performance that transports you straight to the streets of, well, Northampton – but you get the idea.

To soothe, rather than kindle, the senses, the Mandara Spa is a tranquil space housing treatment rooms, a thermal suite and a snow room – the latest must-have spa experience in New York, I’m told.

The cabins are a proper retreat, and a significant improvement on the Norwegian cabins of old – I recall boarding Norwegian Epic back in 2015 to find the strangest bathroom layout I’ve yet to encounter on a ship.

On Encore, there are no such surprises – comfortable beds, neutral palettes and a proper shower cubicle.

In fact, the unpopular bits of the NCL fleet are a thing of the past. The line has spent $1 billion refurbishing its legacy fleet and incoming CEO Harry Sommer says it has the highest guest satisfaction rate in the history of the company, as well as the highest guest repeat rate. To top it off? “We have the best trade support we’ve ever had,” he says. “We cannot succeed as a brand without trade support. The overwhelming majority of our guests are channelled through the trade community. We have six ships on order, but they’ll be impossible to fill without the trade.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Eamonn Ferrin. “The trade are our backbone. They are so important to us globally…that’s why we have over 2,000 of them on the ship as we speak. We want to show them the product and celebrate it with them, and build a bigger, brighter future.”

As we race agents around the Speedway, grab drinks in the Sugarcane Mojito Bar and applaud Choir of Man’s encore in what we’re told is their longest-ever standing ovation, I’m sure the line has every confidence in their agents’ ability to sell those features that make Encore an adept coda to this class of ship.