Recently, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri revealed they’d struck a deal to build four new cruise ships for NCL. These ships will be very large and very expensive to build, and while we’ll share some numbers we know, there is a number relating to these new ships that we don’t know and it could indicate that Norwegian is taking a different approach. We’ll warn you, we’re going to get a bit nerdy in this article, but we’ll also be offering you the chance to call us out in the future for being wrong - so keep reading!
What We Know
-
The new ships are scheduled to be delivered in 2030, 2032, 2034, and 2036.
-
They’ll each be around 226,000 tonnes, and accommodate more than 8,300 people, including crew.
-
Unofficially, it’s been reported that the deal for these four ships comes in at around $9.34B (USD).
To put the above information in context, the largest cruise ship in the world right now is Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, which is 248,663 tonnes and maxes out at 9,950 people (7,600 guests and 2,350 crew). Norwegian’s newest ship is Norwegian Viva, which is 143,535 tonnes, and carries a maximum of 5,654 people (4,266 and 1,388 crew). So, while not the largest ships out there, these new builds will be considerably larger than anything NCL has built before.
It’s important to understand that NCLH hasn’t announced the class of ship yet - just that they struck a deal with the shipbuilder to build new ships. So the public doesn’t know what they’ll feature or what they’ll be called.
It’s Not the Size of the Ship…
Contemporary cruise lines, such as NCL, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and MSC love larger ships. Part of this is a matter of guest preference, as the numerous amenities available keep guests from worrying about boredom and motion sickness, but another big reason is efficiency - these giant ships are more profitable for cruise lines to operate. For guests, however, the size of the ship doesn’t tell the story that some might expect. Some would-be cruisers hear of ships with nearly 10,000 people onboard and think it must be terribly crowded - but that depends. If I said there were 10,000 people in Disney’s Magic Kingdom or Chicago’s McCormick Place, that’s not bad at all.
Some of how crowded a ship feels comes down to layout and flow, but commonly, passenger-to-crew and passenger-to-space ratios are compared - and that’s where NCL’s new class of ship could get interesting.
More Space than Usual
If we look at other modern contemporary cruise line ships to see how much space each passenger has, and how many passengers there are for each crew member, we start to notice something interesting about NCL’s builds. It’s worth mentioning that while we list ships size in tonnes (or sometimes gross tonnage/GT), this is a calculated measure of interior volume. Also, we’ll highlight the space (tonnage) per passenger, as well as the guest to crew ratio, since that will help us with some estimates about NCL’s upcoming builds - plus we just think it’s interesting to see.
-
Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas (248,663 tonnes) - Icon of the Seas videos
-
44.3 tonnes per passenger
-
2.4 guests per crewmember
-
-
Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas (236,472 tonnes) - Utopia of the Seas Vlogs & Ship Tour
-
41.7 tonnes per passenger
-
2.5 guests per crewmember
-
-
MSC World Europa (215,863 tonnes) - Join us on the maiden voyages of MSC World America (sister ship)
-
41.2 tonnes per passenger
-
2.45 guests per crewmember
-
-
Norwegian Encore (168,116 tonnes) - Norwegian Encore Vlogs
-
42.2 tonnes per passenger
-
1.9 guests per crewmember
-
-
Norwegian Viva (143,535 tonnes) - Norwegian Prima (sister ship) Vlogs & Ship Tour - Join Us on Norwegian Aqua (new sister ship)
-
46.3 tonnes per passenger
-
2.2 guests per crewmember
-
-
Carnival Celebration (183,521 tonnes) - Carnival Celebration Vlogs & Room Tour
-
34.1 tonnes per passenger
-
3.1 guests per crewmember
-
-
Celebrity Beyond (141,420 tonnes) - Celebrity Beyond Vlogs, Ship Tour & More
-
43.4 tonnes per passenger
-
2.3 guests per crewmember
-
Norwegian Cruise Line’s newer ships have passenger-to-crew and passenger-to-space ratios much more similar to premium cruise lines, which is why we included Celebrity Beyond in this list. Now there are other considerations. For example, these calculations are done with “lower berth” capacities, without factoring in upper berths in rooms that might have three or four guests (usually children) in them. This is because it’s common for most or all of the lower berths on cruises to be sold out, whereas the percentage of upper berths sold can vary widely by line and by sailing; thus, when comparing public space ratios among ships, using only lower berths to calculate these ratios provides a more accurate comparison. Having those upper berths occupied is less common on premium lines than on lines like NCL and Royal Caribbean, where water slides, virtual reality games, and other attractions attract more families with children. So, space ratios are lower on particular cruises filled with more families.
How Crowded Will NCL’s New Ships Be?
What we don’t know from the release about NCL’s newest class of ships is how many of the “more than 8,300” people will be guests, and how many will be crew. We also don’t know what the double-occupancy/lower berth capacity will be. Let’s try to figure this out, however, making some assumptions.
Norwegian Viva can accommodate 5,338 people in total - so their double-occupancy guest capacity is about 58% of the total ship capacity. Norwegian Encore’s figures are similar. If we anticipate that there will be a similar passenger-to-crew ratio to Norwegian’s most recently introduced ships and a similar proportion of 3rd/4th berths, then by applying this to the 8,350 total persons onboard their newly-announced ships, we can assume a double-occupancy capacity of 4,843 guests, with 2,421 crew. It would also mean there’d be about 46.7 tonnes of space per guest.
Of course, these figures are speculative, and could slide in any direction - but the point is that if Norwegian continues their trend of having fewer guests per crewmember, and more space per passenger, they’ll have the most spacious large ships on the market - far exceeding what we’ve seen in 180k+ tonne ships. This also argues that their fleet is transitioning from offering a contemporary product to a more premium one - even if there is a lot of nuance in what makes any given line part of a specific market segment. That’d be remarkable, and something we’d be excited to see for ourselves. It might also be something particularly interesting for those wanting the amenities offered by particularly large passenger ships, but who are skeptical of crowding and service challenges.
Be sure to follow along on social media and YouTube in April 2025 when we sail Norwegian’s newest ship, Norwegian Aqua.