The Missing Numbers That Makes Norwegian’s Huge New Ships Interesting
Author: Bill
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! read more
In the 1970s, cruising as we know it today was just becoming a reality. Ocean liners and cruise ferries had long been sailing, but in the US, the idea of leisure trips on ships was only beginning to enter the minds of Americans with the recent creation of Norwegian Caribbean Line (now Norwegian Cruise Line) followed by Carnival Cruise Lines. As the public saw firsthand the massive scale and opulence of passenger ships that challenged the perception of floating craft for many, this combined with the intrigue of ocean liners still steaming the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, inviting satire. Few publications at this time were as popular and edgy as National Lampoons, so in their April 1974 edition, they included a “souvenir brochure” for the RMS Tyrannic... 
A lot of attention is paid the biggest ships with the most outrageous features - and for good reason. We discuss what megaships are, why they're so appealing to some people, and talk about how they fit into the bigger picture of the world of cruising.