When Norwegian Cruise Line announced updates to their summer 2018 deployment slate Monday morning, an unexpected bit of news also bubbled to the surface: Norwegian Sun will become the second ship in the fleet to offer all-inclusive cruises out of Florida!
When The Change Will Happen
According to a press release, Norwegian Sun will spend the fall and winter of this year in South America before undergoing a two-and-a-half-week dry dock in Victoria, British Columbia. And while no details were offered as to what changes might be implemented during the dry dock, the ship will then depart on April 19, 2018 on a 17-day Panama Canal cruise departing from Seattle.
This will basically serve as a repositioning cruise, allowing the Sun to begin sailing out of Miami on May 7, offering 4-day itineraries visiting Key West and Havana, Cuba (where the ship will dock overnight), as well as three-day cruises to the Bahamas, which will also stop at the line’s private island, Great Stirrup Cay. All of these sailings will offer unlimited complimentary beverages as part of the ship’s all-inclusive package.
Another Ship To Alaska
In other news, the Norwegian Jewel will reposition from Seattle to Vancouver in late May of 2018, after which she will begin sailing seven-day roundtrip voyages from Vancouver to Alaska with calls on Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. This will be in addition to the currently-being-built Norwegian Bliss, which will spend the summer of 2018 doing 7-day sailings from Seattle to Alaska. Norwegian’s President and CEO, Andy Stuart, said that “Alaska continues to be one of the most popular destinations we sail to around the world. We are thrilled to be significantly increasing capacity” in the region.
Could More All-Inclusive Packages Be Coming?
With two of the fleet’s ships now moving toward an all-inclusive style, might this be the wave of the future? “Our all-inclusive model aboard Norwegian Sky has been very well-received,” admitted Stuart, “and as we evaluated the opportunity to expand upon that concept, we felt that Port Canaveral was the ideal location to offer our guests a value-rich on board experience and exciting action-packed ports of call, including an overnight… in Havana, Cuba.” Given that Norwegian Cruise Line has had great success with all-inclusive packages overseas, it seems fairly likely that they will continue to experiment with the popular model in the future.
