NCL Aqua mystery question..

[big al]

Hi guys & gals..my DW & I are booked on the new NCL Aqua 4/16/25 for a 5 nighter out of Miami..looking forward to celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary on her...here's the mystery: the Aqua is leaving Southampton in the UK on 3/28/25 and arrives in Boston on 4/4/25..there's NO info on how she gets to Miami on 4/16/25 for that 1st cruise in Florida..I thought maybe a "crew cruise" ?...Is the Aqua sold out from 4/4 to 4/16? How does she get from Boston to Miami? If anybody knows, OR can find out while you are on an NCL ship now or in the future, please post..I figure either someone in "Cruises Next"  or an officer ( maybe at your Meet & Greet! ) might know...thanks!

 

Big Al

[sjacobs11]

Hi. If history repeats itself, it may be a travel agent cruise to familiarize folks with the new ship.

[UKstages]

yes, it's probably a "fam" trip or possibly two. boston to canada or wherever and then the caribbean out of NYC then on to miami.

 

sometimes, ships sit in new york for a few days, while media and celebrities are invited on board (without cruising) when a ship is new. they could be taking that route, too. i think the last ship to do that was virgin's scarlet lady.  if memory serves, NCL did something similar for the bliss.

 

i have no inside line, this is all conjecture, but yes, you are correct... the ship does indeed have to get from boston to miami, and if there are no cruises published, then it is likely they are doing fam trips.

 

Edited March 18 by UKstages

[JIMESOPUS]

We are booked on the TA from Southampton, I won't be shocked if we end up in NYC or somewhere else. The Viva TA was changed from NYC to Miami. Once she gets here, there will be several PR cruises plus the godfather/godmother cruise.

My question is what's going on between the shipyard in Italy and Southampton.

 

[big al]

4 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

We are booked on the TA from Southampton, I won't be shocked if we end up in NYC or somewhere else. The Viva TA was changed from NYC to Miami. Once she gets here, there will be several PR cruises plus the godfather/godmother cruise.

My question is what's going on between the shipyard in Italy and Southampton.

 

 JIMESOPUS..thanks for that..I hope you post your thoughts on the Aqua cruise TA..I am really looking forward to see what improvements NCL made on the Aqua vs. Viva & Prima..lots of complaints here on CC as well as the YouTube cruise bloggers..all said the ship was nice, great food, great shows, but so many of the public spaces were too small & too crowded...

 

Big Al

[www3traveler]

11 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

We are booked on the TA from Southampton, I won't be shocked if we end up in NYC or somewhere else. The Viva TA was changed from NYC to Miami. Once she gets here, there will be several PR cruises plus the godfather/godmother cruise.

My question is what's going on between the shipyard in Italy and Southampton.

 

I am with you: what is between Italy and Southampton?  I am hoping for a paying passenger cruise.

Boston to Miami: (1) Press Cruise, (2) VIP, Invited Guest Cruise (3) Crew Only Cruise (Getaway went CREW ONLY from New York City to Miami after the Super Bowl in 2014).

[dmwnc1959]

From the builders shipyard to Southampton the crew will be getting public spaces finalized and prepared to receive paying passengers. There will always be last minute things that still need to get done, and the passage between shipyard and England give the shipyard personnel and cruise line teams to work together to solve any issues that arise. There will most likely be a large number of shipyard staff on this sailing as well. And don’t be surprised if some shipyard staff accompany the ship on its maiden voyage. They’ll more than likely be there, just in the background and below decks. 
 

She may stay in Boston for travel agent tours and maybe even an agent cruise, etc. or go to NYC for similar functions. The Boston (or wherever) to Miami sailing is a dead-stick move with zero paying passengers, allowing 2-3 days transit (no rush to get there). Cruise lines do this a lot, since this ship really can’t go from Boston to Miami without first stopping in distant foreign port to abide by regulations.  

As for the week after her Miami arrival, as others have said, expect more travel agent and media function cruises. There are usually two or three of these, each being 2-3 days in length. Add another full day for the christening ceremonies, then the first cruise will embark 4/16. 

[JIMESOPUS]

@dmwnc1959 You could be right but once the Prima and Viva left the Marghera shipyard, and completed sea trails both ships ended up in the Trieste shipyard for the final touches. Both ships sailed the Mediterranean before heading over to the US.  

[dmwnc1959]

18 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

@dmwnc1959 You could be right but once the Prima and Viva left the Marghera shipyard, and completed sea trails both ships ended up in the Trieste shipyard for the final touches. Both ships sailed the Mediterranean before heading over to the US.  

I looked at the NCL schedules for 2025 and didn’t see anything before the March 28th maiden voyage. Based on that I was assuming that she was coming from the shipyard straight to Southampton, then proceeding to Boston on the maiden voyage. Didn’t see any wiggle room on the schedule before March 2025 for Mediterranean cruises?

[dmwnc1959]

35 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

@dmwnc1959 You could be right but once the Prima and Viva left the Marghera shipyard, and completed sea trails both ships ended up in the Trieste shipyard for the final touches. Both ships sailed the Mediterranean before heading over to the US.  

Also, just curious - I’m not even finding any shipyard pictures of her, although I’m sure there are some. Has she even been floated out from the builders dock into the water yet? 

Does she have a ‘launch date’?

 

Thought these (undated) satellite images of the shipyard from Google Maps were interesting. I wonder which two ships Prima-class these are? 

 

 

Edited March 19 by dmwnc1959

[PATRLR]

On 3/18/2024 at 9:39 AM, big al said:

Hi guys & gals..my DW & I are booked on the new NCL Aqua 4/16/25 for a 5 nighter out of Miami..looking forward to celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary on her...here's the mystery: the Aqua is leaving Southampton in the UK on 3/28/25 and arrives in Boston on 4/4/25..there's NO info on how she gets to Miami on 4/16/25 for that 1st cruise in Florida..I thought maybe a "crew cruise" ?...Is the Aqua sold out from 4/4 to 4/16? How does she get from Boston to Miami? If anybody knows, OR can find out while you are on an NCL ship now or in the future, please post..I figure either someone in "Cruises Next"  or an officer ( maybe at your Meet & Greet! ) might know...thanks!

 

Big Al

I wouldn't count on the schedule as it is today being the same when we get to April 2025.  I remember Viva had a similar gap and they ended up adding a 4 or 5 day cruise along with a number of private PR type sailings.

[The Traveling Man]

7 hours ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Also, just curious - I’m not even finding any shipyard pictures of her, although I’m sure there are some. Has she even been floated out from the builders dock into the water yet? 

Does she have a ‘launch date’?

 

Thought these (undated) satellite images of the shipyard from Google Maps were interesting. I wonder which two ships Prima-class these are? 

 

 

The one to the right of the photo is the Pr1ma, which would seem to indicate that the one in dry dock on the left is the V!va.  Since the Pr1ma is far from complete in this view, that dates the photo to sometime in late 2021 or early 2022.  If you navigate to Google Maps and enlarge this view today, you actually can read "Norwegian Prima" on the bow of the ship.

[dmwnc1959]

3 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

If you navigate to Google Maps and enlarge this view today, you actually can read "Norwegian Prima" on the bow of the ship.

Indeed!!! 

[hallux]

4 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

The one to the right of the photo is the Pr1ma, which would seem to indicate that the one in dry dock on the left is the V!va.  Since the Pr1ma is far from complete in this view, that dates the photo to sometime in late 2021 or early 2022.

Considering Aqua wasn't started until some time after Viva was complete, this would be the only explanation of timeline when two Prima class ships were in that location.

[The Traveling Man]

12 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Indeed!!! 

If you focus in so that you can see the V!va, it looks like that ship takes up almost the entire length of that shipyard's dry dock facilities.  There may be an extra 50 feet or so of additional space behind the V!va's stern.  Reports have indicated that the Aqua (@4u@ ?) will be longer than the first two ships in the Pr1ma class.  It looks like it's going to be a tight fit for the Aqua.

[hallux]

@The Traveling Man using Google Earth I get a measurement of 1,080 feet for the graving dock.  The Viva, per Wikipedia, is 981 feet.  PLENTY of room.  To give an idea of the scale of the space at the land end of the ship, it looks like a 20 foot container is in the dock behind the ship.  That gives you considerably more than 50 feet of free space.

[dmwnc1959]

17 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

If you focus in so that you can see the V!va, it looks like that ship takes up almost the entire length of that shipyard's dry dock facilities.  There may be an extra 50 feet or so of additional space behind the V!va's stern.  Reports have indicated that the Aqua (@4u@ ?) will be longer than the first two ships in the Pr1ma class.  It looks like it's going to be a tight fit for the Aqua.

Odd that this type of information hasn’t  already been released regarding statistics on the ship’s length. 🤔

[JIMESOPUS]

@dmwnc1959 PR release from NCL, the Aqua will be 10% bigger

https://www.nclhltd.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/573/norwegian-cruise-line-opens-for-sale-the-all-new-norwegian#:~:text=Spanning 1%2C056 feet long%2C 156%2C300,any new contemporary cruise ship.

[dmwnc1959]

54 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

@dmwnc1959 PR release from NCL, the Aqua will be 10% bigger

https://www.nclhltd.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/573/norwegian-cruise-line-opens-for-sale-the-all-new-norwegian#:~:text=Spanning 1%2C056 feet long%2C 156%2C300,any new contemporary cruise ship.

 
So from 981’ to 1056’ and 

143,535 GT to 156,300 GT. 

 

Very nice! 
 

😁

Edited March 19 by dmwnc1959

[The Traveling Man]

3 hours ago, hallux said:

@The Traveling Man using Google Earth I get a measurement of 1,080 feet for the graving dock.  The Viva, per Wikipedia, is 981 feet.  PLENTY of room.  To give an idea of the scale of the space at the land end of the ship, it looks like a 20 foot container is in the dock behind the ship.  That gives you considerably more than 50 feet of free space.

You're right.  On closer inspection, it looks like about 100 feet in the clear.  NCL's press release indicates that the Aqua is designed to be 75' longer than the other ships in the class.  That leaves about 25' to spare.  The vehicles, containers, and other equipment that appear in the satellite photo, though, would need to be moved to some other location.  The shipyard probably needs to leave a little room around the sides and back of the ship for access to the hull.

Edited March 20 by The Traveling Man