PORTSMOUTH, England – Norwegian Cruise Lines have announced their largest European deployment with four Freestyle Cruising ships sailing European waters, two of which will sail for the entire year.
Norwegian Spirit will join the Norwegian Jade and Norwegian Sun sailing year-round in Europe beginning April 2012. The company’s largest and most innovative ship, Norwegian Epic will continue cruising seasonally from Barcelona and Copenhagen respectively.
In a recent interview with Travel weekly, Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Lines chief executive officer, said: “Europe is one of the world’s fastest growing cruise markets and one where Freestyle Cruising is very well received. In addition to this we have seen a massive initial demand in our European bookings for the 2011/2012, we felt it was the right time to deploy four ships, including two year-round, in Europe, marking our largest European deployment in the company’s history.”
The “Freestyle” approach to cruising (where the holiday is stripped of all formality and allows customers to decide when and what they want to eat and what they want to do onboard / ashore) is increasing in popularity amongst British holiday makers and will likely continue to do so as the UK Market grows and the average passenger age falls.
