This is a beautiful ship and the crossing must have been epic! I drilled down into their web site for the adventures that they offer and included the information at the end of this post. Careful watching the video, you may get hooked on a cruise this summer.
A 168,028-ton Norwegian Cruise Line ship traveled through the Panama Canal Monday, becoming the largest-ever passenger vessel to traverse the narrow waterway.
The Norwegian Bliss traveled through the recently expanded Panama Canal on its way from Germany to Seattle. The new ship will cruise from there to Alaska through the summer, Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement last month.
The trip through the Canal would not have been possible without the completion of a nearly decade-long expansion project that doubled its capacity for cargo ships, making locks 70 feet wider and 18 feet deeper to accommodate bigger ships. The hefty infrastructure project was completed in June 2016.
The 1,094-foot-long Norwegian Bliss left a shipyard in Germany in March and traveled to Miami and, now, through the Panama Canal on its way to Seattle. Manuel Benítez, the deputy administrator at the Panama Canal Authority, said in a statement that the passage marked a “distinct milestone” in the Canal’s expansion. Officials said the Canal will see a total of 248 passenger ships pass through it by the end of cruise season later this month. Twenty of those vessels are larger ships that could not have passed through the Panama Canal before its expansion.
“We are very proud to help the Panama Canal close out the season with the crossing of our highly-anticipated ship, Norwegian Bliss,” said Andy Stuart, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line. “As she makes her way to Seattle, we are excited for this sixteenth ship in our young and modern fleet to begin welcoming guests and providing them with the stand-out service, dining, entertainment and amenities for which we are recognized.”
For the Panama Canal, May 24 marks the unofficial end to the 2017-2018 cruise season when it will transit the Pacific Princess,.
The Canal’s international trade specialist Albano Aguilar commented on the waterway’s successful season: “By the end of its cruise season, the Panama Canal will have transited a total 248 passenger ships with a total of 312,304 passengers onboard,” explained Aguilar. “Of this, a total of 20 cruises will be Neopanamax vessels, including the Caribbean Princess, Carnival Freedom, Carnival Splendor, Norwegian Bliss and Disney Wonder – all able to transit the waterway thanks to the Expansion of the Canal.”