Norwegian Cruise Line is confident that it can increase UK sales for Mediterranean cruises in 2011 as its biggest ship goes head-to-head with other cruise giants out of Barcelona.
NCL has confirmed that the 4,200-passenger Epic will be sailing from Barcelona in 2011, going head-to-head with Royal Caribbean’s current joint biggest ship, Liberty of the Seas, and Carnival Cruise Lines’ new-build Carnival Magic.
NCL’s UK general manager Stephen Park said he was confident that UK passengers would fill between 25 and 30% of berths on Epic, despite the competition in the Western Med.
Epic’s Barcelona positioning is part of a three-ship European deployment for NCL which sees Norwegian Jade take over from Norwegian Gem on Venice itineraries and Norwegian Sun operating Baltic itineraries from Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen departures mean the line will operate no ex-UK cruises next summer, but Park said he did not anticipate any negative feedback from the trade.
“We are moving to Copenhagen after many years based in Dover, but the move will take away the two days spent going up and down and North Sea during each sailing,” he said.
“The UK trade may not find is as convenient, but it makes commercial sense and the success we have seen in fly-cruise means we are confident that those itineraries will still prove very popular.”
More than 2,500 agents will be hosted on Epic in June when it stops in the UK before heading to the Caribbean for its inaugural season.
“We are very excited about Epic coming to the UK this year and back to Europe in 2011” said Park.
“It will be a significant increase in capacity out of Barcelona from the UK, but we are very confident about it.”
Park said NCL would continue to improve its NCLU online training tool in order to make agents aware of the product available.