The second ship of the Leonardo class will be called Norwegian Viva
It has been known for some time that American shipping company Norwegian Cruise Line would like to create a new specialized ship class after completing the Breakaway class. It’s a Leonardo-class, whose first cruise ship will be the Norwegian Prima, scheduled to debut in 2022 – so it’s a ship of sorts.
It is now clear what the next second ship in this class will be called: the Norwegian Viva. The ship is scheduled to start operations in May 2023.
The Leonardo-class was originally planned with four cruise ships, but in 2018 two more ships in the series were ordered. After the announcement of the type ship’s name, Norwegian Cruise Line also spoke of the Prima class. So it could be that the whole class will now be renamed again and in the future only this project will be known as Leonardo.
The new construction class follows the successful Breakaway class, which includes Norwegian Breakaway, Norwegian Getaway, Norwegian Escape, Norwegian Joy, Norwegian Bliss and Norwegian Encore. These ships were put into service every year between 2013 and 2019, only to be taken out of service in 2016.
Even in the case of the new Prima class, it is planned that the ships will be put into service every year. So Norwegian Cruise Line will have new cruise ships in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 respectively. Of course, there can be changes as well. The contract to build the construction class was awarded to the Fincantieri Shipyard in Italy.
In addition to the name, Norwegian Cruise Line has also notified the area of operations for the upcoming Norwegian Viva. It is planned that she will start in Northern Europe and spend her first season there. Deployment to the Caribbean is planned for the winter season 2023/2024.