''Norwegian Spirit'' is a ''Leo''-class

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

operated by

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) is an American cruise line founded in Norway in 1966, headquartered in Miami, Florida, and incorporated in the Bahamas. It is the List of cruise lines, fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling ...

(NCL). She was built in 1998 for

Star Cruises StarCruises is a cruise line owned by the Malaysian company Resorts World Cruises. Previously it operated in the Asia-Pacific market and was owned by Genting Hong Kong. It was the 18th largest cruise line in the world after Carnival Corpora ...

as ''SuperStar Leo'' by the

Meyer Werft Meyer Werft (; ) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. It was founded in 1795, as a builder of small wooden vessels. It has been owned and managed by the Meyer family for seven generations. Since ...

shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. In 2004 she was transferred to NCL and renamed ''Norwegian Spirit.''

History

The vessel was constructed by

in Papenburg, Germany. Named ''SuperStar Leo'' in 1998, the vessel was the first of

''Leo'' class. After the test drives, which were successfully completed at the beginning of September 1998, the ship was delivered on 25 September 1998, one week earlier then contracted. She was then homeported in Singapore in 1998 and operated 2–5 night cruises to Malaysia and Thailand. One year later, ''SuperStar Virgo'' arrived in Singapore. She was then based in Hong Kong on 10 September 1999 and offered 1–5 night cruises to China, Hainan, Vietnam and the South China Sea. In 2003, ''SuperStar Leo'' was transferred to Australia due to

SARS Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the virus SARS-CoV-1, the first identified strain of the SARS-related coronavirus. The first known cases occurred in November 2002, and the ...

in Asia and she returned to Hong Kong afterwards. In 2004, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) was planning to launch . However, just prior to completion, the vessel partially sank when a storm hit the Lloyd Werft shipyards. To meet the already booked cruises for ''Pride of America'', was immediately rushed into service as . To compensate for the unexpected events, ''SuperStar Leo'' was immediately transferred to the NCL fleet, her planned cruises cancelled (thus forcing Star Cruises to refund or re-book passengers), and after only two weeks of refits, the vessel emerged as ''Norwegian Spirit'', ready to assume the planned cruises of ''Norwegian Sky''. In January 2020 ''Norwegian Spirit'' underwent a major renovation project in

Marseille, France Marseille (; ; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, ...

. The ship received six new restaurants, seven new bars and lounges, enhanced public areas, new and modernized staterooms and new hull art. The

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

took 43 days and cost over $100 million. In autumn 2024, the ship wrapped up a charter contract that saw it sailing from Taiwan over the summer.

Vessel class

''Norwegian Spirit'' is a ''Leo''-class

and was the first ship of this design. She was followed by her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

'' Resorts World One'' (formerly ''SuperStar Virgo'') which is currently operated by Resorts World Cruises. No other ships of this particular design were constructed.

Propulsion

Four 14-cylinder

MAN B&W MAN Diesel SE was a German manufacturer of large-bore diesel engines for marine propulsion systems and power plant applications. In 2010 it was merged with MAN Turbo to form MAN Diesel & Turbo. History In 1980 MAN acquired the Burmeister & Wain ...

14V48 medium speed

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s, each producing , driving

ABB ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

electric propulsion motors coupled to twin propellers.

Cruises

''Norwegian Spirit'' was originally intended to operate cruises in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

in 2020 following her refurbishment. However, this program was cancelled in February 2020 due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

concerns and the ship was instead to operate cruises to the

Greek Isles Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by ...

for the summer 2020 season. However, this program was also cancelled due to NCL suspending all sailings in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The ship is currently slated to resume operations in May 2022 with cruises in the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

Incidents

In 2005, ''Norwegian Spirit'' hit a pier in

Juneau Juneau ( ; ), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of wha ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, causing minor damage. In 2007, ''Norwegian Spirit'' again struck a pier, this time in

New York Harbor New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay, ...

. In both cases, repairs were made to the ship. On 25 May 2008, at approximately 9:00 am, ''Norwegian Spirit'' contacted Pier 90 in New York City at the end of an eight-day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. She damaged the parking garage support columns and the

bow BOW as an acronym may refer to: * Bag of waters, amniotic sac * Bartow Municipal Airport (IATA:BOW), a public use airport near Bartow, Florida, United States * Basic operating weight of an aircraft * BOW counties, made of Brown, Outagamie, and Winn ...

of the ship. In January 2006, the ship encountered heavy seas and

rogue wave A rogue wave is an abnormally large ocean wave. Rogue wave may also refer to: * Optical rogue waves, are rare pulses of light analogous to rogue or freak ocean waves. * Rogue Wave Software, a software company * Rogue Wave (band), an American in ...

s off the coast of

Tortola Tortola () is the largest and most populated island of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It has a surface area of with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in ...

resulting in the ship listing, broken windows and 11 flooded passenger cabins. In March 2008 a passenger from ''Norwegian Spirit'' died following a

zip-lining A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide''Who Really Benefits from Tourism'', Publ. Equations, Karnataka, India, 2010. Working Papers Series. "Canopy Tourism"page 37/ref>Jacques Marais, Lisa De Speville, ''Adventure Racing'', ...

accident on an NCL-sponsored shore excursion in Roatán, Honduras. In November 2009 a passenger from ''Norwegian Spirit'' died after being shot in a robbery during a port call in Santo Tomás de Castilla, Guatemala. In June 2011 a passenger jumped overboard from ''Norwegian Spirit'' in the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

3 hours after the ship had set sail from

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. A

rescue boat A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crew and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine. Lifeboats may be rigid, inflatable or rigid-in ...

was deployed from the ship and the man was recovered alive. In April 2018 a passenger went missing after reportedly going overboard whilst the ship was sailing off the coast of Cabo de Palos, Spain. A search operation was launched by the Spanish Coastguard, however the man was never found. In October 2019, passengers held protests on a two-week cruise of Europe after planned stops were cancelled, toilets became blocked, and the cruise line offered as compensation a 25 percent discount off future cruises. In March 2020, passengers of ''Norwegian Spirit'' were banned from disembarking in Port Victoria, Seychelles, amid fears over the

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

and the announcement of a temporary closing for cruise ships.

Media

In 2003, Japanese TV drama ''Netsuretsu teki chuuka hanten'' took place on ''SuperStar Leo''. In 2012, ''Norwegian Spirit'' was briefly featured in a scene in

21 Jump Street ''21 Jump Street'' is an American police procedural drama television series created by Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired from April 12, 1987 to April 27, 1991, spanning 103 episodes over five s ...

whilst docked in

References

External links

Norwegian Spirit: Overview
Norwegian Cruise Line
Meyer Werft Website
{{Star Cruises Passenger ships of Norway Ships of Norwegian Cruise Line Ships built in Papenburg 1998 ships Rogue wave incidents Maritime incidents in 2006