By
Rebecca Gibson |
Hamburg Cruise Center (HCC) is to host Norwegian Cruise Line’s latest newbuild Norwegian Escape during her launch celebrations in autumn 2015.
Scheduled to arrive on 23 October, the 4,200-passenger Norwegian Escape will be the largest cruise ship in the line’s fleet, as well as the biggest to have ever visited Hamburg. The newbuild – which is currently under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany – will offer a two-night cruise for travel agents and then a two-night trip to Southampton, UK, for consumers.
“The European market has played an important role for Norwegian Cruise Line for years now, with Germany in particular one of our key source markets,” said Jürgen Stille, director of business development Continental Europe at Norwegian. “Our choice of Hamburg as the venue for the Continental European premiere celebrations for a new vessel for the first time clearly illustrates our commitment to the German market, demonstrating the potential we see here for Norwegian in the coming years. We await the maiden call of our spectacular new vessel in Hamburg with great excitement.”
Hamburg has already handled a number of inaugural calls this year. On 12 June, more than 1,700 invited guests joined German singer Helene Fischer as she christened TUI Cruises’ Mein Schiff 3 on HCC’s pier, while around 10,000 visitors commemorated the event with an open-air concert and fireworks display.
The following day, the port welcomed Azamara Club Cruises’ Azamara Journey for the first time. To mark the occasion, the harbour’s captain Jörg Pollmann and ship’s agent Simone Maraschi from Sartori & Berger presented the ship’s captain Johannes Tysse with the Hamburg admiralty plaque.