Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has placed an order for four giant new cruise ships. This reflects a cruise marketing strategy that emphasizes ships as floating resorts.

Dr Benjamin Shore, Chief Medical Consultant at Royal Caribbean, explains that innovative design and engineering now allows cruise ships to safely navigate around bad weather, so journeys are less likely to be rocky, and ships also use stabilisers to reduce side-to-side motions so passengers rarely experience any motion sickness.

The new project will replace an outdated and failing cruise port facility with a state-of-the-art pier designed to accommodate more and larger cruise ships in a sought-after destination. While the port’s development received green-light approval in August,

Royal Caribbean announced the name and home port for its third Icon-class ship that is set to inherit the title of world’s largest cruise ship when it debuts in 2026.