''Norwegian Sun'' is a ''Sun'' 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 tours known as "s ...

operated by

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6 ...

. She entered service in 2001 in a dual christening ceremony at the

Port of Miami The Port of Miami, styled as "PortMiami" but formally the Dante B. Fascell Port of Miami, is a major seaport located in Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River in Miami, Florida. It is the largest passenger port in the world, and one of the ...

with ''

Norwegian Star ''Norwegian Star'' is a ''Dawn''-class cruise ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). Ordered by and intended for Star Cruises, it was originally named ''SuperStar Libra'' before being transferred to NCL. ''Norwegian Star'' is a Panamax ...

''. She was constructed at the

Lloyd Werft Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven GmbH is a dockyard in Bremerhaven. It was founded in 1863 by the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd, first mainly used as a repair workshop for the company’s own merchant fleet. This new yard was established in ...

shipyard in

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

, Germany.

Vessel class

''Norwegian Sun'' is the third and final ship of this design. She was preceded by ''

Norwegian Sky ''Norwegian Sky'' is a ''Sun''-class cruise ship owned and operated by Norwegian Cruise Line. She was originally ordered by Costa Cruises as ''Costa Olympia'' from the Bremer Vulkan shipyard in Germany, but she was completed in 1999 by the Lloyd ...

'' (entered service in 1999, relaunched as ''Pride of Aloha'' in 2004); and ''

Costa Victoria ''Costa Victoria'' was a ''Victoria''-class cruise ship launched in 1995 and operated by Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc, from 1996 until 2020. Built at Bremen, Germany, she was designed to reflect the spirit of Italy, w ...

'' of

Costa Cruises Società per Azioni, S.p.A. (), operating as Costa Cruises, is an Italian cruise line founded in 1854 and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc since 2000. Based in Genoa, Genoa, Italy, the cruise line primarily ca ...

(entered service in 1996). NCL defines both ''Norwegian Sun'' and ''Norwegian Sky'' as Sun class ships.

Cruising areas

Beginning October 2010, she was homeported at

Port Canaveral Port Canaveral is a cruise, cargo, and naval port in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world with 4.5 million cruise passengers passing through during 2016. Over 5.4 million tonnes of bulk car ...

, later Miami,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. In 2017 ''Norwegian Sun'' sailed from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia, Canada to

Seward, Alaska Seward (Alutiiq: ; Dena'ina: ''Tl'ubugh'') is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated on Alaska's southern coast, approxima ...

. On 5 October 2017, she went from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. She continued to Los Angeles on a fourteen-night voyage. After returning to Miami she served the month of November sailing round-trip voyages in the Caribbean from Miami. Her 2017 calendar ended with two-week voyages along the Western South American coast to Valparaiso, Chile. In May 2018 the ship repositioned to

to operate cruises to

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

with

Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...

Florida, and to the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

to either

Freeport Freeport, a variant of free port, may refer to: Places United States *Freeport, California *Freeport, Florida *Freeport, Illinois *Freeport, Indiana *Freeport, Iowa *Freeport, Kansas *Freeport, Maine, a New England town **Freeport (CDP), Maine, the ...

Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 *Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...

and

Great Stirrup Cay Great Stirrup Cay is a Sloan, Gene (June 24, 2017). "Norwegian Cruise's private Caribbean isle gets a serious spruce up". ''Times-Colonist'' (Victoria, British Columbia). p. D5. island that is part of the Berry Islands in the Bahamas. Norwegian C ...

. Between 9 September and 14 October 2018, ''Norwegian Sun'' operated cruises from Miami to Havana, Great Stirrup Cay,

Costa Maya Costa Maya is a small tourist region in the Othón P. Blanco, Quintana Roo, municipality of Othón P. Blanco in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, the only state bounded by the Caribbean Sea to its east. This municipality is close to Chetumal (capit ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Harvest Caye Harvest Caye is a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Line, located in southern Belize. The caye features wildlife exhibitions including a blue morpho butterfly house. On May 23, 2017, personnel from Harvest Caye, accompanied by Edgar Corre ...

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

. In June 2019, it was announced that, following the travel ban preventing U.S. cruise ships from visiting Cuba, ''Norwegian Sun'' would no longer be offering their "open bar" service and would instead transition to the traditional way for charging for onboard drinks.

Incidents

2022 iceberg collision

On June 25, 2022, while cruising near

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

Hubbard Glacier __NOTOC__ Hubbard Glacier (Lingít: ''Sít' Tlein'') is a glacier located in Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve in eastern Alaska and Kluane National Park and Reserve in Yukon, Canada, and named after Gardiner Hubbard. Geography ...

, the ship collided with a small

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...

known as a "growler". The ship docked in

Juneau The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

, where it was inspected by the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

. There was some damage found, but the ship was allowed to continue on a shortened itinerary. After the passengers disembarked, the ship was taken out of service for over two weeks for repairs.

References

External links

NCL ''Norwegian Sun''
{{2022 shipwrecks 2000 ships Maritime incidents in 2022 Passenger ships of the Bahamas Ships of Norwegian Cruise Line Ships built in Bremen (state) Ship collisions with icebergs