After Ditching Valdez, Norwegian Spirit Rushes To A New Romance: Taiwan

JUNE 21, 2023

Norwegian Spirit Isn't Losing Any Time 

Days After Abandoning Its Commitments To Valdez, The City's Businesses, And The Ship's Passengers...

It's Just Signed A Deal For Twenty-Six 2024 Voyages. With Taiwan 

Norwegian Spirit, Docked In Venice, Italy. (Photo, Wikipedia) 

Norwegian Cruise Line, which walked away from Valdez last Tuesday after promising to bring thousands of travelers to the Alaska port city this summer, hasn't wasted any time on the rebound. 

A June 20th, 2023 story on the Cruise Industry News website says the Norwegian Spirit will be in Asia in 2024. Not Alaska. 

And that the cruise line has signed a "long-term agreement" and "were recently in Taiwan to sign the deal."

The sales for the Spirit's Taiwan cruises are opening today, June 21st, 2023. The ship is to sail on 26 voyages next year. It will apparently go to Japan and North Korea. 

The reason that Norwegian Spirit backed out of its well-publicized Valdez commitments last week is still unknown. 

***

According to Wikipedia, the Norwegian Spirit has had a number of incidents over the years.

The ship ran into  the Juneau pier in 2005 and two New York City piers in both 2007 and 2008. In 2006, the Spirit was hit with heavy seas and rogue waves, and listed to the side, flooding passenger cabins, and breaking windows. 

In 2009 a passenger was shot, and in 2011, a passenger jumped overboard, and was rescued. In 2018, a passenger went overboard near Spain and was never found. In 2019, passengers protested a planned two-week cruise in Europe that had cancelled stops, and finally, in March 2020, the Seychelles banned Norwegian Spirit travelers from leaving the ship during the early days of the coronavirus epidemic.