| Cruise Weekly breaking news – Norwegian Jewel to Australia in 2017

Norwegian Cruise Line will deploy Norwegian Jewel to the Asia Pacific year-round in 2017.

Cruising to and from Australia between Oct 2017 and Mar 2018, the vessel has an initial schedule of 15 sailings.

Seven round-trip cruises from Sydney are locked in, along with departures from Honolulu, Papeete, Auckland and Singapore.

Highlights include a five-day Sydney-Tasmania-Sydney cruise, a nine-day voyage visiting regional destinations including Eden, Kangaroo Island and Tasmania’s Burnie and 10- to 16-day Australia and New Zealand itineraries which will cruise through Milford Sound and Bay of Islands.

Jewel will wrap up her stay in Australia with an 18-day Sydney to Singapore itinerary departing 20 Feb 2018, stopping by Far North Queensland, Darwin, and the Komodo Island.

She will then undertake a couple of Asian itineraries, one departing from Singapore and the other from Hong Kong.

Executive vp of international business development for NCLH, Harry Sommer, said “With Australasia home to some of the world’s fastest growing cruise markets – including Australia, which grew by a further 15% in 2015 to deliver a new record of 1,000,060 passengers, making it the world’s fourth largest passenger market, equal to China – NCLH is making a major commitment to the region across all of its three brands, kick-starting with the regional deployment of Norwegian Jewel”.

Bookings for Norwegian Jewel‘s inaugural Australasian itineraries will open 29 Jun.

More details in today’s issue of Cruise Weekly.