SOUTHAMPTON is set to be departure port of yet another cruise ship with the announcement that Norwegian Cruise Line is to enable guests to cruise on board its refurbished Norwegian Jade from the Hampshire port from next year.

Norwegian (NCL) have revealed plans to refurbish nine of their ships in the coming year, with Norwegian Jade receiving a complete multi-million pound refit before arriving in Southampton in spring 2017.

Norwegian’s summer 2017 deployment for Europe will, for the first time in the company’s history, feature five ships sailing in European waters in the summer season. Highlights of the new itineraries include cruises to the Baltic capitals on Norwegian Getaway from Copenhagen and a first ever complete season from Hamburg on Norwegian Jade.

Following an extensive dry dock in spring 2017, Norwegian Jade will arrive as essentially a new ship, says the company, featuring Norwegian’s new standard of excellence: the Norwegian Edge.

Norwegian Jade is scheduled to arrive in Southampton on May 14 with sailings until October 9, 2017. Guests can embark on a series of seven- and nine-day Western Europe cruises; nine- and ten-day Norwegian fjords cruises; 12-day Norway and North Cape sailings; as well as a 14-day Norway, Iceland and UK cruise.

Norwegian announced it will also bring Norwegian Getaway, currently the second newest ship in the fleet, back to Europe for the first time since its delivery in 2014 for eight- or nine-night Baltic capitals cruises from Copenhagen.

“With these exciting new summer European itineraries, we are offering our guests a wider variety of adventurous itineraries that span the continent, while also bringing one of our newest and most innovative ships to Europe”, said Andy Stuart, president and chief operating officer of Norwegian Cruise Line.

Three further ships will sail European waters in 2017, including the recently refurbished Norwegian Epic with a seven-night Western Mediterranean itinerary, where guests can choose to depart from Barcelona, Civitavecchia (Rome) or Marseille; Norwegian Spirit sailing alternating 10- and 11-night Grand Mediterranean cruises between Barcelona and Venice; and Norwegian Star, which after her return from Australia, will spend the summer cruising from Venice to the Greek Isles as well as the Adriatic, Greece & Turkey.

Norwegian Escape, Norwegian’s newest ship launched last October, will spend summer 2017 sailing alternating seven-night Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises year-round from Miami, starting on May 6, 2017. The Eastern Caribbean itinerary includes stops in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; Tortola, British Virgin Islands and Nassau, Bahamas, whereas the Western Caribbean cruises visit Roatán, Honduras; Norwegian’s private destination Harvest Caye, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico and Cozumel, Mexico.

Norwegian Cruise Line (www.ncl.com) has a fleet of 14 purpose-built Freestyle Cruising ships and was recently named “Europe’s Leading Cruise Line” for the eighth consecutive year, as well as “Caribbean’s Leading Cruise Line” for the fourth time and “World’s Leading Large Ship Cruise Line” for the third straight year by the World Travel Awards.