Norwegian Prima accidents and incidents

Norwegian Prima cruise ship
Rating:

Former names
Fincantieri Venice 6298

Length (LOA)
294 m / 965 ft

  Tracker   Ship Wiki

CruiseMapper's Norwegian Prima cruise ship accidents, incidents and law news reports relate to a 3950-passenger vessel owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. Our Norwegian Prima accidents page contains reports made by using official data from renown online news media sources, US Coast Guard and Wikipedia.

Here are also reported latest updates on cruise law news related to ashore and shipboard crimes still investigated by the police. Among those could be arrests, filed lawsuits against the shipowner / cruise line company, charges and fines, grievances, settled / withdrawn legal actions, lost cases, virus outbreaks, etc.

  • delayed delivery - 2022
  • moorings failure - 2023 (in Zeebrugge, Belgium)

15 July 2023Structural and Technical Issues

In the afternoon of July 15, 2023, while berthed at Port Zeebrugge (Belgium), due to strong gusts of winds the ship broke its bow mooring lines and drifted off the quay. All gangways (passenger bridges/walkways) were dragged and then fell into the water dockside.

Tugboats took the vessel under control and assisted it back to berth. To facilitate reboarding, the port authority installed new gangways. The ship left Port Zeebrugge according to schedule.

No injuries or any damages were reported. The mooring failure occurred while most passengers were disembarked to go ashore, mainly for bus excursions to Bruges City.

The incident occurred during the 10-day cruise from Iceland to the UK (Reykjavik to Southampton, itinerary July 6-16) visiting destinations in Iceland (Isafjordur, Akureyri), Norway (Alesund, Geiranger, Bergen), Holland (Amsterdam) and Belgium (Zeebrugge-Bruges).

26 May 2023Other Incidents

On May 26, 2023, the ship was leaving Reykjavík Harbor and maneuvering off the berth backward/astern, being provided with a tugboat assistance to turn outside the breakwater. A sudden strong gust of wind (50+ knots/90 kph/60 mph) pushed the vessel toward the rocks when the maneuver was almost complete.

Despite the tug assistance, NCL Prima went off course, failed to regain its track and drifted outside the shipping channel. While drifting, the ship overran a buoy (anchored float serving as a navigation mark) and came within just 10 m/30 ft of rocks where the charted water depth was just 0,4 m. Then the ship passed within 25 m/80 ft of a shoal where it managed to regain the track and safely depart the harbor.

According to the released in April 2024 Reykjavík Port Authority report, the assisting pilot (55-year-old Icelander) recommended the ship's Master (Captain Patrik Dahlgren/37-year-old Panamanian) to delay the departure due to adverse weather, but he decided to stick to the schedule, underestimating the storm. The tugboat's crew did everything to prevent a grounding and allision.

26 January 2023Structural and Technical Issues

(CruiseMapper emailed report by Leo Sterk)

Something was up with Norwegian Prima in Grand Cayman today (January 26, 2023). From NCL Dawn, we observed tender-type vessels pushing on the ship next to an anchor line in the water. Sometimes bow thruster water flows could be observed. Eventually, the starboard anchor was retrieved and stowed.

Later at NCL Prima's departure, a large tender-type boat was positioned port side near an open forward sea door. It revved its props mightily and sometimes a bang could be heard indicating the tender was pressing on Norwegian Prima.

Note: The accident report relates to the 7-day "Atlantis Prima Caribbean Cruise" (itinerary Jan 22-29, roundtrip from Port Canaveral/Orlando, Florida USA) visiting Mexico (Cozumel/Jan 24, and Costa Maya/Jan 25), Grand Cayman Island (George Town Harbour/Jan 26, port stay 11 am - 6 pm) and The Bahamas (Great Stirrup Cay/Jan 28).

April 2022Structural and Technical Issues

On April 28, 2022, NCL officially canceled the ship's Maiden Voyage citing "ongoing supply chain challenges" (caused by the COVID crisis and the Russia-Ukraine conflict).

Norwegian Prima's inauguration was rescheduled to August 17th. The 8-night Europe (Baltic and Iceland itinerary) was planned to depart from Amsterdam and end in Reykjavik (on Aug 25th), with call ports in Belgium (Brussels), Norway (Bergen, Geiranger), and Iceland (Akureyri, Isafjordur, Reykjavik).

Following the cancellation, Prima’s Maiden Voyage was rescheduled for September 3rd. The 10-night itinerary from Amsterdam to Copenhagen (Sept 3-13) visited ports in Germany (Kiel, Warnemunde-Rostock), Poland (Gdynia-Gdansk), Estonia (Tallinn), Sweden (Stockholm), Denmark (Copenhagen).

All affected bookings were fully refunded (100% of the original payment method, including bookings using FCCs/future cruise credits). As compensation, all FCC bookings received a 25% discount on another voyage (combinable with all available at the tome NCL promo offers) through December 31, 2023. NCL also covered up to US$ 300 pp for all flight change fees.

 

You can add more details on reported here accident or submit new / your own Norwegian Prima ship incident ("Cruise Minus" report) via CruiseMapper's contact form.