SUPER ALASKA CRUISE
B. About the Norwegian Wind
The Norwegian Wind is typical in size compared with the other large cruise ships that sail the Alaskan routes in the summer. She was constructed in France and entered service in 1993 as the Windward. In 1998 she was sent to Bremerhaven, Germany where she was cut in half and a prefabricated 130-foot section was grafted in between the two halves. Here is an article telling how it was done http://www.usatoday.org/life/travel/leisure/1998/t0515no.htm and here is a press release from NCL in 1998 describing the improvements http://www.ncl.com/html/news/pr980127a.html. I also saw a site with more pictures of the construction process, but I cannot find the link again. During the lengthening process her systems and furnishings were completely overhauled and the floor plan of the existing ship was redone.
Aboard the ship there is no feeling that the ship was stretched. The only evidence remaining of the Windward is the ship’s bell on the bow which says Windward 1993 (saw with my binoculars while viewing sights), a wall of plaques and awards near the forward internal staircase, and gift shop souvenirs (which show a picture of the Windward even though they have the name ‘Norwegian Wind’. She is 758 feet long, 94 feet wide, and has a draft (depth below the water line) of 23 feet. Depending on which source you reference, she has a gross tonnage between 46 and 50 thousand tons. (in contrast the Titanic was about 46 thousand tons and was 882 feet long). She has a passenger capacity of 1750 (more if more than 2 passengers are in each cabin) and has a crew of 614.
She has a twin ship (the Norwegian Dream) which was launched a few months before (as the Dreamward) and was lengthened a few months after. The Dream differs from the Wind in that the Dream’s funnel can be lowered so she can pass under bridges in Europe.
NCL was so pleased with the results of lengthening these two ships (which were designed from initial design to be lengthened), that they lengthend another of their ships, the Norwegian Majesty. This was a more difficult process since the Majesty was not designed to be lengthened.
Below are pictures of
the lengthening process transforming the Windward into the Norwegian
Wind.
Picture of the Windward:
Picture of the Windward and the section to be inserted:
The Windward in the background, after being cut in half, and the piece to be inserted in the foreground.
Picture of the ship being put together as the Norwegian Wind:
Picture of the Dreamward (pre-stretch) docked next to the Norwegian Wind (post-stretch).
(The uncompleted Norwegian Sky is the dark ship in the background.):
The front half of the Norwegain Majesty during her stretch:
To Next Page (Rating the Norwegian Wind)
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