Norwegian Cruise Line Shakes Up Cabin Design

The "new wave" cabins, as Norwegian is calling them, will appear on the line's next generation of ships, the so-called F3 ships launching in 2010. The ship will hold 4,200 passengers at double occupancy. At 150,000 tons, the vessels will be 60% larger than the biggest Norwegian cruisers today, and Norwegian has been promising a revolution in design since it first announced them.

“We have thrown away the rule book with the design of F3," Norwegian's President and CEO, Colin Veitch, says in a statement accompanying the announcement. "Gone are the regimented designs (of typical cabins) and in place are sleek staterooms that are totally outside the box.”

The most revolutionary design element of the new cabins are their curved walls, but they have other differences with traditional cabins, including unusual bathrooms. Each of the main elements of the bathrooms -- the showers, toilets and sinks -- will be separate (indeed, in an unusual move for a cruise ship, the sinks will be outside of the bathrooms in the main part of the cabins).

The cabins also boast what NCL is calling a sophisticated palette of earth-tone colors accented with rich, dark wood, lit with concealed LED lighting and back-lit domed ceilings.