“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” — Dorothea Lange
NCL or Norwegian Cruise Line holds a special place in my heart for many reasons. First, some of their early ships gave me the opportunity to travel to different parts of the world and explore special and unique areas now far from popular tourist place and often times limited for visitors. I also happened to visit San Francisco first time in my life on the Norwegian Star back in 2004. And last, but not least I met a lovely lady on one of their ships who later became my wife. You see why NCL played a special part in my life journey.
So I keep an eye on the company ever since I got to experience them and its always special when one of the ships calls San Francisco a port of call. This usually happens twice a year during repositioning when a ships itinerary changes from Mexico to Alaska and back on the West coast. On Oct 4th I saw that the James R. Herman Cruise Terminal had a special visitor, the Norwegian Bliss.
She is the newest member of the NCL fleet. Her construction started in 2017 in the shipyard MEYER WERFT in Papenburg (Germany). The Norwegian Bliss became the third cruise ship in the so-called Breakaway Plus class and she was delivered by MEYER WERFT to the cruise line NCL in April 2018. She cost about US$1 billion to build and is setting its sights on dethroning cruise line companies like Carnival and Royal Caribbean.
Some fun facts about this beautiful ship: she has a capacity of 4,000 guests and a gross tonnage of 168,028. As the third ship in Norwegian’s Breakaway Plus series, its bigger than the 165,157-ton Norwegian Escape and the 167,725-ton Norwegian Joy sisiterships. She was built specifically for those scenic long Alaskan cruises, Caribbean cruises and some select Mexican Riviera stops when the Alaskan cruising season is over. The ship had her maiden voyage to Alaska in June 2018, from the Seattle homeport. In honor of this city choice NCL added one of Seattle’s main attractions, Starbucks, into its list of amazing places and venues on this vessel.
Front of the Norwegian Bliss seen from Pier 29 in the port of San Francisco on Oct 4, 2019 - © 2019 brightroomSF Studio
The James R. Herman Cruise ship terminal is situated at a top location in the city. From atop the the vessel you can have breathtaking panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay, including Treasure Island, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Financial District, Telegraph Hill and the Coit Tower.
Via these images I wanted to capture a feeling what one experiences when sees her (or any other ship of this size) at a beautiful port like San Francisco. Especially on a clear and warm day with blue skies like this early October day was.
The Norwegian Bliss in the port of San Francisco at James R. Herman Cruise Terminal on Oct 4, 2019 - © 2019 brightroomSF Studio
These images were taken as part of the James R. Herman Cruise Terminal project in the city of San Francisco.
James R. Herman was a former president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union who passed away on 1998. He was at the union's helm from 1977 until 1991, becoming a strong promoter of maritime operations in the San Francisco Bay area and an avid supporter of social action and social advocacy organizations.
He was a long time member of the San Francisco Port Commission and known for his strong commitment to preserving maritime jobs and keeping the bay piers competitive. He led an ad hoc group that prompted deeper dredging of the bay to make the Port of Oakland accessible to new and bigger container ships.
The Norwegian Bliss looks enormous at James R. Herman Cruise Terminal on Oct 4, 2019 - © 2019 brightroomSF Studio
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