Norwegian Cruise Line adds lifeguards amid mounting industry pressure
By Sky McCarthy
After several highly publicized drowning or near-drowning incidents aboard mega ocean liners, Norwegian will become the world’s third cruise line to add lifeguards to its ships.
On Wednesday, the Miami-based company announced that it will bring lifeguarding staff to its four largest ships– Norwegian Escape, Norwegian Getaway, Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Epic– this summer. The cruise line anticipates that the entire Norwegian fleet of 15 ships will be staffed with lifeguards within the first three months of 2018.
“Norwegian has stationed pool monitors on our largest ships since 2015 and we are now taking further steps to ensure the safety of our youngest guests with the addition of certified lifeguards across our fleet,” Andy Stuart, president and CEO of Norwegian said in a statement.
“While parents are always the first line of supervision when it comes to water safety, we felt it was important to provide this added measure across our fleet.”
Norwegian follows in the steps of Disney Cruise Line, which was the first in the industry to add lifeguards to its ships in October 2013 after a highly publicized near drowning incident. In March, Royal Caribbean announced that it had started staffing ships with lifeguards and expects the rollout to be complete by June.
