After a successful 2022-23 season, Norwegian Cruise Line marked its return to Southern Africa for its second and longest season with the arrival of Norwegian Dawn at Port Louis, Mauritius on January 20, 2024.

“We are thrilled to set sail once again in African waters after NCL’s successful 2022-23 cruise season out of Cape Town,” Gary Anslow, regional vice president and head of UK and Ireland. 

“For 2024, we’ve elevated our deployment to new heights. We are offering not one, but two seasonal homeports, a myriad of roundtrip and jaw-dropping sailings and new-to-NCL destinations across the continent, which cements NCL as the only contemporary cruise line to provide such a rich selection of destinations, ports, and homeports in the region.”

The Norwegian Dawn’s new Africa season offers 12-day open-jaw sailings departing from Port Louis, Mauritius and Cape Town, South Africa. Ports of call include destinations such as Réunion; Nosy Be, Madagascar; and Richards Bay.

Wildlife enthusiasts and guests seeking cultural experiences can join Norwegian Dawn’s 12-day roundtrips to South Africa and Namibia on February 1 and March 8, 2024, with calls to Mossel Bay and Durban in South Africa, and Luderitz and Walvis Bay in Namibia, before she repositions on March 20, 2024, sailing from Cape Town to Barcelona, Spain.

During the 21-day sailing along Africa’s west coast, the ship will visit Luanda, Angola; Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Banjul, Gambia and Dakar, Senegal for the very first time in the cruise line’s history.

The Norwegian Dawn will return to homeport from Port Louis, Mauritius and Cape Town, South Africa in winter 2024-25 and 2025-26 with a similar set of itineraries.