The world's fourth biggest cruise liner "The Norwegian Joy" has been launched for its maiden voyage from Papenburg, Germany.
The ship's voyage which started on Sunday along the river Ems, into the North Sea and to its final birthing location in the Dutch city of Eemshaven, is being used to rigorously test "the Norwegian Joy" to ensure that it is completely seaworthy and ready for commercial use.
The colossal ship is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), was built by the German company Meyer Werft and is the 12th ship the company has built for NCL.
The 326-meter giant is the first NCL purposely built luxury cruise liner for the Chinese tourism market and is expected to debut in the summer of 2017 in its two home ports of Shanghai and Tianjin (Beijing). The cruise liner will be able to accommodate 4,200 passengers.
The sea-borne high-end amusement center and luxury holiday resort will feature a virtual reality room, an open-air park to practice tai-chi, a luxury shopping centre, hovercraft bumper cars and a two-story water park, where one of the slides extends over the side of the ship.
The ship's deck also doubles up as a multistory electric go cart course and an open-air laser tag course.
