www.CRUISESHIPODYSSEY.com
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All text and photographs (unless stated otherwise) © Paul Timmerman
Norwegian Caribbean Line was founded in 1966 by Knut Kloster and Ted Arison. Kloster managed the fleet, while Arison did marketing & sales. They started with Sunward, a vessel intended for the Great Britain – Gibraltar run as a cruise-ferry. Due to political reasons, this venture was a financial disaster and Sunward was taken off the route. Arison saw potential in Caribbean Cruises but was in need of a ship. He contacted Kloster, who shifted his out-of-work vessel to the Caribbean. The new company was an instant success and Sunward is regarded as the vessel that pioneered Caribbean cruising. Soon, as Sunward sailed filled to the last upper berth, 3 ships were added to the fleet: Starward (1968), Skyward (1969) and Southward (1971) A sister vessel to Southward was ordered, but after the yard Cantieri Navali was taken over by the Italian government her building price went up and Kloster cancelled the order. Ultimately, she would become the Spirit of London for P&O Cruises.
Starward, Skyward and Souhward Kloster and Arison parted in 1972, and Arison left NCL . He established Carnival Cruise Lines which would become the world biggest cruise company. NCL was the leading cruise line in the Caribbean. RCCL and Carnival would start up their business several years later. In 1977 the Cunard Adventurer (14.110 GRT, 1971) was purchased to replace the Sunward, the ship that had started it all. After a refit she was renamed Sunward II. The companies name was altered to Norwegian Cruise Line in 1987 when new cruising grounds were added outside the Caribbean. In 1979 Kloster did something totally unexpected that would change the entire cruise industry. He acquired and subsequently rebuilt a very fine and famous vessel, the former French transatlantic liner France, built in 1962 which had been laid up after just 12 years of service in 1974. Because of rising fuel costs she had been losing large amounts of money and the French government decided to cut on operational subsidies, so her owners, The French Line didn’t have any alternative than to take her out of service. After appr. five years of idleness at the Quai de L’Oublie (quay of the forgotten), she was sold to Arab Akram Ojjeh who wanted to use her as a floating hotel. Kloster acquired the France from Ojjeh a few months later for $18 mio., and sent her to Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven, Germany. She was rebuilt into a full time cruise liner, her 35 knot top speed now reduced to a leisurely 21 knots by shutting down half of her power plant. In the process her sun deck aft was considerably enlarged and her airconditioning upgraded for warm weather cruising. Naval architect Tage Wandborg was in charge of the conversion, Angelo Donghia was appointed interior designer. Norway as she was renamed left Bremerhaven in May 1980 and first paid a visit to Oslo, her new home port. On May 16th she reached New York. She was finally put to work on the 7-night milk run to St. Thomas. Up to the present day she has stayed on this route with some exceptions e.g. in 1984, when she summered in Europe.
Norway Before Norway's entry into service, the ideal tonnage for a cruise ship was considered to be in the 20.000 to 30.000GRT range. But now Norway turned out to be a success, other companies started planning introducing large ships as well. In 1988, the Wartsila shipyard in Turku, Finland, delivered a newbuilding to NCL, the Seaward.
Norwegian Sea After the introduction of the Seaward however, at the end of the 80’s and the beginning of the 90s, NCL ran into financial difficulties as other cruise companies introduced more and more new tonnage and NCL couldn’t keep up. So NCL tried to expand her fleet in other ways, among them taking over other companies. In 1984 Royal Viking Line was acquired, an upscale cruise line with three 5-star vessels, Royal Viking Sky, Sea and Star which sailed around the globe to all destinations one could possibly think of. Three Norwegian investors were behind this company, and they were eager to pull their money out of Royal Viking Line. So Kloster took over and gradually switched all three vessels to his NCL brand. They now served in the mass market. Royal Viking Line as a name was retained however, and in 1988 a newbuilding was delivered by the Finnish Wartsila Yard, the 37.845 GRT Royal Viking Sun. This ship was rated 6-stars, in fact one of the highest rated vessels in the world together with HAPAG Lloyd´s Europa. She was followed in 1992 by Royal Viking Queen, much smaller at 9.961 GRT , carrying just over 200 pax. She is a sister vessel of Seabourn Cruise Line’s Seabourn Spirit and Pride, and was originally ordered by this company, but building costs of this 3rd ship rose to an unacceptable amount and Seabourn backed out. Because of financial difficulties within the Kloster Group, Royal Viking Line was dismantled and it´s two vessels sold to Cunard Cruises. Another firm that NCL took over in 1989 was Royal Cruise Line. Royal owned three vessels, the Golden Odyssey, Royal Odyssey and the Crown Odyssey. Vessels were shifted back and forth between the three companies , but in the end, just like Royal Viking Line in 1994, Royal Cruise Line was dismantled in 1996. So, only NCL itself survived this financially troubled period. Apart from the original vessels Starward, Skyward and Southward, NCL´s original ships, NCL operated ex Royal Viking Line’s Royal Viking Star and Sky for a short time, before they were sold off. In 1988, Seaward was taken into service and Dreamward and Windward (see ship description) followed in 1992 and 1993 respectively. These newbuildings led to the sale of Starward, Southward and Skyward which couldn’t compete with RCCL’s and Carnival's newer ships anymore. The late 1980’s and early 1990’s were troubled years for NCL. The company needed to perform much better by securing further growth of capacity and thus strengthen it's position. In 1997, the then 5 year old Royal Majesty was purchased and renamed Norwegian Majesty. Two other vessels were chartered: Crown Dynasty (1993, renamed Norwegian Dynasty) and Sally Albatross (1992, ex cruise ferry converted to cruise ship, renamed Leeward). Both vessels operated for NCL until 1999.
Norwegian Majesty NCL could use even more berths and decided to stretch Windward & Dreamward. They were sent to Lloyd Werft, Germany where they were cut in half. A 130 ft mid-section was inserted and the three parts were welded together. They now had capacity for 500 more guests and an additional 130 crew members were needed. It took Lloyd Werft two months to stretch each vessel. In 1999, NCL sent a third ship to Germany to be enlarged, Norwegian Majesty. Her length was increased by 112 ft, and her passenger capacity to 1462, an increase of 400. Even Norway's capacity was boosted by the addition of two extra decks on top. Situated on these decks are cabins in the higher grades. In 1999, for the first time since 1993, NCL took delivery of a newbuilding, Norwegian Sky (see ship description).
Norwegian Sky Originally ordered by Costa Cruises at the Bremer Vulkan yard, work on this partially completed ship came to a halt when the yard went bankrupt. NCL bought the ship and after some redesign work sent her to Lloyd Werft to finish the ship. She was followed in 2001 by a sister ship also built by Lloyd Werft named Norwegian Sun. At the and of the 90’s, ever expanding NCL acquired a company specialized in soft expedition cruises, Orient Lines. At the time this was a one ship company, operating a former Sovjet vessel, the Alexandr Pushkin as Marco Polo. Norwegian Crown was shifted form the NCL fleet to Orient and reverted to her old name of Crown Odyssey. Two companies had noted that NCL was back on track again, and had made a successful comeback as one of the leading companies in the cruise industry, Carnival Cruise Line and Star Cruises. Star had quickly become the fourth largest operator in the cruise industry being a Malaysian company formed in 1993. Both companies tried to take over NCL and later there was talk they would take over NCL jointly, but in the end Star Cruises became the new owner of NCL. Star Cruises retained NCL as a separate brand, but demanded that NCL’s Australian subsidiary Norwegian Capricorn Line would be phased out immediately. Plans were announced for Norway to be shifted to the Star fleet and operate in Asian waters, but she remained on her Caribbean itinerary. In turn Star would switch the Superstar Leo to NCL and rename her Norwegian Leo for service in Hawaii. This never came to pass. Star Cruises had two large newbuildings (91.000GRT) on order at German Meyer Werft, Superstar Libra and Superstar Scorpio. Because demand was low at the time in the Far East and bookings were at a disappointing level, Star decided to shift these ships to NCL and they were finished as Norwegian Star (2001 ) and Norwegian Dawn (2002) respectively. NCL has recently introduced a “new style of cruising” and has adapted it's fleet to this new way of shipboard life. It is called "Freestyle cruising" and the most important aspect of it is to offer passengers freedom of choice concerning for example the dining experience aboard (there is no fixed seating any more, not even assigned seats in the dining room and guests can decide when, where and with whom to dine as they please). Other aspects like wearing the desired attire (no formal attire needed, but always possible, just as one desires), gratuities etc. are included in the Freestyle Cruising concept.
In a surprise move, NCL has recently bought two classic passenger ships, the famous former transatlantic liner United States which has been idle for 30(!) years and the Constitution which has been idle since the demise of American Classic Voyages in 2002. Both ships will take part in a new subsidiary of NCL, called Project America. They will sail in US waters. NCL has shifted the Norwegian Sky to project America also, she will sail in Hawaii under her new name Pride of Aloha. In 2005 she was joined by Pride of America, recently delivered built in Germany at Lloyd Werft. Pride of America was originally ordered by American Classic Voyages , but when this company ceased trading, NCL took over the partly finished vessel. It took Lloyd Werft an extra year to complete the vessel as she partially sank during a storm at her fitting out pier. NCL also bought the materials already ordered to build a sister vessel to he Pride of America, and she will be named Pride of Hawaii (delivery in 2006 by German Meyer Werft). In 2007 (February and October) two sister ships will follow. On May 25th 2003, a boiler explosion took place on board Norway while berthed at the port of Miami. Seven crew members lost their lives. She was towed to German Lloyd Werft for repairs, but would not return to service for NCL (summer 2004 she vanished from their website). Replacing the boiler proved to be a costly affair taking several months and maybe as much as a year. Several alternatives for Norway´s future were mentioned including going for scrap, use as a static hotel etc. It seemed that Amsterdam or Le Havre were the most likely candidates to purchase her for use as a static hotel. NCL lowered her price in August 2004 so she could be sold off quicker. In May 2005 she left the Lloyd Werft under tow, reportedly with destination Malaysia for use as a static hotel as the last rumours said. However, after spending months at anchor off the Malaysian coast, she was at last, as expected, sold for scrap to Indian ship breakers. She was beached on August 15, 2006. The Indian Supreme Court intervened before a start could be made with scrapping the old girl by ruling that all asbestos on board should be removed first in order not to expose workers to it as it can cause lung cancer when inhaled. Finally after more than a year, scrapping could start in November 2007. At the moment, as NCL coninues to add new ships to their fleet, the older intermediate sized vessels will be shifted to parent company's Star Cruises fleet, beginning with the Norwegian Sea (built 1988, 42.000GRT). She started sailing form Mumbai, India on 1, 2 and 4 day cruises in the Indian Ocean as Superstar Libra in 2005. Two years alter she was followed by NCL's Norwegian Wind (built 1993, 50750GRT). This vessel was renamed Superstar Aquarius.
Norwegian Dawn at Meyer Werft, Papenburg After the Norwegian Dawn and the Pride of Hawaii (currently Norwegian Jade), NCL ordered three more units of this class, Norwegian Jewel (2005), Norwegian Pearl (2006) and Norwegian Gem (2007). These latter three ships are built along the specifications of NCL's Freestyle-cruising concept. T|hey include some very innovative features: Bar Central where connecting bars each have their own ambiance : a martini bar, a champagne bar and a beer and whishy pub. There are 10 dining options ranging fron the Italian style trattoria to the tapas restaurant or the asian food restaurant. Courtyard Villas are introduced, a completely new type of cabin featuring a private courtyard and sun deck which is shared by all ten staterooms each, measuring 5750 sq. ft. Another spectacalur novelty is the introduction of an electronic reservations sytem to avoid waiting lines and thus waiting time in the various restaurants. Screens situated all over the ship show how busy each restaurant is and in how many minutes time a table will become available. A few months after her delivery, this system will be available on all cabin televisions also. Unfortunately, the NCL America division was not a success. In 2005 NCL operated Pride of Aloha, Pride of America and Pride of Hawaii all in Hawaiian waters. Because of high operatig costs (they were staffed with US crew) and stiff competition NCL started losing money rapidly. Subsequently, Pride of Aloha and Pride of Hawaii have ended their NCL America service and were transferred to the "regular" NCL division as Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Jade respectively. Apart from problems with it NCL America division, NCL had taken 8 brand new vessels into service since 2000 and was facing high debts. So luckily in 2007, NCL was partly taken over by investor Apollo Management which became a 50 percent owner of NCL (for $ 1 billion), sharing leadership with Star Cruises. NCL has spent high amounts of money to implement the
Freestyle 2.0-concept, aiming at new on board service standards and the line has
recently spent $50 million alone on dining enhancements!
NCL vessels currently in operation
Ships on order
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