NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE CONVERTS THIRD SHIP TO POPULAR FREESTYLE CRUISING

-- Norwegian Sea is First Three- and Four-Day Ship to Offer Freestyle Cruising --

MIAMI, Fla., January 9, 2001—Norwegian Cruise Line announced today it converted the M/S Norwegian Sea to Freestyle Cruising on December 3, 2000, making it the third ship in NCL's fleet to adopt its new cruise concept. The innovative vacation program was introduced in May 2000 aboard the Norwegian Sky and extended to the Norwegian Majesty in August 2000. NCL plans to extend Freestyle Cruising to the rest of its ships, excluding the Norway, by summer 2001, and all future builds will be purpose-built maximizing the choice and flexibility offered by Freestyle Cruising.

Starting January 19, 2001, the Norwegian Sea will offer three- and four-day cruises round-trip from Miami through April 27, and again November 5 through the end of the year, making it the first ship in the NCL fleet to offer the Freestyle Cruising concept on shorter itineraries. The three-day cruises sail to Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay in The Bahamas, while the four-day cruises visit Key West, Florida; Great Stirrup Cay and Nassau.

"We continue to be extremely pleased with the positive reaction to NCL's Freestyle Cruising concept," said Colin Veitch, president and CEO of NCL. "The feedback from passengers, travel agents and crew members has validated our belief that we must move in a new and bold direction to challenge land-based resort vacations for market share. It's also gratifying to know that so many of our competitors have been watching with such keen interest."

Freestyle Cruising is designed to meet the changing needs of today's cruise passengers by offering guests a more relaxed, resort-style cruise with complete flexibility and non-intrusive service of the highest standard.

Aboard the Norwegian Sea, Freestyle Cruising consists of:

Dining -- Open, restaurant-style seating and extended hours offered in the Norwegian Sea's main dining rooms and alternative restaurants. The Norwegian Sea has four dining venues each night including: two main dining rooms and Le Bistro, open from 5:30 p.m. to closing; and the Big Apple Café, open from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. serving buffet style breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks throughout the day. Each cruise also features an on-deck Caribbean Night barbecue with "Jerk" chicken, pork, ribs and fish. Freshly baked pizza is always available at the Big Apple Café and the Sea's 24-hour room service features an extensive menu with a section just for kids. In addition to the many venue choices, passengers have the option to choose their dinner companions each evening and request tables of any size, seating from two to ten people. An added benefit is that many dishes are cooked to order.
Attire -- The dress code is 'resort casual' eliminating the ship-wide "formal nights." The Sea offers one optional formal night in some of the dining outlets when passengers are welcome to dress in formal attire.
Staffing -- NCL increased the number of crewmembers by 73 aboard the Norwegian Sea to offer passengers a higher crew-to-guest ratio. This increase will raise the level of service to approximately one crewmember per cabin, which is as high as most top shoreside resorts.
Tipping -- The recommended gratuities are automatically added to each guest's on-board account. Guests have the option of leaving an additional gratuity for exceptional service, or they can choose to reduce or deduct the gratuity from their bill entirely.
Disembarkation -- NCL's new guest-friendly disembarkation system allows passengers to enjoy the final morning of the cruise and depart the ship at their leisure. Guests may stay in their cabins and enjoy continental breakfast, eat breakfast in one of the main dining rooms or eat a complete, hot breakfast buffet until their colored luggage tag is called or until the last and final call, which is normally around 10:00 a.m.

From May 6 - May 27, Norwegian Sea will offer unique, seven-day cruises from New York to Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay. Beginning June 3 through September 9, the Norwegian Sea will offer exciting five port, seven-day cruises from New York to Halifax, Bar Harbor, Boston, Newport and Martha's Vineyard. Beginning September 16 and running through October 21, the Norwegian Sea will offer seven-day New York - Montreal, Montreal - New York cruises. The New York itinerary will visit Boston, Bar Harbor, Halifax and Saguenay River while the Montreal itinerary will stop at Quebec City, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Boston and Newport.

What People are Saying
While the Norwegian Sea enjoys the newly adopted Freestyle Cruising concept, passengers aboard the Norwegian Sky have been enjoying the innovative cruise concept for more than six months. In a recent passenger survey conducted aboard the Sky, those passengers responding described what they liked best about Freestyle Cruising:

90% rated the new, relaxed disembarkation program as excellent or good. 94% said this feature was very important or important to their cruise experience.
88% rated the added staff as excellent or good.
87% rated the extended hours (eat when you want) feature as excellent or good.
81% rated the "optional formal attire" as excellent or good.
89% of first-time cruisers said they liked the idea of Freestyle Cruising over the traditional cruise product.

Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line is an international cruise company and industry innovator that currently owns or operates a fleet of eight ships sailing to more than 200 ports around the world. NCL is currently building two new ships: M/S Norwegian Sun, a 1,936-passenger sister ship to the Norwegian Sky (for delivery September 2001); and a 2,300-passenger, as-yet-unnamed ship that will be NCL's largest (for delivery in late 2002). As of December 2001, Star Cruises' SuperStar Leo will join the NCL fleet for deployment on year-round cruises in Hawaii.

Following the acquisition of NCL this year, Star Cruises is now the fourth largest cruise line in the world operating a combined fleet of 20 ships with more than 21,000 berths. By the end of 2002, with the three ships currently on order, Star Cruises with NCL will have approximately 28,000 lower berths.

For further information on NCL, contact a travel agent or NCL in the U.S. and Canada at (800) 327-7030; in Miami-Dade County, Florida, (305) 436-0866; or visit NCL on AOL at keyword: NCL.

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