A STAR IS BORN: NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE ANNOUNCES NEW SHIP, ORIGINALLY SLATED FOR STAR CRUISES, TO JOIN ITS FLEET

~ Brand-new, Norwegian Star will be deployed in Hawaii Under NCL Banner ~

MIAMI, Fla., March 8, 2001—Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has revised its plans for ship deployment in the Hawaii cruise market, announcing today that the new $400 million 91,000-ton, super-ship formerly slated for NCL's parent company Star Cruises, will now join NCL's fleet in December 2001 for year-round deployment in Hawaii. The new ship, which is under construction in Germany and was to be called SuperStar Libra, will now be outfitted to NCL specifications and named Norwegian Star, signifying the increasingly strong linkage between parent Star Cruises and daughter company Norwegian Cruise Line. It will be one of two sister ships, the second of which will be named Norwegian Dawn to be delivered to NCL at the end of 2002.

NCL and parent company Star Cruises had previously announced the transfer of the two-year-old, 76,000 ton SuperStar Leo to the NCL brand for the purpose of servicing the Hawaii market under a new name, Norwegian Leo. However, according to Colin Veitch, NCL's president and chief executive officer, two things happened to persuade Star to move Libra over to NCL instead. First, the booking response to Leo's maiden Hawaiian season indicated a strongly positive reception from both cruisers and travel agents. Second, the projected costs involved in stripping out Leo's casino to comply with recently enacted federal legislation became so high that the lower cost alternative of tailoring the construction of Libra to exclude a casino from the outset became increasingly attractive.

Leo will now remain with the Star Cruises fleet under its present name of SuperStar Leo.

"We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to bring to the Hawaii market the type of modern cruise experience it truly deserves," said Veitch. "In looking at the potential demand for this market, we made the decision to utilize a larger and absolutely brand new ship. It is purpose-built to present NCL's exclusive Freestyle Cruising experience, an experience more akin to a top-end landside resort than a traditional cruise ship, and it is certainly light years ahead of anything else in the year round Hawaii cruise market. Those who have cruised in Hawaii before are now offered a radically different experience," continued Veitch. "And those who haven't should find the combination of Norwegian Star, Freestyle Cruising, and the magic of the Hawaiian Islands irresistibly compelling."

A Star Like No Other
Norwegian Star will be NCL's largest ship, accommodating 2,200 passengers and 1,100 crew, and is being built at the maximum size to fit through the Panama Canal.

The ship will be fitted with pod drives, which substantially improve maneuverability, and will be NCL's fastest ship -- cruising at a maximum speed of 25 knots.

Norwegian Star also will set new standards in its cabins, with rich cherry wood finishing, tea and coffee makers in every room, and a much larger bathroom unit than other ships, containing separate WC, shower, and washstand compartments separated by sliding doors. Seventy percent of cabins are outside staterooms and over 70% of these have balconies.

Unlike anything on any other vessel today, a steel and glass structure on top of the ship, aft from the main sundeck, will boast a fantasy-world complex of multi-room villas offering panoramic views of the ocean, each with a roof terrace and private garden featuring open-air dining, Jacuzzis, and totally private sunning and relaxation areas.

Thirty-six suites, 372 standard staterooms with balconies, and an entire deck of 107 mini-suites with balconies are among the spacious and well-appointed accommodations located on the 15-deck ship. There also will be 20 cabins of various types designed for passengers with disabilities.

Most cabins will include a sofa-bed or pop-up trundle bed giving a third lower bed and many will have a fourth, pull-down berth. The ship also will offer a large number of cabins (including suites and mini-suites) that can interconnect to create a two, three, four or five bedroom area suitable for small or large families.

A Stellar Line-Up of Culinary Options
In keeping with the revolutionary Freestyle Cruising concept where guests can dine wherever, whenever, and with whomever they wish, Norwegian Star will feature more dining options than any other ship in the North American market. With the flexibility of ten different restaurants and 11 different menus every night, passengers can choose from an array of restaurants including:

An ornate first main dining room, offering the traditional six-course cruise dining experience.
A contemporary-styled second main dining room, offering a lighter modern menu.
A high-end Pacific Rim restaurant featuring a fusion of Californian, Hawaiian and Asian cuisine.
A Japanese restaurant featuring an à la carte section, a sit-up sushi and tempura bar, and a teppanyaki room.
A French restaurant featuring NCL's trademark Le Bistro menu of nouvelle cuisine and French classics.
A food court-style casual eatery featuring hamburgers, fish & chips, pot pies and wok fast dishes.
An Indoor/outdoor buffet restaurant extending over a third of a deck and including trademark "action stations" featuring prepared-to-order omelets, waffles, fruit, soups, ethnic specialties, and pasta in addition to extensive and varied selections arranged along 130 yards of buffet serving counters.
A Spanish Tapas restaurant and bar with full selection of hot and cold Tapas dishes and authentic entertainment.
An Italian Trattoria serving pasta, pizza and other popular Italian fare.
A Hawaiian themed restaurant arranged around the second level of the central atrium and incorporating a performance stage and a large movie screen.

In addition, Norwegian Star will offer an array of casual snacking and café outlets, including an on-deck grill, an ice cream bar, a coffee shop and 24-hour hot and cold room service.

"With our new generation of ships we now lay down a dining standard that no other cruise line can match," according to Colin Veitch. "Not only are our two main dining rooms open from 5:30 PM to midnight with no fixed dining times and no need to sit with strangers, but we also have so many other full-service restaurants that a couple on a seven-day cruise can eat a different style of food in a different restaurant every night of their cruise and not even go into the main dining rooms if they don't feel like it."

Norwegian Star will offer plenty of opportunities for those passengers who wish to work off any pounds gained at the restaurants. The Sports Deck contains a golf driving range, volleyball and basketball court, while a two deck fitness and spa center will boast state-of-the-art cardiovascular workout equipment, aerobic and boxercise area with a sprung wooden floor, steam and sauna rooms, a jet-current exercise pool, an interior 20-yard lap pool, and whirlpool and hydrotherapy facilities. And shore side, a new array of "active decompression" shore excursions in Hawaii and Fanning Island has been arranged, including mountain biking, sailing, scuba diving and even skiing down a volcano for the adventurous and the young at heart of any age.

Hawaiian-based Mandara Spa, the world's leading operator of landside resort spas, will pamper NCL passengers with an exotic menu of spa and beauty treatments combining the best of East and West.

In addition, one of the ship's most distinctive attractions will be the on-board theater, reaching up three decks and seating an audience of 1,150 in a traditional European opera house ambiance.

The ship will be particularly family-friendly with a huge children's center complete with a playroom, outdoor pool, movie theater, computer rooms, teen center, video arcade, a nursery and toddlers' nap room. There will even be a special children's area in the buffet restaurant with their own low-level serving counter and kid-sized tables and chairs.

Illuminating the Islands of Aloha
Norwegian Star will be the only seven-day round-trip Hawaiian ship to include the four main islands, Oahu, Hawaii, Maui and Kauai plus an exclusive day at Fanning Island, an exotic Micronesian island to the south of Hawaii.

Prior to Norwegian Star's maiden voyage, NCL will bring the ship to Miami and Los Angeles for introductory festivities.

Beginning December 16, Norwegian Star will feature a seven-day Hawaii itinerary, as follows:

Sunday - Honolulu, Oahu
Monday - Kona, Hawaii
Tuesday - At Sea
Wednesday - Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati
Thursday - At Sea
Friday - Lahaina, Maui
Saturday - Nawiliwili/Port Allen, Kauai
Sunday - Honolulu, Oahu

NCL is also setting aside cabins for a weekly round trip Maui itinerary in which passengers wishing to begin and end their cruise in Maui rather than Oahu will be able to embark on the Friday of one cruise and disembark a week later on the Friday of the following cruise. The Maui-Maui itinerary on Norwegian Star is:

Friday - Lahaina, Maui
Saturday - Nawiliwili/Port Allen, Kauai
Sunday - Honolulu, Oahu
Monday - Kona, Hawaii
Tuesday - At Sea
Wednesday - Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati
Thursday - At Sea
Friday - Lahaina, Maui

Passengers already booked on Norwegian Leo, or who book prior to March 31, 2001 before the revised Hawaii brochure is published, will be re-booked on Norwegian Star in higher grade cabins. Those who booked an inside cabin -- and those booking one by March 31 - will sail in an outside cabin; those booked in, or booking, a standard outside cabin will sail in a balcony cabin; and those booked in, or booking, a balcony cabin will sail in a mini-suite. Details of this offer will be published later this week.

Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line is an international cruise company and industry innovator that currently operates a fleet of eight ships sailing to more than 200 ports around the world. In addition to Norwegian Star, NCL is currently building Norwegian Sun, a 1,960-passenger sister ship to the Norwegian Sky (for delivery at the end of August 2001) and Norwegian Dawn a 2,200-passenger sister ship to Norwegian Star (for delivery in December 2002).

Following the acquisition of NCL last 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; on AOL at keyword: NCL.

For additional information on Star Cruises, visit their web site at www.starcruises.com

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