NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE, STAR CRUISES AND ORIENT
LINES ANNOUNCE CHANGES IN FLEET AND DEPLOYMENT
Miami – September 20, 2001 – The Norwegian
Cruise Line /Star Cruises Group today announced details of
changes to its deployment plans for 2002:
-
The brand new Freestyle Cruising ship, Norwegian Sun,
scheduled to sail in the Mediterranean from May through
October 2002, will instead spend the summer in the Caribbean
where she is already more than 75% full for the Spring;
-
SuperStar Aries, which was due to transfer from the Star
Cruises fleet into Orient Lines as Ocean Voyager in May
2002, will now remain with Star Cruises in Bangkok and
her introduction into Orient Lines will be delayed until
Spring 2003;
-
S/S Norway, which was to have been swapped into Star
Cruises in exchange for Superstar Aries, will now remain
in the NCL fleet for a further year and will return to
her Miami base in time for Christmas this year after a
dry docking and refurbishment in Europe;
-
Norwegian Sky, currently scheduled to take over the Eastern
Caribbean run from Norway, will instead offer an alternating
Eastern/Western Caribbean itinerary between January and
March 2002, as Norway moves back into her traditional
Eastern deployment.
The changes have been made in response to travel agent demands
for a year-round Caribbean product from NCL, as well as in
anticipation of a likely shift in travel patterns of North
American consumers over the coming months.
Norwegian Sun, which is one of two new purpose-built Freestyle
Cruising ships being delivered to NCL this fall, has been
booking extremely well in her Exotic Western Caribbean deployment
and there have been internal discussions on the pros and cons
of canceling her 2002 inaugural Mediterranean season in order
to keep her in the Caribbean year-round.
“We returned home last week from taking delivery of
Norwegian Sun and showing her off to our top travel agent
partners,” said Colin Veitch, president and CEO of NCL.
“The response was extremely positive and we were pressed
to put this innovative product into the Caribbean as soon
as possible. The terrible events in New York and Washington
the day after we returned home then tipped the balance in
our internal discussions. We have decided to build on our
traditional Caribbean base rather than deploying this new
ship on seven-day Mediterranean cruising, in such uncertain
times.”
With this addition to its North American based fleet in 2002,
NCL will offer seven-day round-trip cruises on a regular basis
from eight different U.S. and Canadian ports (Boston, New
York, Miami, San Juan, Seattle, Vancouver, Honolulu, Maui):
more than any other cruise line.
The delayed introduction of Ocean Voyager is to allow Orient
Lines’ management to focus on its two existing ships,
Marco Polo and Crown Odyssey, which will both spend much of
2002 in Europe. “The willingness of our North American
passengers to travel overseas is something we will be watching
closely over the coming months,” Veitch said. “In
the meantime, we believe we are acting prudently in postponing
the introduction of a third ship to Orient Lines.”
The return of the much-loved Norway soon after her intended
‘farewell’ transatlantic cruise, is a result of
the postponement of Ocean Voyager’s transfer from Star
Cruises. It had been intended that Norway would either take
over the Bangkok run of Superstar Aries (Ocean Voyager) or
a slot opened by one of the Singapore ships repositioning
into the Bangkok slot. This will not now happen, and rather
than try to develop a new home port in Asia, Star Cruises
has agreed that NCL should operate the ship for another year
in a market where she is known and well accepted.
“Judging from my mailbag and e-mail in-box, there are
a lot of people who were very sad to see Norway leaving Miami.
It’s my hope that a lot of people will be happy that
Norway can offer what we should call a second farewell season,”
Veitch said. “Just think of her as the cruise equivalent
of Frank Sinatra!”
Norway will return to service on December 23, 2001, offering
seven-day Eastern Caribbean cruises from Miami on a Sunday
departure, calling at St. Thomas, St. Johns, St. Maarten,
and NCL’s private Bahamian island, Great Stirrup Cay.
Norwegian Sun will offer seven-day Western Caribbean cruises
from Miami on a Saturday departure calling at Grand Cayman,
Roatan, Belize City and Cozumel.
Norwegian Sky, currently scheduled to fill the Eastern Caribbean
slot on Saturday from Miami left open by Norway, will instead
move to an alternating Eastern/Western Caribbean rotation
of seven-day cruises combinable to 14 days. This change will
occur January 26, 2002 and continue through the March 30,
2002 departure.
Details of prices and itineraries for these new deployments
will be communicated to travel agents within the next few
days, and will be included in the 2002/2003 Caribbean brochure
due out shortly. All new itineraries will be on sale beginning
Monday, Sept. 24, 2001.
Groups and individuals booked on those Norwegian Sky alternating
Eastern Caribbean cruises, which will now become Western,
will be offered the opportunity to remain booked on the new
itinerary or to switch to the Norway’s eastern cruise
the following day, or Norwegian Sky’s Eastern Caribbean
itinerary the previous or following week.
Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line is an international cruise
company and industry innovator that currently operates a fleet
of nine ships sailing to more than 200 ports around the world.
NCL is currently building two new ships: Norwegian Star, a
2,200-passenger ship that will be NCL’s largest (delivered
in October); and Norwegian Dawn, a 2,200-passenger sister
ship to Norwegian Star (delivery in December 2002).
For further information on NCL, contact a travel agent or
NCL in the US and Canada at (800) 327-7030; in Miami-Dade
County, Florida, (305) 436-0866; or on AOL at keyword: NCL;
or to download high resolution photography visit http://www.ncl.com/hires.
Orient Lines’ US headquarters is located in Fort Lauderdale,
Fl., while its operation center is based in London. A global
network of sales agents sells Orient Lines to local markets.
For information about CruiseTours aboard Marco Polo and Crown
Odyssey, contact a travel agent, Orient Lines at (800) 333-7300
or visit their web site at http://www.orientlines.com.
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