NCL ORDERS TWO NEW SHIPS
FOR DELIVERY IN 2007
Miami, December 17, 2004 - NCL Corporation (“NCL”)
announced today that it will build two new 2,400-berth Freestyle
Cruising ships with delivery dates in time for the summer
season of 2007. One ship will be built at Meyer Werft in Papenburg,
Germany and will be delivered in February 2007. The other
ship will be built at the Helsinki, Finland yard of Aker Finnyards
and will be delivered in May 2007.
The orders are subject to documentation and certain conditions
being fulfilled before becoming effective, including inter
alia, the securing of specified financing packages. The aggregate
effective all-up cost of the two ships is estimated to be
€770 million, or approximately $1 billion at today’s
exchange rates.
The Meyer ship will be an exact repeat of the Norwegian
Jewel, currently under construction at that yard and due for
delivery in August 2005. It will have 2,384 lower berths,
10 restaurants, an expansive top-of-ship complex of Garden
Villas and Courtyard Villas, multiple lounges, bars, and entertainment
venues, and some 540 staterooms and suites with private balconies.
The Aker Finnyards’ ship will be a new design, incorporating
all of the features of the series of purpose-built Freestyle
Cruising ships that NCL has introduced since 2001. Slightly
larger in capacity than the Meyer ship, it will have around
2,430 berths. Additionally, it will have over 840 staterooms
and suites with private balconies. In a first for the industry,
every outside stateroom on this huge ship will have its own
private balcony.
The Aker Finnyards’ order will include an option for
a second ship, for delivery in early 2008, with exercise of
the option by end of August 2005.
Commenting on the new orders, Star Cruises chairman Tan
Sri K T Lim said: “These new orders confirm our strong
confidence in this business and our commitment to rapidly
renewing the NCL fleet and putting ourselves in the position
very soon of having the youngest fleet in the industry.”
The two new ships will be the eighth and ninth new ships
introduced to the NCL fleet since Star took control of the
company in early 2000, bringing the investment in new ships
since that time to over $3.75 billion.
According to Colin Veitch, President and CEO of NCL, “We
are very pleased to have been able to strike these deals at
prices that make sense for us in spite of the weak dollar
exchange rate. We will be building with two excellent shipyards
and we know that these will be top quality, high-earning ships
and strong additions to our Freestyle Cruising fleet.
“We are very pleased indeed to be continuing our relationship
with Meyer Werft, a relationship that has spanned almost a
decade and that has resulted in the delivery already of four
world class ships to our group, and now a total of three more
on order. With Meyer we know what we are getting and we are
very satisfied with that.”
Since 1998, Meyer has delivered Superstar Leo (now Norwegian
Spirit), Superstar Virgo, Norwegian Star, and Norwegian Dawn,
and is building Norwegian Jewel, Pride of Hawai`i, and now
this additional repeat of Norwegian Jewel.
“We are equally pleased”, Veitch said, “to
be re-opening our relationship with Aker Finnyards after an
interval of roughly 16 years since the same shipyard delivered
the NCL ship Seaward in 1988. And we are excited at the design
solution we and the yard have been able to arrive at that
gives an unprecedented number of balcony cabins on a Panamax
ship. It will be the “richest” ship in the NCL
fleet in terms of revenue potential.”
NCL has a program in place to transfer to Star Cruises,
all six of the mid-size middle-aged ships that constitute
the core NCL fleet from pre-Star days. Between 2005 and 2009
over 8,000 berths will leave the NCL fleet, and therefore
a major new building program is under way not only to replace
those transferred berths but also to continue to grow the
fleet at the same time. By expanding its building activities
beyond its traditional one yard, NCL will access greater capacity
to meet these needs.
“We wanted two new ships in time for the summer of
2007,” Veitch said, “and no one yard could do
that for us so we are now at the point where it makes sense
for us to start working with more than one yard.”
NCL Corporation ("NCL") is an innovative cruise
company headquartered in Miami, Florida, with a fleet of 14
ships in service and under construction. The corporation oversees
the operations of Norwegian Cruise Line, NCL America, and
Orient Lines. On July 4, 2004, NCL made U.S. maritime history
when it introduced the reflagged Pride of Aloha, the first
modern U.S.-flagged cruise ship in nearly 50 years. The 2,002
passenger ship is 100% U.S.-crewed, and sails year-round in
Hawaii under the NCL America brand alongside Norwegian Wind
from sister brand, Norwegian Cruise Line. The company is currently
building three ships, including two more for the NCL America
brand in Hawai`i - Pride of America (delivery in June 2005)
and Pride of Hawai`i (delivery in April 2006). Norwegian Jewel
will join the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet in August 2005.
For further information on NCL or NCL America, agents in
the U.S. and Canada may contact NCL at (800) 327-7030; visit
NCL’s website at www.ncl.com or on AOL at keyword: NCL;
or to download high-resolution photography visit www.ncl.com/hires.
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