3 August 2000 The USA’s oldest established cruise operator Norwegian Cruise Line will adopt Star Cruises’ innovations to provide unique cruise options in North America as well as improve profitability.
In a claimed first for North America cruising, NCL has introduced pay-as-a-you-go dining aboard its Norwegian Sun and plans to extend the concept to its six ships by summer 2001.
Star Cruises acquired NCL, in a US$640 million takeover after a planned but abortive 60/40 alliance with Carnival Cruise Lines.
The first synergies between the two companies emerged in press briefings aboard Superstar Leo by newly appointed NCL president and chief executive officer, Colin Veitch.
NCL will cruise from Asian ports for the first time next year with its 40,000-grt Norwegian Wind operating seven-day cruises on the Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok triangle from October to December, 2001.
NCL will pull its 28,000-grt Norwegian Star out of Australia in October to replace Star Aquarius in the Taiwan market.
And Star Aquarius will in turn replace Superstar Aries, formerly Europa, based in Bangkok.
But introduction of Star’s innovative alternative dining with multiple restaurants and ‘pay-as-you-go’ are seen as giving NCL unique differences in the US market over its major competitors Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises.
The ‘freestyle cruising’ concept is also the key to improving what Veitch described as “miserable yields” and pushing profits which last year slumped to US$14 million.
NCL has changed the interior design of its new build, the 77,000-grt Norwegian Sun, to include nine restaurants featuring 10 different menus when it enters service in September, 2001.
The second of the planned 91,000-grt Superstar Libra class vessels will also transfer to NCL for service in late 2002. Included with all new builds are Star-induced product enhancements and higher crew-passenger ratios.
Experienced Filipino and Indonesian hotel staff aboard Star vessels will have the opportunity to transfer to NCL vessels in North America.
The current NCL Sydney-based Norwegian Star will transfer to the Star Cruises fleet and be renamed Capricorn – the third for Star – after its joint venture company with Australian shareholders sustained losses of some US$23 million in eighteen months of operation.
While smaller than Aquarius the newly named Capricorn is seen more suited to year-round cruising from Taiwan. It is the first time Star has replaced any ship in a developing market with fewer berths.
Taiwan cruising sees fewer passengers in winter and the deep draughted ship is expected to be more comfortable for passengers in big seas than the former shallow-draughted Scandinavian ferry designed Aquarius.
Norwegian Star will remain in Australia to complete charter commitments for the Sydney Olympics for US magazine Sports Illustrated. In mid October it will sail to Hong Kong for drydocking and adding an enlarged casino.
NCL’s first Asian cruise series will see Norwegian Wind on five different seven night cruise itineraries visiting China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea and Japan. Star Cruises port facilities and infrastructure will be used where appropriate.
Market split is expected to be 60 percent North American passengers – only 14 day cruise and land packages ex-USA will be available – 20 percent Australian and five percent each from Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Europe.
Norwegian Wind will then sail down under for four 14-day back-to-back cruises from Sydney to Melbourne, Hobart and most regularly visited New Zealand ports before returning to North America.
NCL will decide early next year from advance bookings levels whether to repeat the series the following year and place a vessel permanently in the Asian market.
Star/NCL, which promotes itself as ‘the first global cruise line,’ sees numerous synergy opportunities through systems development, purchasing, fleet management, safety training, crew recruitment and cross marketing.
NCL has a stated commitment to travel agents and is currently upgrading all servicing with a new res. system, Seware, based on Disney Cruises.
Long term, Star vessels are expected to continue its shorter duration voyages with NCL concentrating on longer itineraries with a minimum of five days.
As new ships come on line NCL will deploy its older vessel on new, shorter itineraries in selected markets, primarily North America.