Norwegian Cruise Line

Freestyle Cruising – the philosophy says all there is to say about the cruise line which adopts a motto such as this. Traditional cruise lines can be a bit oppressive with their dress codes, dining options and entertainments options that are few and dictated by tradition rather than the actual demands and desires of the passenger. Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) of Miami has revolutionized the whole concept of cruising as it were. This has been possible because:

Concepts followed by the cruise line are freestyle, which have even been taken up by other cruise lines in order to be more enticing.
NCL features home land cruising specialty.
Various points of departure are available from Continental US including New York, Seattle, New Orleans, Boston, Tampa Etc.,

A whole new NCL:

Norwegian Cruise Line is currently replacing the pre- free style ship designs to welcome the more relevant ones in. The Norwegian dream and Norwegian Majesty are among the few cruises that have sailed their last with the famed cruise line, and opening space for the more relevant, free style friendly cruises. A number of amenities are being tested on the newer ships of NCL which are:

Luxury villas
Martini and champagne bars
Interconnecting cabins
Onboard bowling alleys
Electronic restaurant reservation systems

These changes make the cruises resemble land based resorts as far as options are concerned. Another great policy from the NCL which is the revolutionary disembarkation policy which happens to be a mass-market cruising policy is very relaxed, in fact so much that it is more like a land based resort than a cruise.

Norwegian Epic debuting as a part of embattled F3 project has taken free style cruising to the next level. There are two more new builds on the docks as part of the initiative Project Break away. Passenger ships weighing 144,017-tons and capable of carrying 4,000 passengers are going to start their voyage from spring 2013 and 2014.

The older ships that are in good condition are being given an over haul instead of being just disposed with. For instance the oldest ship in the fleet the Norwegian Spirit has gone for a multimillion dollar make over and emerged as good as new and perhaps even better in some ways.

Norwegian Cruises overview

NCL was first established in the year 1966 by Oslo based Klosters Rederi A/S, which was one of the Norway’s oldest and most respected shipping firms, with one ship M/S sunward. It later added five more vessels by the year 1979 and was well on its way to becoming one of the largest cruise companies in the world.

The firm was then acquired by Malaysian Genting Hong Kong Company, formerly star cruises in the year 2000. The investments of star cruises have made NCL grow rapidly and thus making it possible to adapt and operate with the free style cruising concept that makes cruising with this line an amazing and unforgettable experience. The line has launched eight new ships since the year 2001.
Apollo equity firms partnering with NCL thus sharing the ownership with Genting Hong Kong has opened up a whole lot of new avenues and concepts to be explored and implemented.