Norwegian Cruise Line began in 1966, when Norwegian shipping executive Knut Kloster and Israeli businessman Ted Arison launched the car ferry Sunward between Southampton and Gibraltar. When that route failed, they moved to the Caribbean as Norwegian Caribbean Lines, and Arison left to found Carnival. Kloster bought Great Stirrup Cay, the first private cruise island, bundled airfare with cruise tickets, and in 1979 spent more than $100 million converting the SS France into the 1,035-foot SS Norway, making the ship itself the destination. NCL later fell behind with secondhand ships until Star Cruises, part of Malaysia’s Genting Group, bought it in 2000 and funded the Norwegian Sky and freestyle cruising, with no assigned dinner seating or formal dress codes.
NCL completed the Pride of America from a half-built hull towed from Mississippi to Germany; it is the only major U.S.-flagged cruise ship and can sail Hawaii without the foreign stop the Passenger Vessel Services Act requires. In 2017 NCL began weekly Miami to Havana sailings, which ended in 2019. A 2003 boiler explosion in Miami crippled the Norway, which was sold as Blue Lady, beached at Alang, India in 2006 and cleared for scrapping by India’s Supreme Court in 2007. After the CDC’s March 14, 2020 no-sail order, NCL raised $2.2 billion, including notes at 12.25 percent, lost $4 billion, furloughed 20 percent of its workforce and doubled CEO Frank Del Rio’s pay to $36.4 million.
- Leaked March 2020 emails showed managers telling sales staff to say the coronavirus could only survive in cold weather.
- Del Rio retired in 2023 and sued NCL in 2026, claiming he was forced out and denied promised consulting pay.
- Four ships ordered from Fincantieri for 2030 to 2037 will measure 227,000 gross tons and carry 5,000 passengers each.
- A 2026 Consumer Reports survey of nearly 19,000 cruisers ranked NCL last of 19 lines for satisfaction.
- NCL holds roughly 8.6 percent of the global cruise market.
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