What is Norwegian Cruise Line?
A: Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) is an American cruise line.
When was it founded?
A: In 1966.
Where was it incorporated?
A: In Bermuda and headquartered in Miami.
It is the third-largest cruise line in the world by
what?
A: Passengers.
It controls what percentage of the total worldwide
share of the cruise market by passengers as of
2018?
A: about 8.7%.
It is wholly owned by whom?
A: Parent company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.
The cruise line was founded by whom?
A: Norwegian Knut Kloster and Israeli Ted Arison.
What did they start with?
A: The 8,666-ton, 140-m long
cruise ship/car ferry, Sunward.
The Sunward was first managed under whom?
A: The Arison Shipping Company, and marketed as Ensign Cruises.
Arison soon left to form what?
A: Carnival Cruise Lines.
Kloster acquired additional ships for Caribbean
service, with the line renamed and marketed as what?
A: Norwegian Caribbean Line.
Norwegian pioneered many firsts in the cruise industry,
such as what?
A: The first combined air-sea program (marketed as "Cloud 9 Cruises"), which
combined low-cost air fares with the cruise, and first ship line to develop
new ports in the Caribbean, such as Ocho Rios in Jamaica.
Norwegians's second and third ship, the Starward and
Skyward, were the first what?
A: Newly built ships designed for the cruise line.
Like the original Sunward of 1966, they had the
capability to carry what?
A: Automobiles through a well-concealed stern door.
Later, this area was turned into what?
A: Cabins and a two-deck movie theater, later to be used as a casino.
Norwegian would order two additional ships, that would
be their first what?
A: True cruise ships without any car carrying capacity.
What two ships did they order?
A: The Southward in 1971, and an intended identical sister the Seaward.
The Seaward would never be delivered to the line and
would be completed for whom instead?
A: P&O Cruises.
Why did the line sell its original ship the Sunward in
1973?
A: It was too small and inadequate for the modern cruise market.
They would purchase the former Cunard Adventurer in
1977, refitting her with what?
A: The trademark NCL funnels, and renamed Sunward II.
Norwegian made headlines with the acquisition of the
liner SS France in 1979, rebuilding the liner as a what?
A: A cruise ship and renaming her ''Norway''.
How much did the conversion cost?
A: More than US$100million.
At 1,000 ft (305 m) long and displacing 52,000 tons,
the Norway was at the time significantly larger than what?
A: Any existing cruise ship and exploited the extra space available by
adding a greater-than-usual variety of onboard entertainment.
Her success paved the way for what?
A: A new era of giant cruise ships.
With an aging, small ship fleet by the late 1980s
compared to the larger modern ships being built for competitors Carnival and
Royal Caribbean, Norwegian attempted to catch up with what?
A: An order of a new ship in 1987, the new Seaward, the lines first new
build since 1971.
Norwegian parent company Kloster would transfer two of
the recently acquired Royal Viking Line ships to Norwegian, that would
become what?
A: The Westward and Sunward (III).
Kloster would acquire Royal Cruise Line in 1989–90, and
would eventually transfer the Westward to what?
A: Their fleet.
Norwegian would also continue with further orders of
new ships in the early 1990s, not trying to compete with what?
A: The large size cruise ship building trend of competitors, but with the
smaller with the Dreamward and Windward to offer better flexibility with
itineraries.