Norwegian Cruise Line, Star Cruises and Orient Lines Announce Changes in Fleet and Deployment.

Business & Travel Editors

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2001

The Norwegian Cruise Line/Star Cruises Group today announced details of changes to its deployment plans for 2002:

-- The brand new Freestyle Cruising ship, Norwegian Sun, scheduled to sail in
the Mediterranean from May through October 2002, will instead spend the summer
in the Caribbean where she is already more than 75% full for the Spring;

-- SuperStar Aries, which was due to transfer from the Star Cruises fleet into
Orient Lines as Ocean Voyager in May 2002, will now remain with Star Cruises in
Bangkok and her introduction into Orient Lines will be delayed until Spring
2003;

-- S/S Norway, which was to have been swapped into Star Cruises in exchange for
SuperStar Aries, will now remain in the NCL fleet for a further year and will
return to her Miami base in time for Christmas this year after a dry docking
and refurbishment in Europe;

-- Norwegian Sky, currently scheduled to take over the Eastern Caribbean run
from Norway, will instead offer an alternating Eastern/Western Caribbean
itinerary between January and March 2002, as Norway moves back into her
traditional Eastern deployment.

The changes have been made in response to travel agent demands for a year-round Caribbean product from NCL, as well as in anticipation of a likely shift in travel patterns of North American consumers over the coming months.

Norwegian Sun, which is one of two new purpose-built Freestyle Cruising ships being delivered to NCL this fall, has been booking extremely well in her Exotic Western Caribbean deployment and there have been internal discussions on the pros and cons of canceling her 2002 inaugural Mediterranean season in order to keep her in the Caribbean year-round.

"We returned home last week from taking delivery of Norwegian Sun and showing her off to our top travel agent partners," said Colin Veitch, president and CEO of NCL. "The response was extremely positive and we were pressed to put this innovative product into the Caribbean as soon as possible. The terrible events in New York and Washington the day after we returned home then tipped the balance in our internal discussions. We have decided to build on our traditional Caribbean base rather than deploying this new ship on seven-day Mediterranean cruising, in such uncertain times."