NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE TO BUILD UP TO THREE
NEW THIRD GENERATION FREESTYLE CRUISING SHIPS

- Order is largest in company's 40 year history -

London, 8 September 2006:  NCL announced today that it has entered into a contract with Aker Yards S.A. of France to build up to three new cruise ships, totalling 12,600 berths for delivery between 2009 and 2011. The contract price, comprising two firm ships and one option, is €2.17 billion, or approximately $2.8 billion at today’s exchange rate.

The ships will be built for the company’s Norwegian Cruise Line brand (NCL) and will each be approximately 150,000 Gross Tons and 4,200 guest berths. The order is firm for two ships for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2009 and the second quarter of 2010, and there is an option for a third sister ship for delivery in the first quarter of 2011. The contract price for each of the first two ships is €735 million, and for the optional third ship is €700 million.

At today’s exchange rate, the contract price on the two firm ships translates to approximately $224,000 per guest lower berth. The contracts are being placed in Euro, equivalent to €175,000 per lower berth. The option ship is priced at €166,667 per berth, or approximately $213,000 per berth at today’s exchange rate.

The new ships, with the project name “F3”, will incorporate a world of new features and will represent NCL’s third generation of Freestyle Cruising ships, a further evolution of NCL’s progressive dismantling of the structure, regimentation, and constraints of the traditional cruise experience. Details of the ship’s design will be released closer to delivery. The stateroom mix will be the richest of any NCL ship to date, and will include the feature that 100% of outside staterooms will have private balconies. In total, the ship will have 1,415 balcony staterooms and suites.

NCL’s unique Freestyle Cruising offers guests a less structured, more relaxed, more resort-style experience than traditional cruising. It is characterised, in particular, by having no fixed dining times, no formal dress codes, up to ten different restaurants and even more lounges, bars, theatres and other entertainment and activity options. The new ship design will offer 60% more guest space than the largest ships built so far by NCL, and will use that space to introduce a major leap forward in the flexibility and variety of the cruise experience, entirely in keeping with the Freestyle Cruising philosophy already established.

The unique use of space on these new ships is designed for optimal cost efficiency per capacity day, as well as being highly attractive in terms of cabin revenue mix and onboard revenue generation. The design is a unique blend of cruise industry best practice, offering an exciting, high quality product, and a space efficient, cost efficient framework in which to deliver that product.

The company is currently undergoing a complete renewal of its fleet and these new orders, when delivered, are projected to take the combined Norwegian Cruise Line and NCL America fleets, in 2010, to a position of being by far the youngest fleet amongst the major cruise lines, with an average ship size, fleet wide, of over 2,500 passenger lower berths, and with over 50% of all staterooms fleet wide offering private balconies.

NCL’s UK General Manager, Francis Riley commented “The ordering of these three new ships demonstrates NCL’s dedication and commitment to providing the youngest and most advanced cruising fleet in the market. The new ships will continue to offer our guests the ultimate Freestyle Cruising experience.  After a sell out summer on the Norwegian Jewel in the Mediterranean we know that the UK market will welcome these new editions.  In this our 40th anniversary year we are proud to announce the continued expansion of the NCL freestyle fleet.”

St. Nazaire, France. Since the spring of this year, Aker Yards S.A. has been a subsidiary of the Norwegian shipbuilding group Aker Yards ASA and a sister company to the Finnish shipyard Aker Yards Finland. With this order, these two yards between them have built, or are building, all ten of the largest cruise ships in the world.

The new order is conditional on financing, completion of the design specification, and Star Cruises’ shareholder approval.

- ENDS -

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