It's Good to Be Young

On November 3, NCL reached an exciting, industry-changing milestone — on that date, our fleet officially became the youngest and most modern on the planet (based on major North American cruise lines). The news took effect with the departure of Norwegian Crown and the addition of NCL's brand new Freestyle Cruising ship, Norwegian Gem.

We're very proud of this achievement, which is a key component of the master plan we developed in 2000 to reenergize our fleet. Over the past eight years, we've reached many other goals, like adding ten new ships to our fleet, including nine purpose-built Freestyle Cruising ships. We've also been transitioning our mid-size ships and adding modern new ships, like our state-of-the-art Jewel-class ships — including the "It" girl herself, Norwegian Gem. If you haven't been on NCL lately, you really need to. (More to come on that in the next few months as we announce new programs to get you onboard NCL!)

The youngest fleet...who would have thought it? As a travel agent, I've seen NCL grow and change so much over the years, creating a tremendous impact in the cruise industry over the past four decades.

Even from our beginnings with the MS Starward, we revolutionized cruising by offering regular sailings to the Caribbean — now the number one cruise destination. But that achievement was far from our only "first"— there have been so many other innovations during our now 41-year history.

For example, NCL was the first cruise line to offer year-round service out of New York and to deploy ships in Houston and Seattle. We were also the first cruise line to offer a private island, children's programs, alternative dining restaurants, cell phone service and Internet cafés. And in 2000, NCL turned the cruising industry on its ear with Freestyle Cruising, which did away with fixed dining times, table assignments and formal dress codes — all standard practices at the time.

But while it's always fun to take a nostalgic look back at where NCL has been, it's important to think about the future, to assure NCL is YOUR cruise line of choice. We've built the best "hardware" (our ships), and now we're going to build the best "software" (programs and procedures). This is the part I love ... developing easy programs and simplified procedures for you, our # 1 partner, so that you can be even more confident selling NCL.

You saw an example of this innovative approach with the recently announced fuel supplement. Although we considered making the supplement effective for both existing and new bookings, we decided not to follow that course specifically because of feedback and input from our travel partners. This is just an example of our commitment to you. But, we need your new bookings to financially support decisions like this!

As we close out 2007, it's never been a better time to be an NCL travel partner, cruise guest or team member — and it's only going to get better. As one of our President Club travel partners recently told me, "NCL is on the verge of greatness." Watch out — you ain't seen nothing yet.

Sincerely,

Terri Burke - NCL
Vice President, Business Development, MCC, CTC