Norwegian pioneered many firsts in the cruise industry, such as the first exclusive private island, Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, the first combined air-sea program (marketed as 'Cloud 9 Cruises'), which combined low-cost air fares with the cruise, Freestyle Cruising, which is a form of relaxed and informal cruising, and first shipline to develop new ports in the Caribbean, such as Ocho Rios in Jamaica.įirst new builds Starward and sister Skyward were the first purpose-built ships for NCL Arison soon left to form Carnival Cruise Lines, while Kloster acquired additional ships for Caribbean service, with the line renamed and marketed as Norwegian Caribbean Line. The Sunward was first managed under the Arison Shipping Company, and marketed as Ensign Cruises.
The cruise line was founded in 1966 by Norwegian Knut Kloster and Israeli Ted Arison, with the 8,666-ton, 140 m long cruise ship/car ferry, Sunward, which in 1966 operated as a car ferry between Southampton UK and Gibraltar, for that one short season only. History Norwegian Caribbean Line's first ship Sunward It is wholly owned by parent company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. It is the third-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6% of the total worldwide share of the cruise market by passengers as of 2021. Norwegian Cruise Line ( NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in Norway in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami.
