SuperStar Leo to transfer to NCL fleet

Star Cruises will reposition SuperStar Leo this summer into the Alaska market as part of NCL’s Alaska programme, commencing in May. The repositioning follows the early transfer and reflagging of Norwegian Sky to the US flag for NCL’s Hawaii operations in response to the Pride of America incident which has delayed her delivery and affected her scheduled itineraries from May 2004.

Also - due to star selling capricorn...
Star Cruises will transfer one of NCL’s mid-size ships into the Star Cruises Asia-based fleet in the short to medium term

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Originally posted by phil_a:
sorry to grab info from seatrade again but i found this story interesting...

SuperStar Leo to transfer to NCL fleet

Star Cruises will reposition SuperStar Leo this summer into the Alaska market as part of NCL’s Alaska programme, commencing in May. The repositioning follows the early transfer and reflagging of Norwegian Sky to the US flag for NCL’s Hawaii operations in response to the Pride of America incident which has delayed her delivery and affected her scheduled itineraries from May 2004.

Also - due to star selling capricorn...
Star Cruises will transfer one of NCL’s mid-size ships into the Star Cruises Asia-based fleet in the short to medium term

which one? any ideas

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Mmm... this is the second time that Star Cruises has announced the tranfer of SuperStar Leo to NCL...
Two years ago she was supposed to become the first NCL ship to cruise year round to Hawaii...

I believe that Star Cruises will get Norwegian Sea, now the oldest NCL ship... very difficult to say when the transfer will take place.

Year after year their fleet is becoming smaller...

So in 2004 just six cruise ships:

SuperStar Virgo.
SuperStar Aries ( she will leave soon ).
SuperStar Gemini.
Star Pisces.
MegaStar Aries.
MegaStar Taurus.

STAR CRUISES’ SUPERSTAR LEO TO ENTER NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE FLEET SAIL IN ALASKA AS PART OF NCL FLEET
Ship to replace Norwegian Sky for the 2004 Alaska season

MIAMI, FL, January 21, 2004- Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) announced today that the Star Cruises’ ship SuperStar Leo will spend this summer in Alaska as part of NCL’s popular Alaska Inside Passage programenter the NCL fleet for the 2004 Alaska season. The 77,000-ton ship will take over Norwegian Sky’s previously published seven-day itinerary from Seattle.

The move comes in response to Norwegian Sky’s early transfer to Hawai`i as Pride of Aloha. After a multi-million dollar remodeling in May, Pride of Aloha will be reflagged into the U.S. registry to assume Pride of America’s seven-day inter-island itinerary.

"We have acted quickly to support NCL at a difficult time when they have had the delivery of their newest ship seriously delayed and their plans to develop the important new Hawai`i market disrupted,” Star Cruises’ Chairman and CEO, Tan Sri K T Lim said. “From a Star Cruises Group perspective, we have decided that it is an immediate our top priority is to support NCL's leading position in Alaska and to facilitate the early transfer of Norwegian Sky to our exciting new trade, Hawai`i.” SuperStar Leo, first introduced in Singapore in 1999, was the very first purpose-built Freestyle Cruising ship and is one of Star’s two most modern best ships outside North America.

According to NCL’s President and CEO Colin Veitch: “SuperStar Leo is an exciting, high-quality modern ship with vibrant colors, exceptional public areas and well-appointed cabins. She is the ideal way to ensure that we have the Alaska program that our guests have planned and are expecting. She is the first sister in the family of ships that culminated just a year ago in the spectacular Norwegian Dawn, and passengers who sail on Leo will immediately see the close resemblance between these two big new ships.“

The 2,000-passenger SuperStar Leo was built by Meyer Werft, Germany and was Star Cruises’ first newbuild and largest vessel. SuperStar Leo features Freestyle Dining with seven restaurants including two main restaurants, three alternative restaurants -- Maxim’s (a French restaurant); Shogun (a Japanese restaurant) and Tai Pan (a Chinese restaurant), -- the Raffles Lido Cafe and the popular 24-hour Blue Lagoon.

Like her big sister Norwegian Star, which begins her first Alaska season in May, SuperStar Leo is a family-friendly ship with a wide choice of interconnecting cabins perfect for multi-generational families of all sizes. All staterooms are richly appointed with each containing a much larger bathroom unit than other ships, with separate WC, shower, and washstand compartments separated by sliding doors.

The ship also boasts an expansive children and teen facility, and together with Norwegian Star, they have the largest dedicated children’s areas in Alaska cruising.

SuperStar Leo has an impressive array of entertainment venues including a 1,000-seat theater, a disco, a cinema, several bars and lounges and a world-class casino. The ship also features meeting rooms, a sports deck and a Roman Spa & Fitness Center. SuperStar Leo is a triple winner of the 1999 ShipPax Awards for her outstanding sun decks, bars and lounges, and cabins.

SuperStar Leo will be operated by NCL be operated in Alaska with a fully specified NCL product and offer the full Freestyle Cruising program found on all other NCL ships. She will begin sailing from Seattle on May 15th, the scheduled start of Norwegian Sky’s Alaska season, with seven-day cruises to the Inside Passage with calls in Ketchikan, Juneau, cruising Sawyer Glacier, Skagway and Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

On Thursday, January 22nd, NCL will begin contacting travel agents who have passengers booked on Norwegian Sky to advise them that their passengers have been rebooked aboard SuperStar Leo.

SuperStar Leo features a multitude of outside cabins with 65 percent of those having private balconies, a larger percentage than Norwegian Sky, ensuring that all passengers booked on Norwegian Sky will move to an equivalent or superior cabin on their chosen sailing date. In addition, all passengers currently booked on Norwegian Sky will receive a $25 per person onboard credit when they sail on SuperStar Leo.

NCL will continue to take bookings on Norwegian Sky’s Alaska sailings this week while advising travel agents of the ship change. SuperStar Leo’s voyages will be open for sale for new bookings on Monday with prices beginning at $649.

I sounds to me like NCL has no plans to rename the ship during the Alaskan season... it would cost too much to change the signage and other materials for just a four month summer season.

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SUPERSTAR LEO TO ENTER NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE FLEET

Star Cruises today announced plans to reposition Asia's first megaship SuperStar Leo this summer into the Alaska market as part of the Norwegian Cruise Line ("NCL") Alaska programme, commencing in May 2004.

The repositioning follows from the early transfer of the Norwegian Sky to Hawaii and reflagging as the Pride of Aloha which was announced by NCL on 19 January 2004. The early transfer and reflagging of Norwegian Sky into the U.S. registry is in response to the Pride of America incident in the shipyard which has delayed her delivery and affected her scheduled itineraries from May 2004.

SuperStar Leo which is currently in Australia will complete her two-month programme there as planned. Upon completion of the Australian programme, she will relocate back to Hong Kong as scheduled and will remain in Hong Kong for a little over a month before proceeding to Alaska to begin cruises from Seattle on 15 May 2004.

"The forthcoming change in deployment of SuperStar Leo to support NCL's Alaska programme again demonstrates the company's ability to respond at very short notice to unforeseen operational requirements that necessitate the repositioning of ships so as to create the minimum amount of inconvenience to our passengers", said Tan Sri KT Lim, Star Cruises' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

In conjunction with this repositioning of SuperStar Leo and the sale of SuperStar Capricorn announced on 15 January 2004, Star Cruises also reaffirmed the intention to transfer one of NCL's mid-size ships into the Star Cruises Asia-based fleet in the short to medium term. Details will follow in due course, but Star Cruises felt that NCL's immediate needs were best served by making the announcement on SuperStar Leo in advance of any decision as to the particular NCL ship that will transfer to Star Cruises. The chosen NCL ship will join the Star Cruises fleet in Asia towards the end of 2004. This is in line with Star Cruises' aim to modify its fleet profile in Asia in order to have larger numbers of relatively modern vessels of medium capacity rather than mega ships. Medium sized ships offer greater deployment flexibility and more diversification of capacity in a developing market where demand patterns have yet to be established.

Star Cruises will be providing periodic updates on the new Asian fleet profile and itineraries at the appropriate time.

Star Cruises will be informing its travel agents who have passengers booked on the SuperStar Leo and affected by her repositioning, to advise them on the alternatives/options.

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However I am wondering the GEMINI in Hong Kong... She is far too small for the summer here, the capacity is too small, the restaurants are too crowded, but Star just don't care about it... While in the Chinese New Year, Star has 3 ships doing daily overnight cruises... and maintain day cruises... they seems to be running short of berths in HK...

It sounds like it is not yet a permanent move, maybe that is also testing whether Leo-Class vessels are suitable for the US market. I see this as a kind of opportunity as some NCL ships are transferred to Asia, and maybe Star is going to enter Australia market under the NCL brand in the future?

[ 01-21-2004: Message edited by: Gundam X Divider ]

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I see this as a clever move. Every action of Star shows that a mega ship is not needed in Hong Kong yearound. SuperStar Leo is a close sister to Norwegian Star and by doing so, the NCL fleet will look more uniform.

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However I am wondering the GEMINI in Hong Kong... She is far too small for the summer here, the capacity is too small, the restaurants are too crowded, but unless Star don't care about it...

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and maybe Star is going to enter Australia market under the NCL brand in the future?

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
What do you mean unless Star don't care? They really didn't have a option. Since the previous months, the LEO has been away from her homeport and I bet many cruisers have gotten used to other Star ships based at Hong Kong, so it really doesn't make sense if Star took the VIRGO out of Singapore where she has stayed...

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From what I observe from Star Cruises... their phenomena on doing business in HK here is that they can always find passengers to fill the berths. Their members can use their "points" to have free cruises. So they don't have much promotion here.

On the other hand... about whether people here has got used to GEMINI. Well, I can say that, not really. People still refer her as SUPERSTAR LEO when they see her, and of course, they will feel that she is too small when looking at her in detail. Moreover, the summer market in HK is quite big... being able to feel many cruises on the LEO... so GEMINI is definitely not enough for the summer season here. But Star Cruises simply don't have the choice.

It is quite interesting that even if the STAR ships are full here in HK, it doesn't mean that the ships are well known. The CAPRICORN was doing quite well last year on her special cruises here, but not really everyone knows her. There is a large number of very frequent passengers, but not many first time cruisers.

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Originally posted by gpcruisedude:
maybe Star will have to change her signs to English

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[ 01-21-2004: Message edited by: Gundam X Divider ]

As for the SuperStar Leo, she'll be starting her Alaska season from Seattle on May 15 and her foreign port (courtesy the Jones Act) will be Prince Rupert. Prior to that, she'll supposedly sail across the Pacific empty and direct to Seattle. So it looks like us Vancouverites will have to go to Seattle in order to see and photograph her. Unkown what she'll be doing after her Alaska season, so maybe in September she'll visit our fair city. Please, please, please!!!

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Originally posted by Gundam X Divider:
Just wondering... will LEO fit well into NCL and the American market? Her deck space, her interial design... She was originally constructed for 3 and 4 days cruises, with "Asian taste", so is she going to be fitting well without much refit?

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Did she received any refit before going to Australia in Last year and this month?

Have you heard or read the complaint(s) on SuperStar leo's interior and cabins while she was sailing in Australian waters?

[ 01-23-2004: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

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kaiser posted:
Well, I just heard that the Norwegian Sky will do her coastal cruise up to Vancouver from San Francisco, arriving here on May 15.... so my clients' travel plans are safe. She will then enter drydock on May 17 for 3 weeks, though I haven't heard where.

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Originally posted by Ocean Liners:

Did she received any refit before going to Australia in Last year and this month?

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Ocean Liners posted:
Well, Star cruises sent SuperStar Leo to Australia Twice, so She will fit well in the American market Too.

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
One thing I am still wondering is whether the decor taste will be fit for the American market.

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Personally I think she looks great and if she stays around North America long term, or makes a habit of this seasonal migration (a la PACIFIC PRINCESS), I will be scrambling to get on her and see what she's like first hand. Personally I think she looks like one of the most exciting newbuilds of the present generation, maybe because she's different and we all complain about how much most new ships are alike...

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Cruiseny posted:
I think Americans will like her just fine - she was designed mainly for Asian tastes but by a Swede of all people, Australians seem to like her just fine which certainly bodes well for the American reaction. Even if Europeans would find her too over-done (judging by the latest Costa ships they wouldn't), Americans and Australians tend to have pretty similar tastes.

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At 76,800 gt, the 858 by 101 foot vessel carries 1,960 passengers and 1,125 crew and was designed for both the Asian and US-based cruise markets

In late 2000, it was announced that the LEO would be diverted to a Honolulu-based service for Star Cruises' U.S. subsidiary Norwegian Cruise Lines and be renamed NORWEGIAN LEO for weekly cruises to Fanning Island and the Hawaiian Islands. In order to comply with Hawaii's "no gaming" restrictions, the massive Maharajah's Casino was to be replaced with another facility. However, in a surprise move, Star opted to transfer its newbuilding 91,000 gt SUPERSTAR LIBRA to NCL instead, and will deploy this ship on the LEO's previouslyannounced route as the NORWEGIAN STAR (II). The SUPERSTAR LEO will thus remain in her successful Hong Kong hub for the foreseeable future.

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[ 01-23-2004: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]