CRUISE LINE REVIEW: STAR CRUISE

360° Interactive Virtual Tour of a Star Cruises ship

STAR CRUISE

Star Cruises is the third-largest cruise line in the world behind Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises, and dominates the Asia-Pacific market. Star Cruises owns 50 % of the Norwegian Cruise Line, NCL America, and 100 % of Cruise Ferries brands with a total combined fleet of 22 ships and over 35,000 berths. The company is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Singapore Exchange.

Star Cruises is credited with almost single handedly developing the cruise industry in the Asia-Pacific region. Its foray into the global shipping market has allowed it to tap into lucrative and more mature markets in North America and Europe. Its services cater to Asian passengers as well as to North Americans, Europeans and Australians interested in Asian destinations.

The president and the CEO of Star Cruises company is Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, the son of the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, the founder of Malaysia's Genting Highlands.

History

Star Cruises was founded as an associate of the Genting Group of Malaysia, incorporated in Bermuda on 10 November 1993 with its corporate headquarters in Hong Kong. The company's first ships were two cruiseferries acquired from the bankrupted estate of Swedish Rederi AB Slite. In the following years the company purchased several other used ships. In 1998 Star Cruises took delivery of its first new build, SuperStar Leo, followed by sister ship SuperStar Virgo in 1999.

In the year 2000, Star Cruises acquired 100 % of Norwegian Cruise Line (including its subsidiaries Orient Lines and Norwegian Capricorn Line) and became the first global cruise line. Norwegian Capricorn Line operations were soon merged into those of Star Cruises. Before the purchase of NCL, Star Cruises had several new builds either planned or under construction, but most of these joined the NCL fleet instead of that of Star Cruises. In August 2007 Star announced that in exchange for $ 1bn (US) that 50% ownership of NCL would pass to a large US Private Equity group - Apollo Management LP.

Early in 2008 Orient Lines as a brand ceased to exist with the sale of Orient's sole ship MS Marco Polo to Greek interests.

In 2001 Star Cruises founded a new sister company Cruise Ferries which began operating one ship, Wasa Queen, on short cruises from Hong Kong to Xiamen; then on overnight gambling cruises from Hong Kong, and from July 2007 similar overnight gambling cruises from Port Klang (Kuala Lumpur) Malaysia. This operation has ceased functioning with the sale of its only ship Wasa Queen, which is now renamed Arberia.

With the operations of Norwegian Cruise Line having proven more profitable than those of Star Cruises itself, since 2006 the trend has been that new ships are built for NCL, and the old ships they replace are then transferred to the Star Cruises fleet in Asia.