Norwegian Capricorn Line

The 1997 launch of Norwegian Capricorn Line brought something entirely new to the Asia-Pacific region -- a four star cruise ship based in Australia offering some 35 cruises throughout the year in the waters of Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

NCL operated the vessel originally named Royal Viking Sea as the Norwegian Star on several affordable itineraries that included many Queensland ports of call.

[1] When the major partner in Norwegian Capricorn Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines was taken over by Malaysian owned Star Cruises in 2000/2001 the Australian partnership was dissolved and the vessel Norwegian Star became part of Star Cruises fleet and Norwegian Capricorn Line ceased to exist.

The collapse of the company is the subject of the academic paper ’The Short, Unhappy Life of an Australia-Based Cruise Line’ [2] The sole vessel in Norwegian Capricorn Line's fleet was the 206m, 28,000gt Norwegian Star.

[3] The Norwegian Star was originally built as the Royal Viking Line cruise ship Royal Viking Sea in 1973.