Norwegian Cruise Lines was founded in 1966 as the Norwegian Caribbean Line. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, NCL controls eight percent of the worldwide market and, along with Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited, is considered one of the “big three” corporations that dominate the U.S. cruise ship market. NCL has a relatively young fleet of cruise ships; all of the company’s 11 ships were built within the last 14 years, and over 70 percent of those have a carrying capacity of more than 3,000 passengers and crew. NCL’s two newest ships, the Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Getaway, each with over 5,500 passengers and crew, will launch in May 2013 and January 2014 respectively.

All of NCL’s 11 cruise ships have installed advanced sewage treatment systems, resulting in a grade of A for the company’s 100 percent sewage treatment score. In determining the air pollution reduction grade for each cruise line, only ships that dock at a port that currently has shoreside power (thereby avoiding burning dirty fuel in port) were considered. In total, two of NCL’s ships that dock at a port with shoreside power are plug-in capable, giving the company a D- in this category (one of the ships HAL has equipped with shoreside power hookups, the Norwegian Epic is not being sent to ports where shoreside power is offered, so for purposes of determining NCL’s air pollution reduction grade, this ship was only given half credit.). In 2010, the Norwegian Pearl was cited by Alaskan authorities for three violations and the Norwegian Star was cited for one violation of Alaskan water pollution standards, giving NCL a 90 percent for water quality compliance in Alaska, or an A.