The ship will be deployed to Europe for the summer of 2008 as part of the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet.

NCL's substantial 2006 losses, reported in February of this year, have been caused by downward pricing pressure in the Hawai'i market following the addition of Pride of Hawai'i to the fleet last summer, and the steep increase in the amount of foreign flag competition entering the Hawai'i market from the west coast, the company said

"We take this action with regret, but sure in the knowledge that a temporary retrenchment is the right thing to do for the good of the business and the good of Hawai'i in the long run," said Colin Veitch, NCL Corp.'s president and chief executive officer. "We remain committed to building a strong U.S. Flag cruise business home ported in Hawai'i, and we need to make sure that our other two ships, Pride of Aloha and Pride of America, are able to achieve acceptable profitability before we can confidently re-introduce Pride of Hawai'i."

According to Veitch, NCL America has grown very quickly over three years, and its competitors have also surged, starting in 2006, offering almost 80 percent additional capacity days on top of NCL America's in 2007.