MIAMI BEACH Norwegian Cruise Line wants to be “the Hawaii
specialist,” with initial plans to add a weekly interisland cruise
in 2004 and increase the island ambience aboard its ships.
Of course, the line is well on its way. It already operates the
only ship based year-round in Hawaii. And new federal legislation
allows it to operate three more ships in Hawaii, under the U.S.
flag. That provision eliminates the expense and time needed to
visit a foreign port, which is required of other foreign-flagged
ships on U.S. routes.
“Our ambition is to be known as the Hawaii specialist,” NCL
President Colin Veitch said at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping
Convention here, earlier this month.
Veitch laid out a tentative timetable for his Hawaii program,
which allows NCL to reflag foreign-built ships to U.S. registry;
normally only U.S.-built ships can fly the Stars and Stripes. The
American registry will also require that NCL’s Hawaii ships have an
American crew.
NCL says it will add a weekly interisland Hawaii cruise,
starting in early summer 2004, with a ship being built in Germany.
That vessel will have a Project America hull, left unfinished in a
Mississippi shipyard by the 2001 bankruptcy of American Classic
Voyages. NCL bought the hull and parts of a second ship.
By summer 2005, an existing ship will be reflagged and deployed
in Hawaii, possibly to operate shorter cruises that could be
packaged with hotel stays, Veitch said.
A contract to complete the second Project America ship has not
been signed yet, Veitch said, but it will be added when it is
complete.
The new ships will have “more of a Hawaii flavor than there is
now,” Veitch said. “They will have a principally Hawaii-based
crew.”
While the NCL deal is similar to that held by American Classic
Voyages, Veitch believes his company will be successful.
“American Classic operated old ships and had four brands with no
critical mass,” Veitch said. “We have a wealthy parent company that
is making money.”
He also reiterated that the company will continue to visit
Fanning Island, the foreign port about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii,
which it now uses.
