NCL announced it's pulling the Pride of Aloha out of the Hawaii itinerary in the middle of May. It will transfer to Star Cruises and start sailing in Asia. That leaves just the Pride of America sailing around Hawaii.

NCL says that although the product is fine, sailing Hawaii is a very difficult operation.

Anyone booked on Pride of Aloha on or after May 11 should call their travel agent. They can transfer their booking to Pride of America, which sails one day earlier. Various onboard credits and allowances for air changes are being offered as well.

Sandy

Sandy, I missed this post and just noticed it. Have you noticed that since POH was announced as moving the rates have skyrocketed for Hawaii? They're also filling ships and doing so earlier than ever. Looks like they've discovered they had too much supply for the demand and have found the solution to the revenue problem they've had the past couple of years. Also, this will make the rate of staff turnover a lesser concern, they simply don't need as much staff now. Hopefully this will also improve the quality of staffing on the remaining ship and service will continue to improve. Who knows, maybe this change will bring the overall product in line with the rest of the indusrty and be among their best changes ever. I look forward to seeing what the future holds.

Cheers, Neil

Hi Neil,

The problems NCLA has had since its inception have been major and obvious. One article I read said the over-supply of their product in Hawaii had driven prices down, even after POH left service there. I assume leaving one ship there will be a good decision for NCL on many levels. I hope you're right that the service problems will improve.

I read that American Safari Cruises is putting one of their yachts (36 passengers) in the Hawaii market now. I wonder if other small ship lines will do the same, as many have done in Alaska.

Sandy

I'm a little surprised, I had hoped reducing the number from 4 ships to 2 ships would suffice to bring fares up. But I had a feeling something was up when NCLA pulled the two ships off the market a month ago.

If you checked out the Apollo Management buy-in deal closely, either Star or NCL could cry "uncle" first over NCLA. NCLA wasn't apart of the initial deal, and NCL was going to owe Star Cruises more cash on December 31 to account for NCLA.

Close to $500 million if they kept both ships and kept NCLA in business as is, or only $124 million if they surrendered the Aloha to Star, and broke up NCLA wholly or partially.

Here's a link with all the juicy details:

http://www.starcruises.com/Investor/Releases/2007/Ca/ca20070817.pdf

A bit of extra info on both ships:
The value of the Pride of Aloha (as of 1 April 2007) was $340 million, free of encumbrances.
The value of the Pride of America (as of 1 April 2007) was $460 million, with $251 million indebtedness.

The Pride of Aloha didn't have enough restaurants to fully support Freestyle Cruising, which is probably why it is the one heading for Star Cruises. It will also be easier to reinstall, if not enlarge the casino space that was initially on the Aloha. Having a large casino is important in the Asian cruise market.

Star Cruises ends up with as new a ship as it presently owns, Superstar Virgo, without any debt. Where Star Cruises plans to sail the "Aloha" hasn't been released. Hopefully that bit of info will be released soon.