Freestyle Cruising

The Freestyle Cruising Experience - A Norwegian cruise vacation provides you with complete FREEDOM. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Norwegian Cruise Line's "Freestyle Cruising" concept transforms your traditional cruise into a more personal and unique experience just for you! Eat at any time of the day and wear whatever you feel like. While onboard a Norwegian cruise ship, you can lounge out in casual attire and not worry about packing a tuxedo. As dinner time approaches, you can choose from a multitude of dining options and you don't have to worry about being late! You choose your dinner time for every day of your fabulous Norwegian cruise vacation.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
NCL decision to move Pride of Hawaii to Europe justified by larger Q1 loss
Norwegian Cruise Line just announced a wider first-quarter loss, $60.8 million versus $28.8 million a year earlier, that completes the picture surrounding the line's April decision to move Pride of Hawaii away from the islands and to the Mediterranean. At that time, NCL acknowledged the cause to be "downward pricing pressure in the Hawaii cruise market" caused by NCL's own capacity surge and new Hawaii competition from other lines sailing from the US west coast.

It is now surely a cruise buyer's market for those looking to sail to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and even Alaska to come extent.

Along with NCL's Pride of America and Pride of Aloha, Pride of Hawaii is one of only three vessels allowed to sail inter-island Hawaii cruises due to being US-flagged, whereas everyone else's foreign-flagged vessels must call at an inconvenient foreign port somewhere on their Hawaiian itineraries due to US federal laws.

In search of better pricing, Pride of Hawaii will be pulled out of service in February 2008, renamed Norwegian Jade, repainted, and switched into Mediterranean cruise service as part of the regular Norwegian fleet.

Labels: Norwegian Cruise Line

Rosie O'Donnell cruise causes cancellations for those already booked

A cruise ship getting chartered is not newsworthy. Neither is the cruise line cancelling the reservations of people who booked the sailing before the cruise charter. But it is newsworthy when Rosie O'Donnell is the person doing the chartering for her gay- and lesbian-friendly family vacation company, when the cruise sails in less than five months, and when the cruise line's compensation to the bumped passengers seems weak.

That's what just played out with Norwegian Dawn sailing July 7 for a Bermuda cruise.

Rosie's R Family Vacations completed a full-ship charter with Norwegian Cruise Line. And since Norwegian agreed to it, naturally Norwegian also knew it would need to cancel the existing reservations of people who were already booked, and offer them some kind of compensation.

Of course, these folks could rebook their trip on Rosie's cruise, but their preferred accommodations might not be available, prices are somewhat higher, and some will be uncomfortable on a gay- and lesbian- targeted cruise.

It's very unusual for a ship to be chartered so close to the sailing date. That means more people booked already, and thus more people inconvenienced by having their vacations now cancelled. Most full-ship charters happen about a year out, as opposed to less than than five months in advance like this one. We're also sure it helped that R Family Vacations and Norwegian Cruise Line have a longstanding business relationship.

As far as we've been able to ascertain, Norwegian is offering the cancelled people $100 per stateroom on board credit to rebook on a different date. Some people may find that fair, but certainly plenty others won't, who for example may face airfare change fees and other inconveniences.

Anyway, the many pundits bashing Rosie about this have their ire somewhat misplaced. Rosie's company asked Norwegian whether they could charter the ship, and Norwegian agreed. Any ire about the inconvenience to Norwegian's previous customers belongs with Norwegian. Even so, Rosie's publicists should have been able to foresee some blow back on this. Hopefully they'll charter farther in advance next time.

Labels: Norwegian Cruise Line

Rosie O'Donnell cruise causes cancellations for those already booked