HAWAIIAN CRUSIES ARE A HOT TICKET

Published Feb 9, 2005 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

NCL began its Hawaiian inter-island cruise voyages in 2004 with the introduction of Hawaii's first home-port cruise ship, "Pride of Aloha." The company is scheduled to bring two new ships online for island cruises, as it introduces the "Pride of America" this summer and the "Pride of Hawaii" in 2006.

While the NCL Hawaii venture got off to a bad start last year, with a number of complaints about service and food preparation, in a recent survey, 93 percent of the customers rated the cruise as "very good."

When fully implemented, Norwegian's planned three-ship U.S. flag fleet is expected to bring $250 million in wages and salaries, and up to 10,000 jobs, to Hawaii.