Irony

[hammybee]

Cruising is the best way to see as much of the Hawaiian islands, in the least amount of time. I sailed with NCL in Hawaii. The combination of freestyle dining and American crew made for a different kind of cruise. The entire concept of sailing on a U.S. flagship, in a business dominated by international flags is compelling.

It is necessary for U.S. flagships in Hawaii to be built in the U.S. ( NCL dug the U.S. out of a bad deal and recieved a one time exemption from this and in return cannot sail these ships in the Caribbean).

The sailors and crew have to be predominately U.S.

Casinos cannot be operated.

The three NCL ships employ 2,550 predominately U.S. sailors/crew who will spend their earnings in the U.S.

The three NCL ships, when sailing at full capasity, put 7,362 tourists in Hawaii every week.

The majority of passengers fly American, United or Aloha Airlines to Hawaii.

And yet, NCL is continuously challenged to keep their ships staffed and the crew motivated to serve, while maintaining competitive pricing.

Passengers that board NCL in Hawaii expecting the same experience as an international flag-ship tend to be dissappointed. Those that view it as a well -priced, all inclusive, floating resort, tend to have a better experience.

HAL is and will probably remain my favorite cruising experience. HAL is owned, of course, by Carnival, a U.S. company, listed on the NYSE and the overwhelming majority of its employees are not U.S. Conversely, NCL is ultimately owned by The Genting Group, Malaysia's largest corporation, and they are employing U.S. people in Hawaii, bringing tremendous business into Hawaii and helping the U.S. economy while helping themselves to a share of the pie. In effect, they are doing for Hawaii what HAL did for Alaska but they do not have the ability to dock at a foreign port and therefore cannot have an international crew. Am I the only one to see the irony?

[middle-aged mom]

Hammybee:

Yes, international business and maritime law are full of remarkable historical convolutions and irony.

Cruise West is another line that has an interesting dichotomy. It has American flagged vessels that are staffed with American crew. These ships do largely domestic, North American, and Caribbean itineraries. (Cruise West recently purchased Clipper Cruise Line.) They also have vessels flagged in the Bahamas and Honduras, and these ships do the exotic Pacific Ocean and Central America itineraries. I believe these ships have American navigational crew, but the rest of the staff are international.

Disclaimer:
I'm not that knowledgeable, so I may not have all my facts straight.

Hammybee, I must say you are an erudite and perceptive poster. I enjoy your posts very much. I just don't have the smarts to respond to them as I'd like.:)

[hammybee]

Middle-aged Mom:

Your postings often send me to dictionary.com for the word of the day. Today's word was "erudite". It's often the value-added benefit of your posts, at least to me.

I think you are onto something with Cruise West and Clipper. In order for them to sail where they do, I think their ships need to be U.S. built or perhaps another exception and convolution was made, for circumstances unknown.

I appreciate that you did not take my posting as a political statement because that was not my intent. I just happened to be reading the never-ending saga of U.S. flagged ships in Hawaii on the NCL board and brought my thoughts of the moment, home to the HAL board.

[DFD1]

Interesting and educational exchange. Thank you both.