Is NCL America Past Its Rocky Start?

[BruceMuzz]

American Hawaii Cruises was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for years. It is just another symptom of an American Flag Cruise Ship. Without Casino and Duty-Free Alcohol to produce revenues, with high-priced Officers and Crew to dilute any chance of profits, and paying taxes on everything, they just couldn't make it.

The American Hawaii ships were falling apart because they couldn't afford to keep up on maintenance. Crew Decks flooded regularly on the "Connie" and "Indy". The crew had to sleep on the open decks quite often.

At one point the US Coast Guard would not allow the 2 older ships to sail out of sight of land - due to their imminent danger of sinking.

 

When they got the Patriot (a run down old ship that Holland American was desperate to get rid of) the American Engineers had no metric tools and didn't know how to repair the European Machinery. They had to wait until a Holland America ship was along side them in port and then ask the HAL Engineers to come over and fix things.

 

9/11 had very little to do with America Hawaii's failure. NCL had arrived in Hawaii just before 9/11, with new ships, great prices, and great service. America Hawaii realized that they couldn't possibly compete and just gave up.

By the way, just after 9/11 NCL's ships in Hawaii were packed. Americans were afraid to fly - but not afraid to fly to Hawaii. NCL's Hawaii itineraries were so popular that they were the backbone of NCL's "Homeland Cruising" programs.

 

Trivia Question:

When America Hawaii went bankrupt, how many native Hawaiians were still employed on their three ships?

 

Answer: 2

[tomluvsaida]

According to this thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=397889 POH is now fully staffed! :)

As far as some of the reviews go you can read enough to be negative or at least confused until the negative reviews finally say what they are pissed about! :mad: In one case I just thought the person was being picky :rolleyes: until they finally let us know their reservations got screwed up. :eek: If I've learned one thing from these threads it's that you really need to make restaurant reservations for the week in the specialty restaurants or resign yourself to the buffet.(The quality of the buffet is another area that has everthing bad to excellent.) As for the two main restaurants (which have the same menu) I'm not sure if they take reservations or not. I've read both. :confused: Also on one sailing date on POH I read one review that said the food was poor quality and not much of it and another said it was excellent and had plenty of it! Both these were on the same ship at the same time! The quality is very subjective in that everyone has different tastes. The quantity though I wonder about, especially in the buffet. Isn't a buffet all you can eat by definition?

The person who complained about not getting enough to eat probably doesn't know this but I also read you can ask for seconds even in the sit down and be waited on restaurants.

[BruceMuzz]

American Hawaii Cruises operated for 22 years in Hawaii. They had a monopoly on the itineraries, almost zero competition, and very few high costs (their ships were paid for early on) and few expensive regulations to deal with.

In their last several years of operation, they had such high turnover of staff on their ships that they frequently could not meet the US Legal Minimum number of crew required to sail their ships. In order to legally sail, they had all their office staff certified by the US Government as Merchant Mariners with U.S. Coast Guard Lifeboat Certificates. Every weekend, as their ships got ready to sail from the pier at Aloha Tower (Across the street from the American Hawaii Head Office), people in the office had to wait standby with a suitcase until the Crew Purser on each ship had made a final crew headcount. Then they called the office to inform them how many office staff needed to sail on the ships that week - in order to raise the crew list above the legal minimums. ( "Honey, I'm not coming home from work tonight. See you in a week".)

The office staff didn't really do any serious work on the ship, but had to be physically onboard for the week - with their Merchant Mariner Cards and lifeboat certificates in hand.

It took them 22 years to get to that point. With any luck NCL America has only 20 years more to go................................................

[mississauga]

Thanks for all the background info. When we went on our cruise in 2001, I was not aware of websites like CC. Even though we had been on other cruises, we only found that America Hawaii was the only line that cruised the Hawaiian Islands. We went for it without any background info and ended up having a wonderful cruise. I don't know if it was because it's the smallest ship we have been on but I found this cruise to have the most activities planned and lots of participation by passengers. They had more social staff than any other cruise I had been on before up to that point. Since then, from 2003, I have seen more staff devoted to social events on other ships. I guess it's the trend now. On our cruise, it seemed like we had more staff than on other cruises. I guess after our cruise I just didn't keep up with how they were doing until well after their downfall and just assumed it was because of 9/11. How wrong my assumptions were.The staff had told us about the new ships that were on order so I thought they had a bright future ahead .

 

Trivia Question:

When America Hawaii went bankrupt, how many native Hawaiians were still employed on their three ships?

 

Answer: 2

 

 

I would not have guessed a high # because on our cruise, a lot of them were from the mainland. However, it would be a guess of higher than 2. One of them might have been the Social Director who had high hopes for the m.s. Patriot. He was getting married in May 2001 to the assistant social director ( who was from the mainland).

 

Was NCL competition for America Hawaii? When I heard of NCLA, I just assumed they took over for them. I even thought maybe the new ships I had heard of were the new ships that NCLA put out in the last few years. I only discovered CC earlier this year after having taken 10 cruises. What a lot I have learned since then.Thanks to info given by fellow CC'ers.

[Another ship trip]

When Pride of Hawaii launched in May, we had one question in mind: Is smooth sailing ahead for NCL America ... or is the line barely past its notoriously rocky start?

 

We just launched a story in our news section tackling that very question (http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1699) with the help of your fellow Cruise Critic readers ... and we're hoping YOU will take a minute to share YOUR thoughts with us here!

 

* Have you traveled on one of NCL America's ships (Pride of Aloha/America/Hawaii)?

* What's been the best aspect?

* What drove you crazy?

* Would you return to Hawaii via NCL America?

* If yes, why ... and if not, which cruise line would you choose?

 

I was on the very first Pride of Aloha trip from CA to Hawaii 12 day. It was fraught with many difficulties and most know but was still so much fun.

 

Best Aspect: Great cruise critic group that met and corresponded online before and we had new friends when we arrived on board. Of course it goes without saying that the islands are the absolute reason for doing this cruise. Great lectures, tons of fun Hawaiian themed activities (hula classes, lei making, etc.) And freestyle is THE BEST but wasn't so on this particular trip.

 

Drove me crazy? No casino! That is what keeps me away still. A group of us played poker many nights though in the library. Hawaii would find more people coming if the state would move into the 21st century on this issue.

 

Also, weak service due to understaffing and inexperienced crew. Food service and quality on this ship was sketchy too.

 

Would I stay away? Probably unless they are virtually giving the cruises away again as was the case when we originally sailed. Every other ship besides NCLA provides a casino so why should I choose the one location where I can't gamble? I spend as many hours in the casino as I do on the land portion of my cruise so if it isn't there, I miss it. I have been on one NCLA cruise and will return when they put casinos in because that is an important cruise feature that I enjoy. (not holding breath as that would take years if they started on the legislation today!)

[HawaiiCruiseGuru]

Apparently NCL is doing very well in Hawaii. Hawaii's cruise business is worth over $500 million and growing fast.

 

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2006/08/28/daily56.html?surround=lfn

[BruceMuzz]

CruiseGuru,

 

You should read that article a bit closer. It reports that Hawaiian Companies CONNECTED to the Cruise Industry made the money. There is no mention of revenue or profits for NCLA. And for good reason. They have invested nearly 3 BILLION DOLLARS so far. Every report from NCL themselves tells us that they are not even close to making any profit on thier operation - much less trying to pay off the $ 3 Billion debt.

Just because a company is generating income does not signal that it is making any profit. ENRON is a perfect example of that concept.

[Mack42306]

We cruise the Pride of America April 29-May6 for our Honeymoon. I'm glad we had both been on previous experiences cuz this experience probably would have ruined our preception of cruises.

Embarkation day

We had gotten there early as per advice I've read since i wanted to make dinner reservations early. Too many nights we saw poor people waiting on line, even at the main restaurants at times! Nothing worse than the lines on NCL. As far as the cover fee, I found it unnecessary with 2 exceptions, Lazy J (cuz lets face it, steak is expensive) and Jefferson’s Bistro (I’m used to dining at expensive gourmet restaurants here in New York so $10 extra didn’t phase us considering the wonderful meals we experienced here.)

Our mini suite was very spacious. Cabin 9698 was located at the very back of the boat. We had gotten an upgrade due to my complaining. Originally we had booked the Pride of Aloha which sailed out of Maui. This was perfect for us as we were doing the Four Seasons before and the Hyatt Maui after. At the very beginning of November, months after booking my entire trip, (airfare, hotels, & cruise), I got a call about how they were drydocking the boat. Something pressing came up and they had to fix the ship… which would have made sense if they weren’t continuing to sail it until 2 months before the sailing. How pressing could it have been and why didn’t it get fixed immediately when it was discovered so it would be up in time for us to sail?!!!!) They offered to move us onto the Pride of America, for no extra charge. First off, I didn’t book the Pride of America 1) for the décor. I wanted a HAWAIIAN atmosphere while in Hawaii… instead I felt like I was all over the continental US the entire time! 2) the itinerary was different. I was livid. We were going to have to try to change everything, as the POAM DOCKED IN HONOLULU! This meant, we also now had to buy interisland flights… AND the ship wasn’t scheduled to go to Kauai at all. So naturally I wasn’t about to fly all that way to NOT see Kauai so we switched from the Hyatt Maui to the Hyatt Kauai. But still our flights were a complete mess and I was livid. NCL “graciously” upgraded our balcony cabin to the family mini suite. I had no need for 3 TVs & extra sitting area, but the HUGE balcony was great. I tried to push for a penthouse, but they didn’t go for it. They are going to wish they had once they receive the complaint letter my husband and I are sending.

Dinner the first night was at East Meets West. Not much to talk about here… I’ve had better Asian food in New York City.

Second Night we dined at the Lazy J Steakhouse. This was surprisingly decent, contrary to some of the reviews I read. The menu is pretty much all steak, as you would gather from the name, so that made me pretty happy. Who ever decorated it should lose their job though because everything about it screamed TACKY.

Monday we went snorkeling. My husband had never done this so he was a little nervous but we had a wonderful time. The excursion was run by the Pacific Whale Foundation and was supposed to be going towards Molokini, but the winds were rough that day and they said the conditions weren’t the best so they took us to a different spot. The coolest part was that on the way, we ended up seeing whales. Yes whale season is only from December to April, so the captain was surprised that we were so lucky. We also sailed next to dolphins for a while and saw turtles. That was before we even got off the boat to snorkel! It was such a great experience!!!!!

That night we did the Luau. WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. Food was alright, but the entertainment, as I expected, was boring. My husband really wanted to do this so I gave in, but even he said it wasn’t worth it.

Tuesday was lobster night in the main dining rooms. We were glad we made reservations as the wait was over an hour for anyone who didn’t have one. It took 20 minutes before someone came over to us to take our drink orders after we sat, and it only got worse from there. We ordered wine and when we asked what was taking so long on that, the girl helping our waiter admitted she couldn’t open the wine so she had to wait for him to finish with the table he was with. SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW YOU WORK IN A RESTAURANT AND DON’T KNOW HOW TO OPEN A BOTTLE OF WINE?! When dinner came, I was surprised to find plastic wrap in my food. I guess they were cooking and forgot to get rid of this. Our waiter (who should never attempt to work in a fine dining restaurant because he was terrible) brought us an extra main course “for the inconvenience.” But I couldn’t help but laugh with my husband as the food was included so if I wanted another one I would have been able to get that anyway. He didn’t know the answer when I asked him what kind of cheese was included in the dessert cheese plate, which turned out to be the most ridiculous cheese plate ever. American & cheddar… are you kidding me?

Wednesday was at Jefferson’s Bistro. This place was wonderful and the saving grace of this awful ship. It was fantastic from the décor to the service to the food. Our server Vanessa was very attentive and knowledgeable about the menu. Normally I wouldn’t make a big deal out of this as this is the proper way to run a restaurant, but having experienced such awful staff up to this point, this was a breath of fresh air. The experience reminded me of dining at our favorite restaurant back home. The food had excellent presentation and tasted amazing. We ordered the fondue for dessert… EXCELLENT.

The Cadillac diner was probably the worst “specialty” restaurant of them all. The first time we dined there we had just gotten back onboard the boat from Hilo and wanted to grab a quick something before dinner. They were clearly understaffed as the line was out the door to be sat when there were dirty tables open that just needed a quick cleanup. We waited for a table, and when we sat we were surprised to notice that our server was handling 75% of the tables there. No wonder they were slow. The poor guy could only do so much by himself. I can only blame the management for this one as they obviously don’t know how to schedule their staff in accordance with the demand of the ship. I ordered the shrimp cocktail as I just wanted something light to hold me over, but was thoroughly disappointed when he brought it out. They were the smallest shrimp I have ever seen in my life. We took a pic as my husband wanted to show the chef he worked with to have a laugh. AND because they were so tiny they tasted terrible… no flavor whatsoever!

Thursday dinner was at the Skyline Restaurant. Thankfully we got a better server, but the food wasn’t anywhere near as good as at the Bistro. We ended up getting hungry again around midnight so we went to the Diner figuring it wouldn’t be too busy so it shouldn’t be bad. I only wanted some fries and my husband a grilled cheese. Surprisingly there were 4 other tables filled, service still slow. Of course it doesn’t help though when the cruise staff orders lots of stuff and they need to be served to. I saw this as apparently NCL allows their employees to dine in the restaurants as well as a bunch of the cruise directors staff walked in and started being loud and obnoxious. We ordered our food well before them, they got their food immediately, and we ended up sitting there listening to their childish antics while we waited. Very unprofessional.

Friday Dinner we did the Bistro again as we loved it that much. Again, excellent food and service.

I was so glad when Saturday finally arrived, I just wanted to get off the ship ASAP and go to a real resort again. We decided we didn’t want to deal with waiting to get off the ship so we did the express check out, meaning we carry our own bags off instead of putting them outside the cabin the night before. We stopped by the photo gallery to buy a last minute picture along the way. I suggested we pay cash as I didn’t think it payment would clear in time for us to get off the boat. The young lady behind the desk said they could only take ship cards. Fine. So we rush to the gangway before they call the next group, I get off the gangway to realize my husband isn’t behind me. I end up waiting there 15 minutes before he finally appears. Apparently when you go to swipe out the final time, something was wrong with his card so security wouldn’t let him off the boat. He tried to tell them that I was already off the boat and if it was that damn photo charge causing the issue, he was going to raise hell. He had to be escorted, BAGS AND ALL to the counter to look into what was wrong. LOW AND BEHOLD the charge we had just made hadn’t cleared LIKE I KNEW IT WOULDN’T. He was livid. We wanted to pay cash the first time, and now, he said, (looking at the massive line to get off the boat that had appeared in his delay), he was going to risk missing our flight. They wouldn’t even let him cut the line, he had to wait for a whole heard of people to get off before him.

POAM: Great Itinerary, AWFUL staff. I have been on MUCH better NCL Cruises. The lines were always too long, even on things that could have been avoided: example, the day we were in Lahaina we had to take tenders so of course everyone waited to the last hour to head back to the boat to maximize the time in town, but NCL still only ran 2 tenders. It was a scorching day and everyone had to wait an hour on line in the sun. The lady behind me actually passed out and hit her head on the metal gate, knocking herself out cuz we had been standing there so long. Luckily my husband used to be an EMT so he was able to help out until a real EMT came. But you would have thought that NCL could have planned for this, or even have provided water or something. Of course not.

Service was terrible (with the exception of our meals in Jefferson’s Bistro & Anthony the bartender in the Gold Rush Saloon.) At one point we had to call maintenance because we noticed that when the boat shifted, our balcony door would open. This of course happened quite often so I called for maintenance on Tuesday and the door didn’t get fixed until Friday morning. At one point the photographer blatantly hit on my husband while I was standing right next to him, claiming he looks like John Stamos. Ok, my husband is attractive, but John Stamos? NO WAY. Bartending service EVERYWHERE on the boat (except at the Saloon) was extremely slow. Its pathetic actually, they lots of customers all the time and they are as slow as molasses. REDICULOUS. At one point, I sent my husband to get our drinks by the pool, I ended up briefly falling asleep waiting for him.

NO I would never cruise NCL America again. And until now I've never had a bad experience on NCL and they were my favorite cruise line. Next cruise I take will be on Princess.

[chas]

We just ended our cruise on POAm on Saturday and got home today. I'll be breif now and write a more detailed review later.

In short, the ship is beautiful but our cabin service and main dining room service were the worst we have ever had on a cruise.

 

NCLA has a long way to go and we were very dissapointed!

 

Chas

[Globaliser]

Now that the Sun is no longer going to Hawaii, and one NCLA ship is being periodically pulled off the intra-Hawaii run and going to Fanning instead from time to time, does this mean that NCLA has realised that it has too much capacity on intra-Hawaii? Is it the beginning of the dismantling of the NCLA operation? Pride of Aloha was the original "international" ship in the NCLA fleet, so is she perhaps the candidate for first to transition back to NCL mainline?

[dwrist]

What makes you think they are contemplating dismantling NCLA?

Does anything keep the Pride of Aloha from cruising international waters? Why can't she cruise to Fanning once in awhile and only cruise the Islands the rest of the time? I have never read about American Flagged ships not able to sail to international ports. Am I missing something here? :confused:

[Globaliser]

I'm just looking forward and wondering/speculating - nothing firm.

 

Of course, a US-flagged ship can sail to international destinations. But the cost base makes it prohibitively expensive to do that in the longer term. So the question arises: Why are they sending the Pride of Aloha to Fanning? I therefore wonder whether this may (emphasis: may) be the first step in a dismantling - over, perhaps a three-year timespan. (Remember, NCL has already publicly said that there are no current plans to expand the NCLA fleet further, so it'll either be static or shrink.)