Review of July 18, 2004 voyage of the Pride of Aloha departing from Honolulu, Hawaii

By now, it's widespread knowledge that NCL America (NCLA) is having significant problems with their new Hawaii cruise offering. NCLA is a new company formed by NCL under which three US flagged ships will eventually operate. At the current time, the Pride of Aloha (formerly Norwegian Sky) is the only ship in the NCLA fleet and is the first U.S. flagged cruise ship in approximately 50 years. Its crew consists of U.S. citizens and individuals who are in the United States legally.

I commend NCLA for what they're trying to do that is to provide high-paying jobs and offer an efficient Hawaiian cruise (under U.S. maritime laws foreign ships can't travel from U.S. port to U.S. port, and in Hawaii's case cruisers had to touch base at the Fanning Islands before heading to another Hawaiian destination)—. The challenges they face are understandable, but people took time for a vacation with NO idea they were paying to be part of a poorly executed experiment. This should have been stated upfront and the price adjusted accordingly. I was told by two NCL employees training Pride of Aloha staff that NCL is well aware of the problems. Unless NCLA quickly enacts major changes to future cruises and refunds money (cold hard cash, NOT discount vouchers for NCL cruises) to former passengers, they are destined to fail. Word of mouth and the Internet give NCLA a tiny window in which to react. They are dealing with a public relations nightmare that requires bold and decisive action. Read more