| Its all about ships and more |
FREESTYLE IN
IN NEW YORK
By Richard H. Wagner
Norwegian Cruise Line finds success in the
New York market.
(Originally published by the Navy League of
the United States, New York Council, in The
Log, Spring 2008)
IN NEW YORK
By Richard H. Wagner
Norwegian Cruise Line finds success in the
New York market.
(Originally published by the Navy League of
the United States, New York Council, in The
Log, Spring 2008)
In 2003, Norwegian Cruise Line ("NCL") took the bold step of
homeporting a cruise ship in New York on a year round basis.
From a marketing perspective, it makes sense that New Yorkers
would want to take a break from the winter by taking a cruise that
did not involve having to fly to the ship. However, it was
widely assumed that the winter seas that a ship would have to
transit in going to and coming from the Caribbean would
dissuade passengers from taking such voyages.
As it turned out, the seas during the winter are not as rough as
was commonly assumed and a fast, modern cruise ship can
provide a comfortable, enjoyable passage. Consequently, the
vast majority of its cruises have been without incident and
NCL's venture has proved a success.
This is not to say that it has been all smooth sailing for NCL. In
April 2005, NORWEGIAN DAWN was damaged by a freak 70
foot wave off of the Carolinas that injured four passengers and in
February 2006, NORWEGIAN SPIRIT was damaged by a 42
foot wave that it encountered during a storm.
Rather than treat these incidents as setbacks, NCL concluded
that they proved the viability of cruising out of New York year-
round. Following the NORWEGIAN DAWN incident, Colin
Veitch, President of NCL, stated: “the design and strength of the
ship are well above the normal standard and the evidence this
past weekend is that this model of ship is able to withstand
without damage the most severe wind and wave conditions likely
to be encountered by a modern cruise ship.”
Success brings imitation and the other major cruise lines began
to station ships in New York during the winter. Indeed, during
the winter 2007-2008, there were four lines operating out of
New York. However, two of those lines have decided to deploy
their ships elsewhere in 2009, leaving just NCL and Royal
Caribbean International (which sails out of Bayonne) serving the
New York market.
In this article, we shall look at NCL and its New York ships in
order to see what makes NCL different.
The NCL Story
In 1966, Norwegian businessman Knut Kloster saw a market
opportunity in taking British holiday makers and their cars by sea
from England to Gibraltar. To serve this market, he ordered a
combination passenger ship/car ferry to be built. However,
before the service could be implemented, political problems in
Gibraltar foreclosed the opportunity.
While he was considering what to do with the ship he had
ordered, Kloster received a call from Ted Arison, a former
Israeli Army colonel turned entrepaneur. Arison's most recent
venture had been operating cruises from Miami to the Bahamas
using a converted car ferry that had been chartered from the
Israeli government. The venture had been something of a success
but fell apart when the Israeli government decided the ship
should stay closer to home in case it was needed for military
purposes.
Arison had heard about Kloster's new ship and suggested that it
was the perfect replacement for the ship that had been doing the
cruises from Miami. He proposed a joint venture in which
Kloster would own and operate the ship while Arison would
take care of marketing and ticketing. After exacting a number of
financial guarantees from Arison, Kloster agreed. The venture
was called Norwegian Caribbean Line or NCL.
Kloster's ship, the SEAWARD, was superior to anything else
that was cruising out of Miami in those days. It was sleek, fully
air-conditioned and had a modern appearance. Two more
similar ships were quickly added to the fleet in order to
accommodate the growing demand.
While the venture was a success, there was friction between
Kloster's Norwegians who were operating the ships and Arison's
Americans who were doing the shore-side operations. As a
result, in 1971, citing Arison's alleged failure to satisfy the
financial guarantees in the original joint venture agreement,
Kloster announced that he was ending the partnership. Arison
responded by seizing the deposits passengers had paid for future
cruises. Years of litigation followed, eventually ending in an out-
of-court settlement.
The disintegration of he joint venture left Arison with a
shoreside operation but no ships. Eventually, he would find a
ship and founded a new company called Carnival Cruise Line,
which was to become the world's largest cruise line. (See The
Log, Fall 2007, at 21).
Meanwhile, Kloster was left with the NCL name and a fleet of
cruise ships but no one to market or sell tickets. Kloster
struggled to put together a new shoreside team but in about a
year, NCL had resumed its place as the leader in the growing
Caribbean cruise business.
In 1979, Kloster made a bold move, which not only had long
range repercussions for NCL but which would eventually
transform the industry. He announced that he had purchased the
ocean liner FRANCE and was going to transform her into a
cruise ship. Entering service in 1962, FRANCE had been built
for the transatlantic service and was considered to be a
masterpiece of maritime design. However, because of the jet
airliner the transatlantic service was not a viable business and
the ship had gone out of service in 1972 when the French
government ended its operating subsidy.
The idea of transforming a liner that had been retired from the
transatlantic service into a cruise ship was nothing new. Indeed,
most of NCL's competitors operated such ships. However, those
ships were much smaller than the FRANCE. In fact, the industry
believed that a ship of about 20,000 gross tons was about the
ideal size for a cruise ship because they could get into the
undeveloped ports of the Caribbean and it would not be too
difficult to find a few hundred passengers each week to keep
such a ship full. FRANCE was over 66,000 g.r.t. and could
carry some 2,000 passengers. It was a quantum leap.
What Kloster foresaw was that a ship as large as France would
have more space for facilities that would attract more passengers
such as a theater that could be used for Broadway-style shows.
In addition, there would be vast economies of scale. It would be
cheaper to serve two thousand passengers with one large ship
than with four or five smaller ships. As shown by the steady
stream of ever larger mega-cruise ships entering service today,
Kloster's thinking has proven correct.
In order to convert the FRANCE into a cruise ship, the liner was
towed to Germany where two of her four screws were removed.
In addition, large landing craft-like tenders were put on her bow
for use in shuttling passengers from the ship to the shore. She
emerged as the NORWAY and quickly became popular.
However, the $42 million estimated cost of the conversion
turned out to be optimistic and $65 million ended up being
spent. In addition, millions more would be spent over the next
25 years repairing and upgrading NORWAY putting a burden on
NCL's finances.
During the 1980s, NCL did not focus on adding new ships to its
fleet but rather relied upon NORWAY and the smaller ships that
it had built in the 1970s. While the latter group of ships had once
been the envy of the industry, competitors such as Carnival and
Royal Caribbean were building newer and bigger ships. As a
result, NCL's fleet began to look out of date and it began to fall
from its position as industry leader.
Meanwhile, Kloster was left with the NCL name and a fleet of
cruise ships but no one to market or sell tickets. Kloster
struggled to put together a new shoreside team but in about a
year, NCL had resumed its place as the leader in the growing
Caribbean cruise business.
In 1979, Kloster made a bold move, which not only had long
range repercussions for NCL but which would eventually
transform the industry. He announced that he had purchased the
ocean liner FRANCE and was going to transform her into a
cruise ship. Entering service in 1962, FRANCE had been built
for the transatlantic service and was considered to be a
masterpiece of maritime design. However, because of the jet
airliner the transatlantic service was not a viable business and
the ship had gone out of service in 1972 when the French
government ended its operating subsidy.
The idea of transforming a liner that had been retired from the
transatlantic service into a cruise ship was nothing new. Indeed,
most of NCL's competitors operated such ships. However, those
ships were much smaller than the FRANCE. In fact, the industry
believed that a ship of about 20,000 gross tons was about the
ideal size for a cruise ship because they could get into the
undeveloped ports of the Caribbean and it would not be too
difficult to find a few hundred passengers each week to keep
such a ship full. FRANCE was over 66,000 g.r.t. and could
carry some 2,000 passengers. It was a quantum leap.
What Kloster foresaw was that a ship as large as France would
have more space for facilities that would attract more passengers
such as a theater that could be used for Broadway-style shows.
In addition, there would be vast economies of scale. It would be
cheaper to serve two thousand passengers with one large ship
than with four or five smaller ships. As shown by the steady
stream of ever larger mega-cruise ships entering service today,
Kloster's thinking has proven correct.
In order to convert the FRANCE into a cruise ship, the liner was
towed to Germany where two of her four screws were removed.
In addition, large landing craft-like tenders were put on her bow
for use in shuttling passengers from the ship to the shore. She
emerged as the NORWAY and quickly became popular.
However, the $42 million estimated cost of the conversion
turned out to be optimistic and $65 million ended up being
spent. In addition, millions more would be spent over the next
25 years repairing and upgrading NORWAY putting a burden on
NCL's finances.
homeporting a cruise ship in New York on a year round basis.
From a marketing perspective, it makes sense that New Yorkers
would want to take a break from the winter by taking a cruise that
did not involve having to fly to the ship. However, it was
widely assumed that the winter seas that a ship would have to
transit in going to and coming from the Caribbean would
dissuade passengers from taking such voyages.
As it turned out, the seas during the winter are not as rough as
was commonly assumed and a fast, modern cruise ship can
provide a comfortable, enjoyable passage. Consequently, the
vast majority of its cruises have been without incident and
NCL's venture has proved a success.
This is not to say that it has been all smooth sailing for NCL. In
April 2005, NORWEGIAN DAWN was damaged by a freak 70
foot wave off of the Carolinas that injured four passengers and in
February 2006, NORWEGIAN SPIRIT was damaged by a 42
foot wave that it encountered during a storm.
Rather than treat these incidents as setbacks, NCL concluded
that they proved the viability of cruising out of New York year-
round. Following the NORWEGIAN DAWN incident, Colin
Veitch, President of NCL, stated: “the design and strength of the
ship are well above the normal standard and the evidence this
past weekend is that this model of ship is able to withstand
without damage the most severe wind and wave conditions likely
to be encountered by a modern cruise ship.”
Success brings imitation and the other major cruise lines began
to station ships in New York during the winter. Indeed, during
the winter 2007-2008, there were four lines operating out of
New York. However, two of those lines have decided to deploy
their ships elsewhere in 2009, leaving just NCL and Royal
Caribbean International (which sails out of Bayonne) serving the
New York market.
In this article, we shall look at NCL and its New York ships in
order to see what makes NCL different.
The NCL Story
In 1966, Norwegian businessman Knut Kloster saw a market
opportunity in taking British holiday makers and their cars by sea
from England to Gibraltar. To serve this market, he ordered a
combination passenger ship/car ferry to be built. However,
before the service could be implemented, political problems in
Gibraltar foreclosed the opportunity.
While he was considering what to do with the ship he had
ordered, Kloster received a call from Ted Arison, a former
Israeli Army colonel turned entrepaneur. Arison's most recent
venture had been operating cruises from Miami to the Bahamas
using a converted car ferry that had been chartered from the
Israeli government. The venture had been something of a success
but fell apart when the Israeli government decided the ship
should stay closer to home in case it was needed for military
purposes.
Arison had heard about Kloster's new ship and suggested that it
was the perfect replacement for the ship that had been doing the
cruises from Miami. He proposed a joint venture in which
Kloster would own and operate the ship while Arison would
take care of marketing and ticketing. After exacting a number of
financial guarantees from Arison, Kloster agreed. The venture
was called Norwegian Caribbean Line or NCL.
Kloster's ship, the SEAWARD, was superior to anything else
that was cruising out of Miami in those days. It was sleek, fully
air-conditioned and had a modern appearance. Two more
similar ships were quickly added to the fleet in order to
accommodate the growing demand.
While the venture was a success, there was friction between
Kloster's Norwegians who were operating the ships and Arison's
Americans who were doing the shore-side operations. As a
result, in 1971, citing Arison's alleged failure to satisfy the
financial guarantees in the original joint venture agreement,
Kloster announced that he was ending the partnership. Arison
responded by seizing the deposits passengers had paid for future
cruises. Years of litigation followed, eventually ending in an out-
of-court settlement.
The disintegration of he joint venture left Arison with a
shoreside operation but no ships. Eventually, he would find a
ship and founded a new company called Carnival Cruise Line,
which was to become the world's largest cruise line. (See The
Log, Fall 2007, at 21).
Meanwhile, Kloster was left with the NCL name and a fleet of
cruise ships but no one to market or sell tickets. Kloster
struggled to put together a new shoreside team but in about a
year, NCL had resumed its place as the leader in the growing
Caribbean cruise business.
In 1979, Kloster made a bold move, which not only had long
range repercussions for NCL but which would eventually
transform the industry. He announced that he had purchased the
ocean liner FRANCE and was going to transform her into a
cruise ship. Entering service in 1962, FRANCE had been built
for the transatlantic service and was considered to be a
masterpiece of maritime design. However, because of the jet
airliner the transatlantic service was not a viable business and
the ship had gone out of service in 1972 when the French
government ended its operating subsidy.
The idea of transforming a liner that had been retired from the
transatlantic service into a cruise ship was nothing new. Indeed,
most of NCL's competitors operated such ships. However, those
ships were much smaller than the FRANCE. In fact, the industry
believed that a ship of about 20,000 gross tons was about the
ideal size for a cruise ship because they could get into the
undeveloped ports of the Caribbean and it would not be too
difficult to find a few hundred passengers each week to keep
such a ship full. FRANCE was over 66,000 g.r.t. and could
carry some 2,000 passengers. It was a quantum leap.
What Kloster foresaw was that a ship as large as France would
have more space for facilities that would attract more passengers
such as a theater that could be used for Broadway-style shows.
In addition, there would be vast economies of scale. It would be
cheaper to serve two thousand passengers with one large ship
than with four or five smaller ships. As shown by the steady
stream of ever larger mega-cruise ships entering service today,
Kloster's thinking has proven correct.
In order to convert the FRANCE into a cruise ship, the liner was
towed to Germany where two of her four screws were removed.
In addition, large landing craft-like tenders were put on her bow
for use in shuttling passengers from the ship to the shore. She
emerged as the NORWAY and quickly became popular.
However, the $42 million estimated cost of the conversion
turned out to be optimistic and $65 million ended up being
spent. In addition, millions more would be spent over the next
25 years repairing and upgrading NORWAY putting a burden on
NCL's finances.
During the 1980s, NCL did not focus on adding new ships to its
fleet but rather relied upon NORWAY and the smaller ships that
it had built in the 1970s. While the latter group of ships had once
been the envy of the industry, competitors such as Carnival and
Royal Caribbean were building newer and bigger ships. As a
result, NCL's fleet began to look out of date and it began to fall
from its position as industry leader.
Meanwhile, Kloster was left with the NCL name and a fleet of
cruise ships but no one to market or sell tickets. Kloster
struggled to put together a new shoreside team but in about a
year, NCL had resumed its place as the leader in the growing
Caribbean cruise business.
In 1979, Kloster made a bold move, which not only had long
range repercussions for NCL but which would eventually
transform the industry. He announced that he had purchased the
ocean liner FRANCE and was going to transform her into a
cruise ship. Entering service in 1962, FRANCE had been built
for the transatlantic service and was considered to be a
masterpiece of maritime design. However, because of the jet
airliner the transatlantic service was not a viable business and
the ship had gone out of service in 1972 when the French
government ended its operating subsidy.
The idea of transforming a liner that had been retired from the
transatlantic service into a cruise ship was nothing new. Indeed,
most of NCL's competitors operated such ships. However, those
ships were much smaller than the FRANCE. In fact, the industry
believed that a ship of about 20,000 gross tons was about the
ideal size for a cruise ship because they could get into the
undeveloped ports of the Caribbean and it would not be too
difficult to find a few hundred passengers each week to keep
such a ship full. FRANCE was over 66,000 g.r.t. and could
carry some 2,000 passengers. It was a quantum leap.
What Kloster foresaw was that a ship as large as France would
have more space for facilities that would attract more passengers
such as a theater that could be used for Broadway-style shows.
In addition, there would be vast economies of scale. It would be
cheaper to serve two thousand passengers with one large ship
than with four or five smaller ships. As shown by the steady
stream of ever larger mega-cruise ships entering service today,
Kloster's thinking has proven correct.
In order to convert the FRANCE into a cruise ship, the liner was
towed to Germany where two of her four screws were removed.
In addition, large landing craft-like tenders were put on her bow
for use in shuttling passengers from the ship to the shore. She
emerged as the NORWAY and quickly became popular.
However, the $42 million estimated cost of the conversion
turned out to be optimistic and $65 million ended up being
spent. In addition, millions more would be spent over the next
25 years repairing and upgrading NORWAY putting a burden on
NCL's finances.
| NCL NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE |
BEYONDSHIPS HOME
CRUISE SHIP CENTRAL
CRUISE SHIP PROFILES
CRUISE LINKS
NORWEGIAN EPIC PROFILE
NORWEGIAN GEM PROFILE
NORWEGIAN DAWN PROFILE
NORWEGIAN JEWEL PROFILE
NORWEGIAN PEARL PROFILE
NORWEGIAN SKY PROFILE
NORWEGIAN SPIRIT PROFILE
NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE PAGE
NCL FLEET GUIDE
SS NORWAY PHOTO ESSAY
LE TALLEC INTERVIEW
FREESTYLE IN NEW YORK -1
FREESTLYE IN NEW YORK -2
CRUISE SHIP CENTRAL
CRUISE SHIP PROFILES
CRUISE LINKS
NORWEGIAN EPIC PROFILE
NORWEGIAN GEM PROFILE
NORWEGIAN DAWN PROFILE
NORWEGIAN JEWEL PROFILE
NORWEGIAN PEARL PROFILE
NORWEGIAN SKY PROFILE
NORWEGIAN SPIRIT PROFILE
NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE PAGE
NCL FLEET GUIDE
SS NORWAY PHOTO ESSAY
LE TALLEC INTERVIEW
FREESTYLE IN NEW YORK -1
FREESTLYE IN NEW YORK -2
Norwegian Spirit
Norwegian Dawn
Norwegian Gem
The Norway on a visit
to New York in 1997.
to New York in 1997.
Norway
The bow of the Norway was designed
for cutting through the big waves of
the North Atlantic.
for cutting through the big waves of
the North Atlantic.