The Pride of Hawaii is leaving its namesake. Norwegian Cruise Line has announced that soft pricing in Hawaii is forcing the company to rotate the ship to Europe, leaving two ships, Pride of America and Pride of Aloha, behind. The depressed pricing is being chalked up to an upswing in competition in the Hawaiian market, which Colin Veitch, NCL's president, said was one component that led to the company losing $130 million in 2006."Clearly we are victims of our own success," Veitch said. "We have demonstrated that Hawaii is a highly attractive cruise destination and Hawaii now has four times as much capacity serving it in 2007 as it did in 2004 when we started NCL America. We remain committed to building a strong U.S.-flag cruise business homeported in Hawaii and need to ensure that our other two ships, Pride of Aloha and Pride of America, are able to achieve acceptable profitability before we can confidently re-introduce Pride of Hawaii." Customers booked on Pride of Hawaii will be rebooked on one of NCL's other two ships in Hawaii and be given a $50 ship credit, or they can cancel and receive a full refund.
