Thursday, February 28, 2008
NCL ship says Good Bye Hawaii, Hello Europe!
Just as NCL has started cutting back its cruise service in one market, Norwegian is expanding its profile in another lucrative market, the Mediterranean. The Norwegian Jade (one of the former Hawaii based Pride ships) will not be sailing back to the Caribbean this winter as originally planned.
Instead, they will keep the ship in the Mediterranean throughout the winter, offering longer 12 night sailing options that will explore the Eastern Mediterranean, including Turkey and Egypt. Given the cool weather that hits the Western Med in the winter time, this is the cheap way to be the only major cruise line in the US to offer year round European cruising.
The ship which was designed for warm weather cruising in the Pacific will not be refitted to make the ship more user friendly for European winters. This limits what NCL can offer in the winter time as without a dome for the main pool area, the outdoor space would likely become mostly unusable throughout the bulk of a Western Mediterranean cruise in December and January. With an average high temperature around 50 in Istanbul in January, but warmer around Egypt, it still could be a very chilly winter for the pleasure cruiser, but probably a better situation than a sailing concentrated in Italy and France where high temperatures would rarely crack the 50 degree mark.
Depending on how the Jade is marketed, this could be a very smart move for a struggling cruise line. They would have a growing Mediterranean market basically to itself for a large chunk of the year, if these cruises are marketed to American cruisers. If NCL chooses to market to a European audience, they could find themselves in a bit more trouble, as there are plenty of cruises for Europeans in the Mediterranean year round and the NCL product is likely to be very different than the European standard which could be very problematic. Although this isn't a slam dunk for anyone, much less NCL which has consistently eluded success in the Hawaii market where it holds a virtual monopoly on the market, NCL does stand a very good chance in grabbing and holding market share in the European market.
Instead, they will keep the ship in the Mediterranean throughout the winter, offering longer 12 night sailing options that will explore the Eastern Mediterranean, including Turkey and Egypt. Given the cool weather that hits the Western Med in the winter time, this is the cheap way to be the only major cruise line in the US to offer year round European cruising.
The ship which was designed for warm weather cruising in the Pacific will not be refitted to make the ship more user friendly for European winters. This limits what NCL can offer in the winter time as without a dome for the main pool area, the outdoor space would likely become mostly unusable throughout the bulk of a Western Mediterranean cruise in December and January. With an average high temperature around 50 in Istanbul in January, but warmer around Egypt, it still could be a very chilly winter for the pleasure cruiser, but probably a better situation than a sailing concentrated in Italy and France where high temperatures would rarely crack the 50 degree mark.
Depending on how the Jade is marketed, this could be a very smart move for a struggling cruise line. They would have a growing Mediterranean market basically to itself for a large chunk of the year, if these cruises are marketed to American cruisers. If NCL chooses to market to a European audience, they could find themselves in a bit more trouble, as there are plenty of cruises for Europeans in the Mediterranean year round and the NCL product is likely to be very different than the European standard which could be very problematic. Although this isn't a slam dunk for anyone, much less NCL which has consistently eluded success in the Hawaii market where it holds a virtual monopoly on the market, NCL does stand a very good chance in grabbing and holding market share in the European market.
Labels: cruises, europe, mediterranean, ncl, travel
Roger, 5:43 PM
