Norwegian Jade

The Norwegian Jade departing Split, Croatia in October 2011
History
Name:
  • Pride of Hawaii (2006–2008)
  • Norwegian Jade (2008–present)
Operator:
Port of registry:
Builder: Meyer Werft Papenburg, Germany
Laid down: 6 February 2005[1]
Launched: 19 February 2006[2]
Identification:
Status: In Active Service as of 2014
General characteristics
Class and type: Jewel-class cruise ship
Tonnage: 93,558 GT
Length: 965 ft (294 m)
Beam: 125 ft (38 m)
Draft: 27 ft (8 m)
Decks: 15
Capacity: 2,402 passengers
Crew: 1,037

Norwegian Jade is a cruise ship for Norwegian Cruise Line, originally built as the Pride of Hawaii for their NCL America division. She was christened in a ceremony at the San Pedro Pier in Los Angeles, California on May 22, 2006. This Panamax form-factor ship was built at Meyer Werft Shipyard, in Papenburg, Germany, and registers at just over 93,500 gross tons.

Vessel class

Norwegian Jade is the second of NCL's four Jewel-class ships. She was preceded in 2005 by Norwegian Jewel, then followed in 2006 by Norwegian Pearl, and in 2007 by Norwegian Gem. Each ship has unique amenities, but has a similar exterior and interior design.

Norwegian Jade has a similar exterior appearance to NCL's ships, the Norwegian Star, which entered service in 2001, and the Norwegian Dawn, which entered service in 2002. The interior design and amenities, however, are significantly different and merit Norwegian Jade having a Jewel Class designation.[3]

History

When built, the ship comprised the third in a series of U.S. flagged ships operated by NCL America for the Hawaii market. At a cost of over half a billion U.S. dollars, the Pride of Hawaii was the largest and most expensive U.S. flagged passenger ship ever built. Her design was originally planned to be a sister ship to the Pride of America, utilizing parts from the Northrop Grumman Shipyard and the failed Project America series of ships. Later NCL America decided that it would be better to enlarge the Pride of Hawaii and make her a sister ship to the Norwegian Jewel. The ship was christened in Los Angeles by Senator Daniel Inouye.[4] After delivery to NCL, she joined the Pride of America and Pride of Aloha as the final ship in the NCL America fleet to deliver 7 day cruises to the Hawaiian Islands of Maui, Oahu, Kauai, and the Big Island (aka Hawai'i).

In her original livery as Pride of Hawaii

On April 11, 2007 NCL announced that Pride of Hawaii would be withdrawn from the Hawaiian market in February, 2008 and subsequently redeployed to Europe for the summer. In a press release, NCL's CEO, Colin Veitch, cited substantial 2006 losses that had been caused by downward pricing pressure in the Hawaii market following the addition of Pride of Hawaii to the fleet, as well as an increase in the amount of foreign flagged competition entering the Hawaii market from the west coast as the reason for the vessels redeployment. NCL did not commit to sending Pride of Hawaii back to Hawaii until the other NCL America vessels reach an acceptable level of profitability.[5] On February 4, 2008, "Pride of Hawaii" departed from Pier 2 in Honolulu for the last time. After several repositioning cruises, name change, new livery, and an added onboard casino, she made her debut in Europe. Despite the changes, "Norwegian Jade" maintains much of her original Hawaiian themed decor. Tropical flowers, Hawaiian landscapes, and Hawaiian names are throughout the ship's public spaces. Additionally, Matson menu inspired artwork and a large statue of King Kamehameha grace the main dining room. There is little chance that she will ever return to Hawaii, as it would be difficult to regain her former US registration. November 2011: The ship underwent a dry dock in Marseille in France for two weeks. The ship received new carpets and tiling throughout and the hull was repainted plus the usual annual maintenance took place.[6] The Norwegian Jade was used as a floating hotel during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.[7]

The ship will undergo a dry dock in March of 2017 which will modernise the ship and in doing so remove the Hawaiian theming.

Future Cruises

The Norwegian Jade will sail many different itineraries starting with an 11-night Mediterranean as well as 12-night Holy Land cruise; both cruises will feature stops at Turkey as well as Egypt and many others. Other cruises include the Greek Isles & Turkey cruise and Croatia & Greece cruise. The ship will sail from Barcelona and Malaga in Spain offering 7 or 9 night cruises to The Canary Islands and Maderia.[8]

In November 2015, for the first time since 2008, Norwegian Jade will return to America, sailing a winter season out of Houston, Texas. From November 14, 2015 through April 9, 2016, she will sail seven-day Western Caribbean cruise; visiting Cozumel, Mexico; Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras; and Norwegian’s brand new destination, Harvest Caye, Belize.[9] This also means the ship will give up what chance she had in returning to Hawaii as an American-flagged ship by returning to the United States.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.meyerwerft.de/page.asp?lang=e&main=3&subs=0&did=932
  2. ↑ http://www.meyerwerft.de/page.asp?lang=e&main=3&subs=0&did=872
  3. ↑ "Building Boom Ushers in New Class System". Cruise Travel. January 1, 2001. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  4. ↑ http://seafarers.org/ViewStory.asp?article=log/2006/062006/PrideofHawaii
  5. ↑ Deployment of Pride of Hawai’i in Europe'
  6. ↑ http://www.ncl.com/nclweb/pressroom/pressRelease.html?storyCode=PR_092211
  7. ↑ http://www.usatoday.com/story/cruiselog/2013/08/22/norwegian-jade-sochi-russia-winter-olympics/2684291/
  8. ↑ http://www.ncl.eu/pressroom/show_press.php?id=335
  9. ↑ http://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/10800-norwegian-announces-201516-winter-deployment.html
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