Articles tagged “ncl”

As any experienced cruiser will tell you, it is the crew that will make or break a sailing, and their labors often mean more than how many flat-screen TVs are hoisted up in the newest sports bar on board the ship.

NCL is building a big niche with its new Breakaway and Getaway sister ships, but it is tough to compete when larger rivals have the resources to arrive in new destinations first, and with more scale.

Sheehan has been the driving force behind NCL's ambitious plans to carve out a dominant space for its cruises somewhere between Carnival and Dinsey's offerings.

NCL sees this as their its year to lose. An aggressive expansion in New York, multiple new ships, entertainment products aimed at both Disney and Carnival, and a faltering rival add up to opportunity.

The Oasis and sister ship Allure set records at launch in 2009, but they'll soon be upstaged by a new mega ship from RCI and face small-but-ambitious challenges from a new class of ships from Norwegian Cruise Line.

The suspense is almost too much to bear (not really). The Royal Princess won't take its maiden voyage for another five months, but Princess Cruises' YouTube channel already boasts 15 videos about the ship. Is the line going a little overboard?

The industry's argument that employees make more money on their ships than their home country doesn't justify the treatment, but NCL's Sheehan points to one of the core issues in the cruise labor debate: the price consumers pay.

Cruising may have had a tough year in the press, but disasters haven't hurt Florida's cruise industry as passengers are still flocking for cheap escapes from convenient ports to sunny locations.

Companies are inventing new ways to set themselves apart from the competition and Norwegian has the right idea by turning the largest ship based in New York year-round into a cultural icon as well.