Norwegian Jade
| 300px The Norwegian Jade departing Southampton, England | |
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: |
2006–2008: Pride of Hawaii 2008–present: Norwegian Jade |
| Operator: |
2006–2008: NCL America 2008–present: Norwegian Cruise Lines |
| Port of registry: |
2006–2008:  United States2008–present: Template:BHS |
| Builder: | Meyer Werft Papenburg, Germany |
| Completed: | 2006 |
| Status: | In service |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Jewel Class cruise ship |
| Tonnage: | 93,558 gross tons |
| Length: | 965 ft (294 m) |
| Beam: | 106 ft (32 m) |
| Draft: | 27 ft (8 m) |
| Decks: | 15 |
| Capacity: | 2,224 passengers |
| Crew: | 1,100 |
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 Libra Class 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.[1]
History
When built, the ship comprised the third in a series of U.S. flagged cruise 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. After delivery to NCL, she joined the Pride of America and Pride of Aloha as the final ship in the NCL America fleet.
On April 11, 2007 NCL announced that Pride of Hawaii would be withdrawn from the Hawaiian market in February, 2008 and subsequently redeployed to Europe for the summer.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.[2]
References
- ↑ "Building Boom Ushers in New Class System". Cruise Travel. January 1, 2001. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-69057387.html. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
- ↑ NCL announces temporary withdrawal of Pride of Hawaii press release, April 10, 2007
External links
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