Can Cruise Lines adapt?

Following on from our previos post regarding changes to the PVSA…

Why don’t International Cruise Lines just extend their Hawaiian cruises?

Currently the most popular Hawaiian cruises are around 10 days, which is enough time for the international cruise ships to make the necessary international stop and see all of the ports in the Hawaiian Islands. With the changes to the PVSA the international ships would need to adopt at least a 14 day cruise to operate a dedicated circle Hawaiian cruise Itinerary and the forced international stop (being at least 50% of the time of the cruise).

Now the problem with that is the Hawaiian Cruise market is most popular with short term cruisers looking to take a week or so off. The market for longer cruises in Hawaii is not big enough to warrant the cruise lines to extend their Hawaiian cruises and the extra operating costs would not be worth it.

But NCLA offer a 7 day hawaiian cruise?

I hear what you saying; why not take the NCLA 7 day hawaiian cruise? NCLA are one of the only cruise lines to offer such a short cruise because they are the only US-flagged ship operating a dedicated inter island Hawaiian Cruise and therefore able to travel within the US without the restrictions set upon the foreign flagged ships. The problem is by summer 2008 they will have withdrawn 2 of their 3 ships servicing Hawaiian cruises.

To be continued…