SS United States

[seacats]

Check out this web site. http://www.ssusplankowner.org

[mylesf]

I think you are going to see an announcement soon, from NCL, about this and what their plans are for the ship...

[Barb Nahoumi]

If NCL couldn't restore the Norway, I doubt that they will repair the Big U. However, I still hope that they will undertake this challenge.

 

It would be such a shame to scrap this record holding ship. I was looking forward to a cruise on her.

 

Barb

[CPT Trips]

Doesn't look good . . . from Philadelphia press -

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/87198142.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/87215457.html

[mylesf]

My guess is that NCL will dumb the vessel...

[BIG_Steve]

What I don't get is NCL insisting the buyer has to be a USA entity. Do they think scrapping it to an American company will make them look better than selling it to a scrapper from some other country?

 

??

???

????

[Globaliser]

They know that there may be a media storm for whichever company takes the ship outside the US. Any such storm is likely to be relatively muted if it's done by some company that nobody's ever heard of. But NCL would take a big PR hit if it did that, or if it were seen to be complicit in taking the ship outside the US.

 

Or, in short, yes.

[OrdieJ]

There is another thread about this but it was moved

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=23395328&highlight=#post23395328

[mylesf]

I think you are reading too much into this and over analystsing from an outside "bubble angle", at best...NCL knows exactly what they are doing when it comes to this... but let the "experts" continue with the discussion...

[BIG_Steve]

They know that there may be a media storm for whichever company takes the ship outside the US. Any such storm is likely to be relatively muted if it's done by some company that nobody's ever heard of. But NCL would take a big PR hit if it did that, or if it were seen to be complicit in taking the ship outside the US.

 

Or, in short, yes.

 

True, but not everyone is dumb enough to not be able to see through things.

 

Personally, I don't think NCL owes anything to this ship. They miscalculated the market they bought it for (Hawaii.) They've kept her moth balled for no good reason. I'm sure they'd LOVE to sell her for more money to someone besides a scrapper. No one seems to be (realistically) stepping up to the plate. Time to cut their losses. Ship probably would have been cut up already if not for NCL.

[BIG_Steve]

I think you are reading too much into this and over analystsing from an outside "bubble angle", at best...NCL knows exactly what they are doing when it comes to this... but let the "experts" continue with the discussion...

 

Oh, thank GOD you gave us your blessings to talk.

 

Thank-you, OH THANK-YOU, wise and benevolent one.................

[mylesf]

Oh, thank GOD you gave us your blessings to talk.

 

Thank-you, OH THANK-YOU, wise and benevolent one.................

 

My pleasure..:)

[Globaliser]

True, but not everyone is dumb enough to not be able to see through things.

I agree with all your objective views about what NCL has already done and what it should be able to do, on a purely commercial level.

 

But I suspect that NCL fears that someone, for some ulterior reason of their own (eg politics), will pick up the baton of "NCL is destroying a great symbol of US pride" and unfairly beat NCL around the head with it. So long as there is a chance of that happening, I can well understand why NCL is adopting a cautious strategy. The wounds of the disposal of the Norway have yet to heal fully.

[Don Haynes]

Margaret Truman Daniel, the ship's sponsor, passed away and the SS US is still with us. Isn't 60 years long enough? Put her out of her misery, please. Her appearance today is depressing. Pull the plug on the SS US...

 

She was designed to be a greyhound, a fast transAtlantic liner. She was never designed to do slow Caribbean cruises. Her age has passed. Her usefulness as a troop ship is gone as well. Let her go....

[electricron]

True, but not everyone is dumb enough to not be able to see through things.

 

Personally, I don't think NCL owes anything to this ship. They miscalculated the market they bought it for (Hawaii.) They've kept her moth balled for no good reason. I'm sure they'd LOVE to sell her for more money to someone besides a scrapper. No one seems to be (realistically) stepping up to the plate. Time to cut their losses. Ship probably would have been cut up already if not for NCL.

 

I agree with your logic, but I'm still hoping somebody will save the Big U.

 

Additionally, if the Hawaii cruise market did increase to a point NCL would want to add a second ship, the Norwegian Jade can become the Pride of Hawaii again. NCL has followed the guidlines of the Jones Act Exemption for it. They haven't sailed it with paying passengers to Alaska, Caribbean, or to a US Gulf of Mexico port. When the ship reposition, it sailed with paying passengers aboard to Los Angeles, then sailed it empty via the Panama Canal and the Caribbean Sea to Barcelona before allowing paying passengers aboard. It's been sailing in European seas ever since.

 

Since the Jade is still available for Hawaii only cruises, all NCL has to do is to remove the casino and reflag it, the SSUS is expendable...

[BruceMuzz]

I agree with your logic, but I'm still hoping somebody will save the Big U.

 

Additionally, if the Hawaii cruise market did increase to a point NCL would want to add a second ship, the Norwegian Jade can become the Pride of Hawaii again. NCL has followed the guidlines of the Jones Act Exemption for it. They haven't sailed it with paying passengers to Alaska, Caribbean, or to a US Gulf of Mexico port. When the ship reposition, it sailed with paying passengers aboard to Los Angeles, then sailed it empty via the Panama Canal and the Caribbean Sea to Barcelona before allowing paying passengers aboard. It's been sailing in European seas ever since.

 

Since the Jade is still available for Hawaii only cruises, all NCL has to do is to remove the casino and reflag it, the SSUS is expendable...

 

One of the lesser known clauses of the special deal US Congress gave to NCL is that if for any reason any of the American flagged ships was to be re-flagged to another country (as was done with the Jade), Congress would not allow NCL to re-flag it again to USA.

 

I don't really trust anything that comes from the US Congress, but it appears that it would be quite difficult to do.