Did NCL make a big mistake using the NCLA brand

[mikedw]

Cruise with kids,

On my last post I detailed my experience with NCLA. Now my nephews, twins of 13, had a great time on the ship. Having access to 24 hours of pizza and ice cream, loving the Cadillac Diner, freedom from the 'rents (but having walkie talkies and check in times with the aunts) and time in the hot tub ogling nubile young women was a reason to repeat the experience over again. They loved the cruise and wanted the whole extended family to do it next winter (even the 'rents!.) All cruises are from a personal perspective. They probably won't talk too much about the time they "had" to spend with the aunts when they violated the check-in rules but we all had a great experience in the Hawaiian Islands. I judged NCLA from an adult perspective as compared to what I've experienced on many cruises before. I don't want to start the debate again about the US maritime laws that brought us to the foreign port requirement but I would guess that there are not that many US jobs on the line anymore receiving the benefit of that law. Those that have those jobs would probably disagree with the benefit of the law. As a consumer, the flagging of almost all the ships to foreign countries that carry US citizens was a response to the law and to economics. There is probably a whole series of issues that could be debated about living wages that goes way off topic here.

 

Never having cruised on NCL before and based on my experience with NCLA, I would have to say from my personal experience using NCLA was most likely a marketing mistake. It will be a long time before I try them again - mostly likely will have to be the only choice. I'm sure they wanted to expand on their known market to make NCLA a success. I would assume there were many NCL customers that chose NCLA because of the branding. The success or failure of NCLA will always rely on profitability. As an non-NCL customer, I chose NCLA because they were the only 7-night game in town. Until they have a competitor, we may gripe about the service and talk about branding mistakes, but look at the evidence. NCLA has added a 3rd cruise ship circling Hawaii. The dollars must be hitting the bottom line correctly regardless of the level of service. Most likely, the allure of Hawaii will always outweigh any of the service problems. NCLA probably isn't going to fight the maritime law either - why invite competition? So whether we deem NCLA a branding mistake or no

 

t, the corporation will look at the return on investment and make their decision based on the dollars.

 

Plus NCL has a 30 year monopoly on the inter island Hawaii cruise market, courtesy of the US Government. They have plenty of time to get it right before they have to worry about competition.

 

Michael

[jame_g]

Actually, I believe that the same offer was made to other cruise lines, but none of the others have decided they wanted to do it. It's not a monopoly if the competition doesn't want to play when a level playing field is available. I think NCL's only advantage was buying out the available US manufactured hulls before the competition, but other lines can still start from scratch if they want to. Someone correct me if I've misunderstood this.

[Globaliser]

In case it is not already abundantly clear, the problems with NCLA and the fact that it has not been working well are matters of public record. Colin Veitch has made a number of statements to this effect.

To add to the list, I notice that Colin Veitch said some more about this last week when announcing the latest NCL order (taken from Seatrade Insider, free registration required):-

...

 

Today's order is a bold step in NCL's ongoing fleet renewal strategy, and NCL president and ceo Colin Veitch called it a strong statement of confidence in the North American cruise industry and NCL's stature in it.

 

"Our US-flag start-up costs have obscured, for the past two years, the attractive financial returns on the international fleet of ships that we have built since Star Cruises bought NCL," Veitch said. "All our growth from now on will be in this strongly profitable sector of our fleet, and will take us well past the goal we set ourselves of having the youngest fleet in the industry and a transformed financial profile by 2010."

 

...

NCLA continues to drag on NCL.

[ukchris]

Shoreguy: I think it is hurting NCL, but how bad is up for debate. Fact is other than these last few cruises on board the Aloha(virus issues) close to 80% leave happy. Now it might be lower on board the Hawaii, but in a month or two, it will be improved as well. I don't know if NCL is that unhappy with the results, fact is the aloha has been running for 2 years now, and not much has changed since it's debut.

 

I still think the problem is in the retention of workers. Does everybody really believe that every international crew member that signs on a cruise ship is a hard worker, and sticks with it? Well I don't. I think the retention is two fold. First off alot of people lose their jobs becuase of the Alcohol policy on board. the limit is set by the coast guard, and is .04. Blow over this and your gone. Put this limit in effect on board international ships, and you will start losing good workers as well. Second part is NCL'S upper managment. NCL remains the worst ran company I've worked for. It was the main reason I did not go back. That reason was the same for my roommate on board, and many of my friends who completed their one contract and went home. If most of the staff was lazy then they wouldn't complete their contract, but quit soon fter reaching the ship. This just isn't the case. Oh and all these reports of 30 40 people quiting in one week, it just don't happen. You get 5 people quiting and bam its 50. I know I've been there.

NCL has exactly the same alcohol policy for it's international crew as NCLA, international crew tend to value their job, they only get paid a third of what the American crew get paid but to them, it's a substantial sum, they also quite often, will be supporting extended families back home unlike the American crew. I'm not saying the American crew are lazy but a lot of them are just not made for the more menial jobs that have to be done and do tend to walk off when life gets too hard for them.

Although NCLA doesn't get the same amount of crew leaving the ships as they used to, it's still quite a lot, a hell of a lot compared to international crew. NCLA are now making prospective crew more aware of living and working conditions before they actually join the ship so it is less of a shock for them. I for one, hope NCLA works out but unless the law is changed and Hawaii allows casinos to operate on the ships then i wont be holding my breath.