Articles tagged “norwegian”

The cruise industry has long boasted of its value compared to land vacations. But Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is notably not emphasizing low prices. It is instead working to get passengers to spend more on tickets, shore excursions, and onboard extras.

Norwegian's critics say it is overstretched and unprofitable. So how does the airline counter this? By ramping up its expansion, of course.

Are there enough airline pilots to go around? There's no agreement on whether there's a crisis, but some airlines are at a greater disadvantage than others.

Chinese consumers want to cruise in Asia, and cruise lines are jockeying to meet the demand. If the Asia experiment doesn't work out, lines can send their ships back to high-demand regions like the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

A deluge of new ships will make it cheaper for cruise lines to operate. They can also charge higher fares for new product and attract valuable first-time cruisers to the industry.

Themed sailings help cruise lines fill their ships and cruisers meet people with similar interests. Even small niche groups on cruises help cruise lines grow the pool of potential repeat customers.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, including Norwegian's pledge to use only American and European pilots on its transatlantic routes. Is that what Open Skies is coming to?

Despite the headline-grabbing factor of some of these facts, when examined as a whole they reveal and industry that does a solid job at passenger safety.

The state of cruise Wi-Fi looks very promising for this year and beyond, but the same can't be said for prices passengers will pay to stay connected.

Norwegian is getting everything into place for the beginning of its "shuttle" service into the U.S., and it's hard to imagine that the DOT would ban its entry outright despite objections from U.S. airlines and unions.