Chris Owen of Chriscruises & Gadling offers us the following case:
New ships are something special to be sure. Packed with the best of what a cruise line has to offer, the hope is often for a ship to be everything to everyone and Norwegian Breakaway is not exception. Still, if history tells us anything, locking a ship in to a specific geographic area is a horrible idea. After all, one of the best parts of the cruise business is the mobile nature of their assets, the floating resorts that can and are moved around the world when financial concerns dictate.
Another example was NCL’s last New York centric ship, the Norwegian Dawn. Now one of the older ships in the fleet, when she launched in 2002, she was the first Year-round ship in New York in several decades. The Dawn also debuted NCL’s iconic Hull art. On her starboard side are a pod of dolphins and on her port side; the statue of liberty. In 2011 NCL repositioned the Dawn to Boston to replace the Spirit (and before her the Dream) on their popular Boston-Bermuda route. They sailed her into drydock for a revamp before debuting in Boston, however they left the original hullart. So now we have the Norwegian Dawn sailing into Boston with a huge, 6-deck tall symbol for New York City. Not entirely sure Bostonians dig that.
This problem can be solved with a simple repaint. The Breakaway’s….not so much.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have lived in both cities in my lifetime…
photo via flickr user jelpics