Norwegian Jade

Norwegian Jade is a cruise ship for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), originally built as Pride of Hawaii for their NCL America division. She was christened in a ceremony at the San Pedro Pier in Los Angeles, California on 22 May 2006. The vessel is a Panamax form-factor ship that was built at Meyer Werft Shipyard, in Papenburg, Germany, and registers at just over 93,500 gross tons.

Norwegian Jade docked at Argostoli Kefalonia's port in 2019.
History
Name
  • Pride of Hawaii (2006–2008)
  • Norwegian Jade (2008–present)
Operator
Port of registry
BuilderMeyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany
Laid down6 February 2005[1]
Launched19 February 2006[2]
Identification
StatusIn Service
General characteristics
Class and typeJewel-class cruise ship
Tonnage93,558 GT
Length965 ft (294 m)
Beam125 ft (38 m)
Draft27 ft (8 m)
Decks15
Capacity2,402 passengers and a max of 3,590
Crew1,037

Vessel class

Norwegian Jade is the second of NCL's four Jewel-class ships. She was preceded in 2005 by Norwegian Jewel, then followed in 2006 by Norwegian Pearl, and in 2007 by Norwegian Gem. Each ship has unique amenities, but has a similar exterior and interior design.

Norwegian Jade has a similar exterior appearance to NCL's ships Norwegian Star, which entered service in 2001, and Norwegian Dawn, which entered service in 2002. The interior design and amenities, however, are significantly different and merit Norwegian Jade having a Jewel class designation.[3]

History

When built, the ship comprised the third in a series of U.S. flagged ships operated by NCL America for the Hawaii market. At a cost of over half a billion U.S. dollars, Pride of Hawaii was the largest and most expensive U.S. flagged passenger ship ever built. Her design was originally planned to be a sister ship to Pride of America, utilizing parts from the Northrop Grumman Shipyard and the failed Project America series of ships. Later, NCL America decided that it would be better to enlarge Pride of Hawaii and make her a sister ship to Norwegian Jewel. The ship was christened in Los Angeles by Senator Daniel Inouye.[4] After delivery to NCL, she joined Pride of America and Pride of Aloha as the final ship in the NCL America fleet to deliver 7-day cruises to the Hawaiian Islands of Maui, Oahu, Kauai, and the Big Island (Hawai'i).

In her original livery as Pride of Hawaii

On 11 April 2007, NCL announced that Pride of Hawaii would be withdrawn from the Hawaiian market in February 2008 and subsequently re-deployed to Europe for the summer. In a press release, NCL's CEO Colin Veitch cited substantial 2006 losses that had been caused by downward pricing pressure in the Hawaii market following the addition of Pride of Hawaii to the fleet, as well as an increase in the amount of foreign flagged competition entering the Hawaii market from the west coast as the reason for the vessel's redeployment. NCL did not commit to sending Pride of Hawaii back to Hawaii until the other NCL America vessels reach an acceptable level of profitability.[5] On 4 February 2008, Pride of Hawaii departed from Pier 2 in Honolulu for the last time. After several repositioning cruises, name change, new livery, and an added onboard casino, she made her debut in Europe. Despite the changes, Norwegian Jade maintained much of her original Hawaiian themed decor until a refit in 2017. Additionally, Matson menu-inspired artwork and a large statue of King Kamehameha graced the main dining room for many years. In November 2011, she underwent a dry dock in Marseille, France, for two weeks. The ship received new carpets and tiling throughout and the hull was repainted plus the usual annual maintenance took place.[6] Norwegian Jade was used as a floating hotel during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.[7]

The ship underwent a three-week dry dock in March 2017, replacing the Hawaiian theme with a 'contemporary style'.[8] The ship also received two brand new restaurants and two new bars and lounges, updated design and décor in many public spaces, and a refurbishment of all staterooms with new carpets, furniture, flat screen TVs, new larger headboards with USB charging outlets.[9]

On 6 April 2018, American rock band Paramore embarked on a special four-day voyage entitled "Parahoy!". The event saw fans embark on the Norwegian Jade on a return trip from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas. The event featured three concerts and numerous activities. Support acts Local Natives, Judah & The Lion, mewithoutYou, Now, Now, Halfnoise, and comedians Jordan Rock, and Ryan O'Flanagan also joined the voyage.

On 27 October 2018, professional wrestler and musician Chris Jericho hosted the first-ever Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager at Sea, a 4-day professional wrestling and rock music-themed cruise.[10]

On 19 November 2018, Norwegian Jade experienced mechanical problems during a 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise out of Miami. While in San Juan, Puerto Rico, NCL decided to cancel the rest of the cruise, offering full refunds and credit for a future cruise on NCL. The ship underwent repairs in Miami.[11]

On 11 September 2019, Norwegian Jade experienced mechanical issues during an 11-day Mediterranean cruise out of Rome, Italy. The malfunctions prevented the ship from reaching the port of Livorno and caused the cruise to end one day early. Guests were given $100 (per stateroom) credit for shipboard services and full refunds for any NCL-booked excursions in Livorno as compensation for the trouble.

Itineraries

Norwegian Jade is scheduled to spend winter 2019/2020 in Southeast Asia departing from Singapore and Hong Kong.[12]

References
  1. "First Block for Pride of Hawaii". Archived from the original on 10 October 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2010.
  2. "Undocking of Pride of Hawaii". Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  3. "Building Boom Ushers in New Class System". Cruise Travel. 1 January 2001. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
  4. "SIU Log". seafarers.org.
  5. "Deployment of Pride of Hawai'i in Europe'". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  6. "Norwegian Cruise Line Press Releases". www.ncl.com.
  7. Golden, Fran. "Norwegian cruise ship to serve as hotel for Olympics". USA Today.
  8. Stone, Deborah (22 September 2016). "Norwegian Jade's multi-million-pound upgrade before Southampton debut in 2017". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  9. Thakkar, Emrys (30 March 2017). "Norwegian Jade Completes 3 Week Dry Dock". cruisehive.com. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  10. Childers, Chad (19 September 2017). "Chris Jericho's Rock 'n' Wrestling Rager at Sea Cruise to Set Sail in 2018". loudwire.com. Loudwire. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  11. Burke, Ron (20 November 2018). "Thanksgiving cruise comes to abrupt stop". wpbf.com. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  12. "Norwegian Cruise Line Moving Cruise Ships to New Homeports". cruisefever.net. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
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