Cruise Bruise Blog
April 19, 2009
April 19, 2009
New Subcategory In The Archives Created - Thefts

While the Archives have been launched for some months, one subcategory had not been developed, the Thefts. Sorting through the stack of cases I have, looking for the Murders and Missing passengers, who number in the hundreds, I discovered that there were hundreds of thefts as well.

Some of those thefts were for horrendous amounts by the standards of their day, even by the standards of today. As I dug through the cases, and researched who these people were when they lost $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $50,000, $130,000, $200,000 or more when they were robbed aboard, some really interesting facts came to light.

The victims were bankers, heirs to American retail giants, spouses of corporate presidents, actors, singers both female and male. I have the first nine now in the archives with many many to come. Take a look at some of the most interesting cases now on Cruise Bruise, here


April 19, 2009
Norwegian Cruise Line Canceling Of Ship Build Cost Company $128 Million

Norwegian Cruise Line has suffered a $128.8 million loss through the cancellation of a contract to build a second F3-class ship.

The “impairment loss” for canceling the proposed sister ship to Norwegian Epic was disclosed in the 2008 results from part-owner Star Cruises Group.

NCL Corporation, the Bermuda-based parent of Norwegian Cruise Line and NCL America, originally ordered two F3 ships in 2006 with an option for a third.

But the second ship was canceled at the STX Europe yard in France and the company decided against taking up the option on the third.

The Star Cruises statement said NCL Corp’s cost for canceling the second ship included payments to the ship yard, loan and deferred financing fees and capitalized interest.

Asia-based Star said its share of loss of jointly controlled entities [NCL} came in at $104 million, suggesting the full loss at NCL of around $208 million for 2008.

Star, NCL’s 50% shareholder, recorded a net impairment loss of $99.9 million for 2008. The operating deficit before the impairment loss was $15.6 million.

NCL’s net revenue yield was up by 6.9% helped by higher pricing and onboard spend.

This included improved on board gambling revenues and the sale of art on ships.

But changes to the fleet led to a 3.7% drop in capacity days as four ships left the fleet between April 2007 and November 2008. Pride of Aloha was re-flagged as Norwegian Sky in July last year and Norwegian Gem joined the fleet in October 2007.

Average fuel prices rose by 41.5% to $561 per metric ton in 2008.

NCL also took a loss of $2.6 million from the 2007 sale of the ship Oceanic.