"Cruising was wonderful," said Christina Arnold, a passenger from Culpeper, Va. "The entertainment was fabulous. (It was) a lot of fun."

Hilo business owners were equally pleased. "This thing is huge," said Christine Reed, co-owner of Basically Books in downtown Hilo, as she stared skyward at the upper decks of the ship. Stores, restaurants and tour operators were anticipating brisk business from the 2,000-passenger ship.

The ship's arrival marks the first step in a plan for unprecedented growth of the cruise industry in Hawai'i and the beginning of the only major cruise operation in the world that flies a U.S. flag and employs a U.S. crew.

A work in progress

Norwegian Cruise Line's U.S.-flag operation, called NCL America, plans to eventually operate three U.S.-flagged ships exclusively for interisland cruises, making the state a more serious competitor to major cruise destinations such as the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Alaska.

Disembarking passengers said the ship was impressive, and attractively decorated in Hawaiian themes and colors.

It is also a work in progress, passengers said, with crews still installing carpet in some portions of the refurbished vessel during the journey.

"The meals have been slow and they've been unorganized, but we understand that they're shorthanded," said passenger Bernice Arnold, Christina's mother. "But I think as they go on, they will get better about that ... they know they're short-handed, and the workers are really pushing and doing their best."

Robert Kritzman, managing director of NCL America, said the company is "very pleased" with the crew's performance and the overall feedback from passengers has been good.

While many crew members are new, the vessel wasn't shorthanded, he said. In fact, the company put a larger staff than normal on the ship for the cruise. There were lines in the dining rooms, but Kritzman said that was because all of the passengers were on board each day of the four-day crossing from the Mainland, putting strains on the system.

That won't happen during interisland cruises when the ship docks each day, he said.

"We have a substantial portion of the crew from Hawai'i, and they seem to be smiling from ear to ear to be back home, and happy to do it, and we think they're doing a great job," Kritzman said. "It's been very busy for them because it's been a very unusual itinerary so far, so it will be I think great for everybody to get into a regular routine here pretty soon."

Starting next Sunday, the ship will make weekly seven-day cruises from Honolulu to Kona and Hilo, with overnight stays on Kaua'i and Maui.

The Pride of Aloha is expected to generate $199 million in direct and indirect wages and salaries, and $42 million in federal tax revenues, creating a boost for employment in tourism and other industries, according to Norwegian.

The Pride of Aloha was built in 1999 and was previously known as the Norwegian Sky, operating under a Bahamian flag. It was renovated, then reflagged in June.

The vessel arrived in Hilo at 4:40 a.m. yesterday with 1,905 passengers and 882 crew members, according to harbor officials. Under tightened security arrangements, access to the area where the passengers disembarked at the pier was restricted, with visitors required to pass through metal detectors.

Protesters on hand

Just outside the security perimeter in the pier shed was a half-block of vendors' booths displaying flowers, jewelry and crafts. Tour buses lined up at the rear of the shed to haul cruise passengers off for volcano tours, hikes or helicopter rides. By 8 a.m., tour vans and taxis crowded into the parking lot to the front of the shed.

"The impact and what they spend while they're here filters down to everybody," said Carol VanCamp, general manager of the island's largest shopping mall, Prince Kuhio Plaza. "It's good for all of us."

The brief stopovers by the vessels provide more than just momentary benefits, VanCamp said. It will plant the idea in tourists' heads that they should come back to the Big Island for a longer stay, she said.

The Pride of Aloha passengers were also greeted by a small protest outside the harbor gate by about 30 sign-waving members and supporters of the Native Hawaiian nonprofit group Moku O Keawe 'Ohana.

The organization is pressing Norwegian Cruise Lines to contribute money to the nonprofit to be used for "preservation, perpetuation and protection of the host culture, the land, historic sites, sacred sites and the beginning of an economic base for Na Kanaka Hawaii," according to a statement from the group.

Kale Gumapac, president of Moku O Keawe, said he is focusing on the cruise industry for now, but plans to expand his efforts later to try to collect similar contributions from the airline and hotel industries.

Norwegian Cruise Line executive vice president Robert Kritzman, who is based in Hawai'i and oversees Hawai'i cruise operations, said he met with Gumapac several times to discuss ways the company could cooperate with the community by giving preferences to Hawaiian entrepreneurs or helping with other projects. At the last meeting it became clear "they were not interested in working together in that way," he said.

As for contributions, "we are involved in a lot of different charity efforts, but we are involved in efforts and groups of our choosing, including Hawaiian groups."

U.S. workers, U.S. laws

Norwegian Cruise Line gained the ability to put a U.S. flag on the Pride of Aloha and two other foreign-flagged ships through an exemption to federal maritime law shepherded through Congress by Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, and enacted last year. Without the exemption, cruise ships that fly foreign flags and offer cruises among the Hawaiian Islands must stop at a foreign port such as Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati. That restriction has kept down the number of cruise lines servicing Hawai'i.

With a U.S. flag, the Pride of Aloha can stay within the Hawaiian Islands for cruises but must employ U.S. workers and follow U.S. labor laws. The Pride of Aloha had to meet U.S. safety and security standards, and its crew had to meet U.S. standards for Merchant Mariners certification.

NCL's ambitious plan to expand Hawai'i's cruise industry and restart a new U.S. flag cruise operation has been supported by Hawai'i's congressional delegation and much anticipated by tourism and government officials. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said in a written statement when the Pride of Aloha was reflagged earlier this month that flying the U.S. flag "raises our maritime strength and raises jobs."

Hiring and training an all U.S. staff has not been problem free.

NCL America canceled a two-night travel-agent cruise out of San Francisco earlier this month and a one-night "party cruise" out of Honolulu scheduled for July 2 on the Pride of Aloha, to "give the crew a well-deserved rest," the cruise line said. Crew members were "exhausted," according to the cruise line.

Danny Ching, president of Non-Stop Travel, one of the top marketers of Norwegian cruises in Hawai'i, spent several days onboard the ship meeting with executives when it was in California preparing for its departure.

He said crew members seemed to be "happy to be on the ship," though "a little bit overworked. They're putting in a lot more hours than anticipated."

Canceling the two short cruises was "a positive move for Norwegian," said Ching. "Maybe they should have anticipated it earlier, but maybe they didn't realize they'd have the problems," he said. "We're all humans, and Americans are not used to working seven days a week."

•

7-day cruises begin July 4 The Pride of Aloha is scheduled to arrive at 7 a.m. Friday at Pier 10 and 11 at Aloha Tower in Honolulu, and will remain there until Saturday. Norwegian Cruise Line will host an overnight fund-raiser cruise on Saturday to benefit five Hawai'i-based charities. Ticket revenue from the gala cruise will benefit Bishop Museum, Child and Family Service, Ready to Learn, The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the USS Missouri Memorial. This "cruise-to-nowhere" departs at 4 p.m., and returns the following day at 7a.m. Next Sunday, the Pride of Aloha will be christened at an event starting at 10 a.m.; it then departs on its first regularly scheduled seven-day cruise at 8 p.m.

Now Norwegian estimates that the Pride of America, expected to be the second U.S.-crewed and U.S.-flagged ship sailing interisland cruises in Hawai'i, will not be completed and ready for cruises until next year. Originally, a second ship was scheduled to start in October.

Competition concerns

Norwegian Cruise Line also canceled plans to operate its second ship on an itinerary of three- and four-day interisland cruises. Those cruises were expected to draw more Japanese and kama'aina customers, along with providing more business for Hawai'i's land-based tourism industry, including the hotel industry.

Some Hawai'i tourism executives are concerned about competition from NCL.

Other destinations, including Puerto Rico, have tried to address concerns of the land-based tourism industry about competition from the cruise industry, said Joseph Toy, president of hotel consultancy Hospitality Advisors LLC.

"They can impact the market if they're here, but I also look at the benefits of the cruise industry," Toy said. He said NCL has helped to bring in more flights from Mainland cities such as Denver and Chicago. And because much of the cruise industry is based in Florida and attracts many Eastern region travelers, it helps to draw tourists from that region, where Hawai'i has historically been less popular than it is on the West Coast.

The U.S. East market is one "we really want to penetrate, so I think there are benefits to that," Toy said.