honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, April 1, 2005

Travel company suing Norwegian Cruise Line

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of Aloha staff last summer suggested that passengers cut bath towels to make hand towels and pour water down stopped toilets so they would flush, according to a travel agency suing the cruise line.

San Francisco-based Blue World Travel Corp.'s complaint against Norwegian centers on a charter cruise in August that left passengers so unhappy they filed a class-action suit against the travel agency. In its cross-complaint, Blue World Travel is alleging breach of contract and fraud and seeks protection from the passengers' complaints, said Blue World Travel president Patricia Yarborough.

Yarborough, who was on the cruise, said passenger complaints included having to use paper plates at buffets and in some cases not being given life jackets. They also complained of filthy bathrooms, dirty bed linens, lack of towels and three-hour waits for dinner.

Blue World Travel chartered two August cruises aboard the Pride of Aloha, with a total of about 4,200 people paying almost $1,400 each, Yarborough said.

Robert Kritzman, executive vice president and managing director of Hawai'i operations for Norwegian Cruise Line's NCL America, said he would not comment on specific complaints because of the pending litigation. But he said Blue World originally chartered the Pride of America, which was later damaged in a storm, and that NCL partially refunded the travel agency to compensate for changing to the Pride of Aloha.

Kritzman acknowledged that the ship had "some issues" for a period of time and that 90 percent of passenger comment cards rate the cruise positively.

Passenger complaints about the Pride of Aloha began escalating in August, about a month after it began sailing seven-day Hawaiian Islands cruises. That led NCL to apologize to passengers and send a senior management team from Miami to Honolulu to oversee operations.

But "what they haven't done is made it right for the people who had the bad experiences," Yarborough said.

Kritzman said NCL has dealt with passenger complaints and concerns on an individual basis.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2470.