Still smarting after mobilizing to greet a large cruise ship that ended up cruising right by, the Hanapepe Economic Alliance said it could easily get prepared to greet the new Norwegian Star cruise ship if it decides to call on
Still smarting after mobilizing to greet a large cruise ship that ended up cruising right by, the Hanapepe Economic Alliance said it could easily get prepared to greet the new Norwegian Star cruise ship if it decides to call on Port Allen come December.
“If we get something in writing from someone, an intent to dock from DLNR, from mayor, from the ship lines itself, from somebody, giving us a time and a date, then we would accommodate,” said Dr. Lewis Shortridge, president of the Hanapepe Economic Alliance.
“Not a problem at all. We’d be more than happy to do this, to set it up and run the deal,” he said. “We would need some assistance, from the Lions or from the county monetarily, because we don’t have the kind of money it takes to pull one of these deals off,” said Shortridge.
“You have a real good attitude down here. The people would love to do that,” he added. “But it has to happen.”
The new Norwegian Star, capable of accommodating 2,000 passengers with a crew of 1,000, will begin weekly calls on either Port Allen or Nawiliwili in mid-December. Kaua’i is a must stop for the cruise line, as passenger surveys indicate Kaua’i is the favorite stop of the Hawai’i cruisers.
To date, though, no Norwegian Cruise Line representatives have contacted Shortridge or the alliance, he said.
A couple years ago, the town came together to successfully pull off a town fair and accommodate the Rhapsody of the Seas.
Last year, though, the alliance got spun around several times preparing to host an on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again cruise ship arrival that for weather, safety or other reasons simply never materialized.
“We just can’t do that. We’re just a small town,” said Shortridge.
“At the end of this deal last time, everybody was so disgruntled” that there are still some hard feelings about the mobilization, then the cancellation, then the re-mobilization, then the re-cancellation, when harbor pilots refused to bring the MS Infinity into either Port Allen or Nawiliwili.
After that experience, those mobilizing for what ended up being a no-show felt hurt that no entity even said “thank you” for the effort of gearing up for a ship that never came in, he added.
“And we haven’t really been contacted by anyone since then as to how Hanapepe feels about that kind of drill. Really, it’s been kind of a dead issue since then,” said Shortridge.
A spokeswoman for Norwegian Cruise Line’s public-relations firm said a decision about which port the ship would call on will be made within two months, though cruise line sales people have been concentrating their land-based sales efforts in the area within seven miles of Nawiliwili Harbor, The Garden Island has learned.
Even the Norwegian Cruise Line information in booklets distributed to travel agents and the media has conflicting information. On published itineraries, Nawiliwili and Port Allen are listed as potential Kaua’i ports of call, though in the descriptive text about the various Hawai’i port harbors the ship will call on, only Nawiliwili is discussed.
At a time when many Hanapepe-area businesses are suffering (overall revenues are down 30 percent this year compared to 2000 results, which were 30 percent above 1999 figures, Shortridge said), a cruise ship arriving weekly with 3,000 potential shoppers would be a definite economic plus, Shortridge admits.
But according to the president of the Hawai’i Pilots Association that by state law is required to assist large foreign-flagged cruise ships in and out of Hawai’i ports, Port Allen isn’t a viable stop because of exposed offshore waters.
“I don’t think Port Allen is a viable option” for the Star, said Capt. Dave Lyman, Hawai’i Pilots Association president. An exposed offshore area would make it difficult in rough seas to shuttle passengers and crew between ship and shore, he added.
And for a cruise ship to decide to make weekly calls at a particular port, it has to have an annual 90 percent or so likelihood of being able to successfully and safely do so.
Shortridge also isn’t sure even a weekly cruise ship’s arrival at Port Allen would have much of an economic impact on the area, through studies have shown that cruise ship passengers spend around $82 per person during each port stop.
“The economic impact is minimal, because most of these people have everything already provided for them, or already paid for on the cruise,” he said. “Not that they wouldn’t be inspired to buy something small, I suppose, as we all are, if we find that special unique thing that you certainly wouldn’t find on a ship or anywhere else.
“We can provide that kind of experience for them, as well as good aloha,” he added.
“It would have some economic impact. I mean, there’s no doubt about that,” Shortridge said. “They’re not panacea. It isn’t what’s going to put Hanapepe on the map,” he said of cruise-ship traffic.
While activities including tour boats and the helicopter companies at Burns Field would likely benefit from the 2,000 passengers and 1,000 crew members the Star would bring, such an event would also lead to congestion in an already crowded, small harbor, he noted.
“What it does is it creates a real coordination problem with the other boaters. But they were willing to bite the bullet and accommodate the ship” when the Rhapsody called, he said.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
