Norwegian Jade - Complete Tour

Norwegian Jade is a cruise ship for Norwegian Cruise Line, originally built as the Pride of Hawaii for their NCL America division. She was christened in a ceremony at the San Pedro Pier in Los Angeles, California on May 22, 2006. This Panamax form-factor ship was built at Meyer Werft Shipyard, in Papenburg, Germany, and registers at just over 93,500 gross tons. 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, the 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 the 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 the Pride of Hawaii and make her a sister ship to the Norwegian Jewel. The ship was christened in Los Angeles by Senator Daniel Inouye. After delivery to NCL, she joined the 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 (aka Hawai'i). On April 11, 2007, NCL announced that Pride of Hawaii would be withdrawn from the Hawaiian market in February 2008 and subsequently re-deployed to Europe for the summer.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. On February 4, 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 grace the main dining room. There is little chance that she will ever return to Hawaii, as it would be difficult to regain her former US registration. In November 2011, she underwent a dry dock in Marseille in France for two weeks. The ship received new carpets and tiling throughout and the hull was repainted plus the usual annual maintenance took place. The Norwegian Jade was used as a floating hotel during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The ship underwent a three-week dry dock in March 2017, replacing the Hawaiian theming with a 'contemporary style'. 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. On November 19, 2018, the Jade ran into 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 will undergo repairs in Miami.