By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com
November 3, 2006
After lying dead in the water for more than a year in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has reclaimed its former role as a major cruise ship port.
The Julia Street Cruise Terminal reopens this week -- two weeks after the Norwegian Sun docked at the new Erato Street Cruise Terminal, a 90,000 square-foot facility that cost $37 million. Coming next summer is another terminal, at the intersection of Poland and Pauline Avenues.
Since the typical cruise ship passenger spends more than $300 per day in New Orleans -- as opposed to an average of $90 a day in other ports -- the economic impact is obvious.
According to the president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans, the cruise ship industry will reach 75 per cent of its pre-Katrina capacity by year's end.
"Cruise ships could not come back for six months to a year because the city's infrastructure -- hotels, restaurants, and things passengers and tourists frequent -- were far from ready," he said. "Now we're ready."
The first post-Katrina docking was made less than a year ago, when the Delphin Renaissance brought 600 passengers into New Orleans on New Year's Eve. But no cruise line established a permanent base in the recovering city before Norwegian. The Norwegian Sun, offering itineraries to Mexico and Central America, will make 26 calls in The Big Easy through mid-April 2007.
Also coming are Fantasy and Triumph, both part of Carnival Cruise Lines, and Royal Caribbean's gargantuan Grandeur of the Seas. All offer Mexican itineraries, plus some others.
Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, causing massive flooding after levees failed. Before the meteorological disaster, the cruise industry brought $226 million per year into the city's economy. That came to a dead stop with Katrina.
In addition to those already announced, more than a dozen passenger ships are expected to visit New Orleans within the next year.
