It got horrendous publicity after air conditioning failures on a couple of voyages late last year brought passenger complaints and lawsuits. Still, the Norwegian Cruise Lines ship filled 74 percent of its berths on the seven sailings since Jan. 4. The figures come from the Port of Houston, which collects a head tax on every sailing. Cruising can be a boom and bust industry. That's because of the way new ships come on line.
Cruise lines order new ships when times are good.
Often everyone in the industry orders at the same. It takes years to build them. The industry thus often winds up with huge increases in capacity when times are not so good. We are now seeing a continuous building boom in the industry. Contracts have been signed to build 13 more ships with options for an additional three.