NAWILIWILI — The island, particularly businesses near to and within shopping-shuttle distance of Nawiliwili Harbor, stands to lose millions of dollars in business as two major cruise lines have opted for other ports because of inadequate place to park their
NAWILIWILI — The island, particularly businesses near to and within shopping-shuttle distance of Nawiliwili Harbor, stands to lose millions of dollars in business as two major cruise lines have opted for other ports because of inadequate place to park their floating hotels.
And there are currently no plans to expand the harbor to accommodate more cruise ships.
On the heels of Princess Cruises’ decision to skip Nawiliwili and other Hawai’i ports next year, word has come from Royal Caribbean International that its 2001 itinerary which included several Kaua’i stops has been canceled.
Though Princess Cruises’ Sky Princess was only to come here on three occasions next year, the Royal Caribbean decision is estimated to cost the state around $4 million in passenger spending during isle harbor stopovers.
Barbara Bennett, of This Week Kaua’i magazine, has been active in coordinating warm welcomes for cruise ships arriving at Nawiliwili Harbor, and found the news disheartening.
“I knew we were going to have a berthing problem at Nawiliwili because Bob (Crowell, Nawiliwili harbormaster) was telling us what problems we were going to be facing if there was more interest in coming, because nothing’s been planned to take care of it,” she said.
“We had a projection of what we needed, and we had meetings down at the harbor and everything, but we weren’t encouraged that they were going to do anything on the Neighbor Islands,” Bennett said.
“They (state Department of Transportation Harbors Division) really needed to spend some of that money at the Honolulu Harbor,” she added.
The state goes out into the community and asks the public what they feel is needed for harbor improvements, but Bennett and others know that improvements could be a decade or more away, she said.
“I’d like to sound more optimistic,” but that’s not possible at this point, she said.
The problem, according to Crowell, is that two cruise ships longer than 750 feet can’t both fit into Nawiliwili Harbor at the same time.
And the current industry trend in cruise ships is the bigger, the better.
Vessels less than 750 feet can be accommodated at pier 3, but on days when the Young Brothers barge arrives, that pier isn’t available.
“They can’t go anywhere else,” Crowell said of the Young Brothers vessels. “That’s their berth. We wouldn’t schedule another passenger ship in there” on days of the barge arrivals.
Also, pier 3 isn’t as glamorous a landing for the visitors and crew, as there are no pay phones, limited parking, a longer walk to Kalapaki Beach and Nawiliwili shops, and only a recently purchased tent to shield arriving passengers and crew from the weather, Crowell said.
Also, because of the prevailing winds, sometimes vessels trying to leave Kaua’i are pinned to pier 3.
Pier 2 is the normal cruise ship berth. Crowell hasn’t heard official word from Royal Caribbean about the cancellation, or that ship parking problems at Nawiliwili Harbor are the reason for the cancellation.
Pier 2 has pay phones, room for buses and shuttles to move around, and a covered area with seating for the arriving passengers and crew.
But Nawiliwili’s first-come, first-served policy for accommodating cruise ships and other traffic may leave some cruise operations out at sea.
Another problem is that many of the cruise-ship companies try to wedge Hawai’i stops in between Caribbean cruises, which makes April and May, and September through November, busy times for Hawai’i ports, Crowell explained.
“They try to fit all of their cruises in a very small window,” he said of the foreign ships wishing to call on Hawai’i ports.
“They’re either on their way from the Caribbean, or back to the Caribbean. They’re kind of in-transit, and try to fit Hawai’i in on a short one,” Crowell said.
“So, they try to fit a whole bunch of boats in within a few-week period,” he said.
At the end of next year, American Hawai’i Cruises will once again be coming to Nawiliwili twice a week, with its Independence and a new ship, taking up precious space especially at the Neighbor Island ports, he added.
Currently, the Independence arrives at Nawiliwili each Sunday, and leaves each Monday.
“We at Nawiliwili try to work with any of the guys as far as scheduling their vessels, and American Hawai’i Cruises has been pretty good about scheduling its ship to pier 3,” Crowell said.
Bill Thayer, president of shipping agent Waldron Steamship Company, Limited, said lengthening all three piers at Nawiliwili, utilizing Port Allen and Kikiaola are all options being explored.
Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor as an option is three to five years away.
But the current conditions limit the number of cruise ships the island can accommodate, he said.
“There’s too much congestion out here.” The arrival of the second American Hawai’i Cruises’ ship, Patriot, at 714 feet, will further complicate things, he said.
“I think we need another pier.” The state and its residents have to decide to court or ignore the growing industry.
“Do we want to pay attention to the customer, and accommodate the customer and be responsive to the customer, or are we going to let our facilities confine our abilities or potentials,” Thayer told The Garden Island.
“It’s in the community’s hands, basically.” More and more ships want to come in, and there’s no room. And the cruise lines are getting wind of the parking problem, he continued.
“The major problem is our system that we have in Hawai’i for building facilities and getting things done, is not working,” said Thayer, something he said he’s been preaching for years to deaf ears.
“It’s too slow and it’s unresponsive,” Thayer said.
Crowell said Thayer wants things out of state officials at Nawiliwili that sometimes just aren’t possible to give.
“What he wants from the state is a blanket-type of policy, statewide policy, that says if a larger vessel wants to schedule into a berth and a smaller vessel is there, and can be moved to pier 3, he wants us to automatically move the vessel, or schedule the vessel, into pier 3, because it works better and it’s more efficient,” Crowell said.
“However, there are some other things that we have to consider when we schedule the vessels. It’s not an automatic thing.
“We’ve always operated that it’s first-come, first-serve when it comes to scheduling berths,” Crowell said.
