Port of Houston losing Norwegian and Princess ships

The Port of
Houston will lose the two lines that agreed to sail from there in 2012.

Recent deployment
announcements from Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess Cruises will move the
Norwegian Jade and Caribbean Princess, respectively, to ports in Florida. Neither line
announced a replacement vessel in Houston.

The Jade will
finish cruising from Houston in April, spend the summer in Europe, and then
resume sailing mostly western Caribbean itineraries from Tampa in the fall of
2016.

The Caribbean
Princess will sail from Fort Lauderdale after departing Houston next spring in
what a Princess spokesman described as a consolidation of Caribbean operations
at Port Everglades.

Houston
offered Norwegian and Princess a total of $6.7 million in incentives to sail
from its port, where the $108 million Bayport Cruise Terminal had failed to
attract a long-term cruise tenant after opening in 2008.

The port of
Galveston, 90 miles closer to the Gulf of Mexico, has Royal Caribbean
International, Carnival Cruise Line and Disney Cruise Line ships sailing there.