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Dwarfing warehouse buildings nearby and stretching out well beyond the end of Pier 2, a huge new passenger liner, the Star Princess, spent the day in Honolulu Harbor yesterday, giving residents and visitors a chance to gawk at a real giant of the seas. Maiden voyage
for the Star PrincessBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comThe ship, likely the biggest passenger liner to ever visit Hawaii -- at 109,000 tons and 951 feet long -- is on its maiden voyage from an Italian shipyard to the U.S. West Coast, and came via Asia after running through the Suez Canal.
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Officials of the operator, London-based P&O Princess Cruises, said the $450 million vessel can carry 2,600 passengers and a crew of 1,200. It had 2,234 passengers aboard for its Honolulu stop.The ship operates under Bermuda registry and will run Mexican Riviera cruises out of Los Angeles in the summer and Gulf of Alaska cruises from the Pacific Northwest in the winter. Unlike most of the new-generation cruise liners, it is too big to make it through the Panama Canal.
While the Star Princess was at Pier 2, the main passenger terminal at Pier 10 was occupied by another big liner, the Statendam, operated by Holland America Lines. Normally attracting its own share of attention, the Statendam -- at 55,500 tons, 720 feet long and able to carry 1,266 passengers -- was towered over by the newcomer.
The only Hawaii-based liner, the Norwegian Star, was new when it arrived in December. It is slightly lighter than the Star Princess, at 91,000 tons, but a bit longer at 965 feet.
Meanwhile the 1,212-passenger ms Patriot, the last Hawaii remnant of the once-busy but now bankrupt American Classic Voyages, sits empty at a Honolulu pier waiting for a decision on its future from its owner, Holland America Lines, which bought it back in a bankruptcy foreclosure.