Cruise ships sail back into New Orleans

updated 7:06 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - Christian Baehr set out Sunday on his first long trip since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and he did it on the first cruise ship to make a regularly scheduled stop in the Crescent City since the storm.

"I really needed the getaway," said Baehr, of Long Beach, Miss., one of about 2,200 people who boarded the Norwegian Sun on Sunday for a voyage to Mexico and ports in Central America.

Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29, 2005, hit hard at what had been a burgeoning business. Four cruise ships had used New Orleans as their home ports, including the Norwegian Dream, a smaller sister ship of the Sun. More than 700,000 passengers left and arrived through the Port of New Orleans in 2004.

In the first eight months of this year, the big cruise ships have made several one-time stops in New Orleans, serving 308,000 passengers, according to the International Council of Cruise Lines, an industry group.

The last regularly scheduled voyage in or out of the city was by the Carnival Sensation, which left just before Katrina. The Norwegian Sun, an 853-foot Norwegian Cruise Lines vessel that can handle 2,000 passengers, is the first of four ships returning for regular cruises through the rest of this year and in 2007.

Among the passengers boarding Sunday was Gary LaGrange, president and chief executive officer of the Port of New Orleans.

As soon as Norwegian Cruise Line, owned by Genting Group of Malaysia, announced its return, he said, "I decided I was going to be on it. I'm taking my first vacation" since Hurricane Katrina.

LaGrange wore a suit and carried a briefcase, saying the trip would be at least as much play as work. "I brought books to read" — all about baseball, he said.

He was in sharp contrast with Baehr, who wore denim shorts and a Hawaiian shirt printed with cockatoos, and was accompanied by about 50 friends and relatives. "We booked this in February so we could get all of us on together," he said.

By coincidence, the same day the Norwegian Sun left New Orleans, Norwegian crown Prince Haakon appeared in the city to mark the centennial of the Norwegian Seamen's Church.

There have been several one-time liner stops at New Orleans since Katrina, but Sunday's voyage marks the return of regularly scheduled service of four- to seven-day voyages. For a time after Katrina, two cruise ships docked at New Orleans to provide housing for emergency workers.

The port is opening a third cruise terminal and a 1,000-vehicle garage at a cost of $38 million that will give the facility the ability to handle two large passenger ships at once. It is bullish enough to be making plans for a fourth terminal.

But Bob Wall, owner of the New Orleans-based travel agency Vacations at Sea, said the first year probably would only be modest as the ships get re-established. He believes bookings will increase steadily in the coming months.

"Once they (the public) see the ships docked, I think that's going to provide a nice bump of sales," he said.

Next in line at the Port of New Orleans is Carnival Cruise Lines' Fantasy, which sails on Oct. 26, followed by Royal Caribbean International's Grandeur of the Seas on Dec. 7. Carnival is expected to begin sailing it Carnival Triumph next September. All the voyages will be bound to the western Caribbean.

New Orleans' return to the vacation cruise business comes during a heady time for the industry worldwide, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, another industry group. The industry has averaged an 8.5 percent annual growth rate in passengers since 1980, according to the group. ICCL put total U.S. economic impact in 2005 at $32.2 billion.

After an industry record 11.2 million passengers in 2005, the business is expecting 11.7 million this year, said CLIA spokesman Brian Major.

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