Now would be a great time for everyone to write their senators and congressmen about coming up with a tax credit, or other worthy incentive, to whatever company would restore the ship and make it operational again. Even with NCL supposedly owning it, they then would have something to sell. Tax policy is the best way to encourage saving this ship. If enough representatives are aware of concern, the documentary will be watched more closely.
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Which would be a great idea if any cruise line actually pays any US taxes. The only large cruise line paying American taxes today is NCLA, which has two ships, and after May this year, only one.
A tax credit or deduction isn't the only answer for saving the SSUS. I would suggest a guaranteed loan from the the US Maritime Administration to assist in refurbishing it would be much nicer.
At least with that they could get financing to refurbish it.
You are right! Loan incentives would add even more possibilities. I have no idea about the legalities and taxation, but seeing that most are publicly traded on NYSE, I would assume US taxes would come into play somewhere. Either way, with the right program, restoration of SSUS could be viable. That ship has far less operating hours on her than many that are cruising the seas today.
Originally posted by tncruiseman:
You are right! Loan incentives would add even more possibilities. I have no idea about the legalities and taxation, but seeing that most are publicly traded on NYSE, I would assume US taxes would come into play somewhere. Either way, with the right program, restoration of SSUS could be viable. That ship has far less operating hours on her than many that are cruising the seas today.
I have no doubt that refurbishing the SSUS could be done technically. Either restoring the steam turbines or replacing them with diesel engines or gas turbines. Adding hundreds of balcony cabins. Adding a casino and many restaurants.
Forming plans to do so is the easy part.
But, NCL is like every other business, they have to find a financial bank which believes it could repay the loans needed to make the refurbishment possible. That's the hard part. NCL doesn't have the hundreds of millions of dollars to finance this work themselves.
Money is tight right now, and NCLA didn't rake in huge profits that NCL hoped it would. The likely hood any financial bank will come up with the money is low right now. But who knows what the future will be?
Originally posted by tncruiseman:
You are right! Loan incentives would add even more possibilities. I have no idea about the legalities and taxation, but seeing that most are publicly traded on NYSE, I would assume US taxes would come into play somewhere. Either way, with the right program, restoration of SSUS could be viable. That ship has far less operating hours on her than many that are cruising the seas today.
I have no doubt that refurbishing the SSUS could be done technically. Either restoring the steam turbines or replacing them with diesel engines or gas turbines. Adding hundreds of balcony cabins. Adding a casino and many restaurants.
Forming plans to do so is the easy part.
But, NCL is like every other business, they have to find a financial bank which believes it could repay the loans needed to make the refurbishment possible. That's the hard part. NCL doesn't have the hundreds of millions of dollars to finance this work themselves.
Money is tight right now, and NCLA didn't rake in huge profits that NCL hoped it would. The likely hood any financial bank will come up with the money is low right now. But who knows what the future will be?
The only future that I see for the Big U is NCL selling the ship to a non-cruise line. I don't see this ship ever sailing again. It's much easier to build a brand new cruise than it is to rebuild the Big U into another ship. I don't believe that NCL/America will ever be profitable. Since they rid themselves of the SS Indy and the SS Norway, which would have costs much less to fix up than the Big U, Why should they care about the Big U?
Apollo is not going to invest $1 Billion on rebuilding the Big U. Nor will anyone else, other than the ship becoming a Hotel and Museum. With the financial mess the banks are in right now due the subprime loan dubatical, none of them will be crazy enough to give a $1 Billion loan to a company that is losing at lot of money like NCL/America. It's been 5 years since they got the ship. A feasibility study doesn't take that long to complete. The kind of plans that they want to do with the Big U is being concentrated on the F3 Class cruise ships. That's where the money is. Not on the Big U, from NCL/Star Cruises perspective. Never was. Never will. That's my opinion.
It's been 5 years since they got the ship. A feasibility study doesn't take that long to complete. The kind of plans that they want to do with the Big U is being concentrated on the F3 Class cruise ships. That's where the money is. Not on the Big U, from NCL/Star Cruises perspective. Never was. Never will. That's my opinion.
If NCLA had made huge profits, they might have needed the SSUS to expand their American fleet. They did buy the SSUS before commencing any NCLA service. But since NCLA hasn't been raking in profits, and the number of American ships has decreased, I doubt they will need the SSUS.
I do hope they can find a buyer for her that's not a scrap dealer.
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