Five Ships in One Day Open Southern Caribbean Port’s Season

0
144
Five Ships in One Day Open Southern Caribbean Port’s Season


The luxurious port of St. John’s in Antigua and Barbuda celebrated the official opening of the winter cruise season with 5 cruise ships in port on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, an event that additionally served because the formal opening of the port’s fifth berth, which is able to accommodating among the world’s largest cruise ships.

Five Ships Visit Antigua in One Day

Five cruise ships from 5 completely different cruise traces had been docked in Antigua on Tuesday, December 6, not solely visiting the favored tropical vacation spot, however representing the official opening of the winter cruise season and celebrating the opening of the port’s fifth berth.

Seabourn Ovation (Seabourn Cruises), Marella Explorer 2 (Marella Cruises), Norwegian Dawn (Norwegian Cruise Line), Celebrity Millennium (Celebrity Cruises), and AIDAperla (AIDA Cruises) had been all available for the momentous go to.

According to the Antigua Observer, many native officers and dignitaries had been available to welcome the ships, sharing remarks concerning the port’s progress and the return of the cruising business within the wake of the pandemic.

Antigua Cruise Port
Photo Credit: Gerwin Schadl / Shutterstock

“Thirty-three months ago, on March 14, 2020, we received the dreadful news of the closure of the cruise industry after only four months of operations in Antigua,” mentioned Dona Regis-Prosper, General Manager of Antigua Cruise Port, describing how the pandemic impacted the port.

“The weeks that followed were amongst the most challenging that I had experienced in my long career in this industry – cancellation after cancellation of cruise calls, passengers stuck at sea, and crew desperate to get home to their families,” she continued.

“And 28 months ago, on July 15, 2021, we reopened the cruise industry with a call from the Windsurf [Windstar Cruises] welcoming a modest 85 passengers. The rest of the year would continue to be challenging with variants, changing protocols and of course cancelled calls.”

Today, St. John’s is just not solely able to welcoming ships as soon as once more with out restriction, however is trying ahead to greater than 600,000 complete passengers through the peak winter season.

This contains port of name visits in addition to a primary for the island, a homeported ship from P&O Cruises.

New Berth Completed

The new fifth berth, which was accomplished in December 2020 through the pandemic shutdown, provides a lot better capability to the cruise port.

Prior to the completion of the berth, the port dealt with roughly 800,000 passengers annually. Now, as much as 1,000,000 friends might be able to go to Antigua. Harbor dredging that has improved the marine channel has additionally made it doable for bigger vessels to name on Antigua.

The new terminal constructing is just not but full, however is anticipated to be completed by November 2023 when further ships from Emerald Cruises and SeaDream Yacht Club have deliberate to start homeporting from Antigua.

The new terminal will likely be greater than 10,000 sq. ft, with devoted area for port operations in addition to baggage dealing with and purchasing choices.

Cruising to Antigua

The twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, within the Leeward Islands of the West Indies, is a well-liked port of name on Southern Caribbean cruise itineraries.

Antigua, Caribbean Cruise port
Photo Credit: byvalet / Shutterstock

The peak cruise season usually runs from October by means of April, although some vessels do name on Antigua through the summer time as properly. For the 2022-2023 winter season, ships from quite a lot of cruise traces are scheduled to go to.

In addition to Tuesday’s cruise traces, vessels from Royal Caribbean International, Princess Cruises, MSC Cruises, Oceania Cruises, Windstar Cruises, TUI Cruises, Holland America Line, Viking, Costa Cruises, and extra are all on the port’s upcoming calendar.

P&O Cruises latest ship, Arvia, is to be homeported from St. John’s starting in January 2023, with itineraries that go to St. Kitts, Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Maarten, and different unique southern locations.

Five Ships in One Day Open Southern Caribbean Port’s Season

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here