CRUISE LINERS Brilliance Of The Seas and Celebrity Eclipse made maiden voyages to Barbados on Thursday and Saturday, respectively, starting this year’s tourist season off on a positive note. Four new mega ships are scheduled to make maiden voyages to the island this year.
Brilliance Of The Seas is one of Royal Caribbean Cruises’ Radiance Class ships and has a capacity of 2 500 passengers and 900 crew. Celebrity Eclipse is one of the larger vessels of the Celebrity fleet, accomodating more than 4 000 people including guests and crew.
Inaugural ceremonies including officials from within the Bridgetown Port were held for both vessels. On Thursday, Kenneth Atherley, divisional manager with responsibility for market development and strategy at Barbados Port Inc. and Ryan Blackett, the Barbados Tourism Authority’s director of cruise tourism, presented a plaque to Captain Mattias Persson of Brilliance and his crew on behalf of the people of Barbados.
Captain Persson expressed gratitude for the token and also presented a commemorative plaque to Bridgetown Port on behalf of the ship and its crew.
He said that he and the crew were extremely excited about this new itinerary as it was the first time he and many of them would be visiting Barbados.
“Having been based in a much colder climate in Europe, we look forward to visiting and working with the Bridgetown Port every two weeks during the 2012-2013 cruise season,” he said.
George Hutson, Minister of International Business and International Transport, said that Government was “committed to developing Barbados as a marquee port for cruise in the region. In this regard, we feel the development of the soon to be constructed Sugar Point Facility will be integral in attracting more ships to the island and achieving our goal as the cruise hub of the Caribbean”.
Over the next two weeks Barbados is expecting maiden calls from Quest For Adventure and Saga Sapphire. (PR)
