By Robert A. Emmanuel
Featuring a colourful mural on its port side, the cruise vessel, Norwegian Getaway, made its inaugural call to Antigua—the first vessel to do so this new cruise season.
Alongside the cruise vessel, Celebrity Silhouette, over three thousand tourists—mostly from the United States of America—left the confines of their oceanic accommodations, hoping to take in the Antiguan sun, sea, and culture.
By pure coincidence, King Flag Man was the first to greet the passengers at the pier, and he spoke to Observer media afterwards.
He explained that he saw the ships docked at the port, and with his patented flag-waving, he showed the tourists “how beautiful the Antiguan flag is, and I welcomed them to Antigua.”
Observer media also spoke to Captain Luigi De Angelis of Norwegian Getaway who stated that Antigua was one of the cruise line’s preferred destinations.
“My last time was six years ago, and coming in today with the ship, I was really amazed [at] the progress and the changes the port has made, in terms of facilities.
“I was really looking forward to it, same as my guests, they are very much happy that we are calling at Antigua today,” he explained.
The Norwegian Getaway is slated to visit the island again in December, and Captain De Angelis said that those trips will continue every ten to twelve days until next summer.
Meanwhile, Operations Manager at the Antigua Cruise Port, Rawle Reynolds, was optimistic about this season, stating that about ninety-five percent of operations at the port are back to pre-Covid levels.
“Our destination, the cruise season, is getting very robust. This November, we have around thirty-six calls.
The December schedule that we just released, that is indicating seventy-five calls; that is a good number,” he expressed.
According to Reynolds, the increased calls to the island indicate that cruise lines are satisfied with the improvements that the destination has made to facilitate more guests.
Those improvements include the addition of the fifth pier which Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez said was now open to receiving larger vessels.
“It is not just another cruise ship coming through, what it means is that they [large cruise lines] have started to put Antigua on the list of ports to visit.
“Yes, this is an inaugural, but we are expecting them to visit throughout the season and continuing,” Minister Fernandez said.
Another improvement that the government will be hoping to complete before the end of the year will be the dredging work at the St John’s Habour—with the ultimate goal of welcoming the mammoth Oasis-class ships.
Oasis class ships, such as those used by the Royal Caribbean International cruise line, have a capacity of around 5,400 passengers.