New Cruise Ship to Call at Bermuda in 2006

Bermuda´s Tourism Minister Ewart Brown has advanced that a new cruise ship, the Crown Princess of Princess Cruises, with a capacity of 3,100 passengers will make 10 one-day visits to this Caribbean island next year.

Taking advantage of the newly restructured passenger tax, changed from a flat US$60 fee based on a three-day stay to a more flexible US$20 per day, the ship will call into Dockyard on either Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, or Mondays, between June 25 and October 16 next year, according to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

The Minister urged entrepreneurs able to offer a service to cruise ship passengers to consider setting up shop in the West End.

The cruise line, a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world´s largest cruise company, is also discussing with the Bermuda´s Department of Tourism to set up a cruise conversion policy to encourage cruise passengers to return as stay-over tourists, the CMC said.

The visits by the Crown Princess will mark the return of Princess Cruises to Bermuda after a four year absence which began with the retirement of the Pacific Princess.

After the 116,000-ton Crown Princess goes into service next year, the ship will begin cruises out of New York City to the Eastern and Western Caribbean from June to October. The ship is currently being built in Italy.