More Cruise Ships to Call in Cayman Islands - Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers

Rex · 11-08-2005, 10:44 AM

source: http://caymannetnews.com/2005/11/961/call.shtml

The Cayman Islands will continue to cash-in from additional cruise ship calls as some destinations, like Cancun in Mexico, try to recover from the direct negative impact of Hurricane Wilma last month.

The Port Authority reported this week that 16 new calls from three cruise-lines plying the Cayman Islands waters would bring an additional 25,000 passengers to George Town.

The Port officials said the Zenith (1,750 passengers), the Grandeur of the Sea (1,950 passengers) and the Oceania (684) would pay more visits here between 12 November 2005 and 1 April 2006.

The Zenith will visit eleven more times from 12 November, while Oceania is scheduled to arrive on 2 December 2005 to 10 March 2006.
The Grandeur of the Sea visits in November.

Without confirming whether the ships were redirected to Cayman from the hurricane-ravaged ports in Central America, the Port Authority would only say they were new business opportunities that surfaced after Hurricane Wilma.

The Cayman Islands, who missed out on CI$600,000 in passenger tax as a result of cruise ship cancellations last month over the same storm, are expected to gain more than CI$250,000 in taxes from the new arrivals.

Huge sea surges and a damaged port forced 20 cruise ships to abandon their journey to Grand Cayman as Wilma brushed past Grand Cayman at 175 miles per hour on 19 November.

Officials are optimistic that more calls could be on the horizon, judging by the devastation the hurricane inflicted on some of the world’s popular destinations in the Cozumel area of Mexico.

sue miller · 11-08-2005, 11:18 AM

That is great news for them. They were hit hard last year and lost a lot of income while it was closed to cruiseships last year from the hurricanes!!!!

sailyn · 11-08-2005, 11:26 AM

Great news for the Caymans, not such good news for the cruise ship passengers. They were already over run with cruise ships. I think we counted 8 moored when we were last there and it was just unbelievably crowded. I don't know how they can handle more ships.

laffnvegas · 11-08-2005, 02:57 PM

I have to agree with you Mike, we were there last March and we too ha 8 cruise ships there that day and it was way too crowded. Plus at least in March they will still trying to rebuild from their hurricanes. What I do not understand is that if you look at a cruis ship schedule Goergetown actually hae days there is no cruise ships. My guess is that Grand Caymans want it this way so that their land touists do not have every day that the cruise ship folks take over. This way they can attract those tourist as well.

daWoods · 11-08-2005, 04:30 PM

Yeah, but the stingrays are certainly going to be well fed.

laffnvegas · 11-08-2005, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daWoods

Yeah, but the stingrays are certainly going to be well fed.

They sure will, Gee

I wonder if they give the stingrays the cruise ship schedule of how many ships will be in on a certain day.

JimVrhovac · 11-08-2005, 07:10 PM

Looks like we will not be getting off the ship in Grand Cayman for wuite a while...

We have not gotten off the in almost a year, or since they started having so many ships in port

Jim & Ruth

sailyn · 11-08-2005, 11:03 PM

We will get off to feed the stingrays in January. We probably will not get off in October when we go back there. The rough seas have kept us from getting to go to visit the stingrays twice! Maybe we'll get to finally see them this time!

Ziggy7 · 11-08-2005, 11:24 PM

Wow when we were there last May there were 5 other ships in port too, and We thought it was crowed then, cant imagine what it is like with 8 at the same time eeeks !!!!

sailyn · 11-08-2005, 11:36 PM

It was a nightmare. Everything was packed. We stayed there long enough to buy a book for Bonnie and tendered right back to the ship and hit the pool and ordered a foo foo drink.