World's largest cruise ship to call on Montgeo Bay

Jason · March 25, 2006

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Cruise passenger arrivals to Montego Bay is expected to flourish significantly with the scheduled arrival of the world's biggest cruise ship, Freedom of the Seas, in June.

The vessel, which is a part of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's fleet and can carry 4,300 passengers, is expected to arrive at the Montego Bay cruise shipping pier every Thursday after its inaugural June visit.

Up to now the biggest cruise ship to dock at the Montego Bay pier is the Carnival Conquest, which brings in 3,200 passengers every Wednesday.

According to John Byles, chairman of the Cruise Shipping Committee of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, last year the resort city received 300,000 cruise passengers. The cruise-shipping official expects this figure to grow by 50 per cent, reaching 4,500 by June 2007 with the addition of Freedom of the Seas two months from now.

Byles noted that stakeholders in the cruise shipping industry in the city were feverishly anticipating the latest addition of cruise ship.

"We are looking forward to it. The stakeholders are rallying around and positioning themselves for this cruise vessel," he said.

In the meantime, he said tourism interests were looking towards expanding what he described as the "freelance experience".

"We want the visitors to be able walk freely, go to beaches bars and so on as against going on pre-organised tours," he said.

Work, he said, was being done with the craft market vendors and other attraction stakeholders to enhance the overall experience.

Meanwhile, construction of a breasting dolphin is expected to commence this weekend at the Montego Bay cruise shipping pier, a move designed to extend the berthing capacity of the pier temporarily.

Plans are afoot for a multi-million-dollar expansion project at the pier, expected to get underway by yearend.

Source: Horace Hines, The Jamaica Observer