Three of the four cruise ships on Thursday made inaugural calls; veteran photographer Keethon France captures departures
(CUOPM) – Three of the four cruise ships that grace the Port of Basseterre on Thursday were on their inaugural or first visit to St. Kitts.
A total of 15 new cruise ships are scheduled to make inaugural calls to St. Kitts during the 2013/2014 cruise ship season.
The Italian-registered AIDAbella dropped anchor in the Port of Basseterre with 2,033 passengers. The cruise ship operated by AIDA Cruises was built at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany and was on an unscheduled visit. The AIDAbella is to make 9 more calls to St. Kitts.
Also on its inaugural call was the 92,000 ton MSC Musica with 2,271 passengers and docked at Port Zante. The first Musica-class cruise ship was built in 2006 and operated by MSC Cruises. It has 13 decks and will only make one call this season.
Docking at the deep water port with 973 passengers was the MV Horizon operated by Croisières de France.
The 47,000 ton Horizon, built in 1990flies the Maltese flag and will make a total of 21 calls to St. Kitts’ Port Zante.
The 116,000 ton Ventura was on its third call and is scheduled to make seven more visits. It docked at Port Zante and is one of the largest cruise ships in the P&O Cruises fleet. The Bermuda-registered ship with 2,032 passengers is of the Grand-class and is one seven ships currently in service with P&O Cruises, and one of the largest in Europe.
Veteran photographer, Mr. Keethon France captured the vessels as the departed for St. Kitts early Thursday night for their next destinations.
The 3,700-passenger Carnival Conquest was the first new vessel to visit for the 2013/2014 season.
The next new cruise ship to visit is the 450-passenger Azamara Quest which docks on December 2nd, the 2,680-passenger Costa Mediteranea on December 18th and the 446-pasenger Saga Ruby on December 23rd.
Come January 2014, Port Zante sees the inaugural visits of the 2,076-passenger Legend of the Seas on the 7th; the 4,941-passenger Norwegian Breakaway on the 13th; the 3,006-passenger Carnival Splendor on the 19th and the 4,100-passenger Norwegian Epic on January 29th.
The 708-passenger Saga Sapphire stops by on February 10th, the 800-passenger Albatross on March 16th, the 2,500-passenger Aida Luna on March 19th,
The 2,974-passenger Carnival Freedom and the 3,690-passenger Carnival Breeze make their inaugural calls on May 28th, and the 3,325-passenger Disney Magic on September 26th.
For this 2013/2014 Cruise Ship Season, there will be 103 days when there will be one ship. There will be 49 days when there will be two ships, that’s also the largest number of days when we will have two ships in our history. There will be 22 days when we will have three ships in port, which means 2 at Port Zante and one at the Cargo Pier. There will be 6 days when we will have 4 ships and for the first time in our history, we are going to have 3 days when we are going to have 5 ships.