136 Cruise Ship Visits Scheduled For Next Year
As Bermuda’s cruise ship season nears its end this year, the 2015 Cruise Ship schedule has been released and it shows we are scheduled to receive a total of 136 cruise ship visits next year made up of 100 regular or contract ship visits and 36 occasional visits.
This is in comparison to the 2014 total of 130 cruise ship visits made up of 104 regular or contract ship visits and 26 occasional visits and shows an overall increase of six visits.
Regular weekly cruise ship visits will see the Celebrity Cruise Ship Summit visit 19 times arriving at King’s Wharf in Dockyard on Wednesday mornings while Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Dawn will see 22 visits arriving at King’s Wharf on Sunday mornings.
The Grandeur of the Seas operated by Royal Caribbean visits 12 times arriving at Heritage Wharf in Dockyard on Sunday afternoons, while Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas will make 21 visits. The Norwegian Breakaway will make 26 visits, arriving at Heritage Wharf on Wednesday mornings.
St. George’s has three cruise ship visits scheduled for the year, while Hamilton will see sixteen visits scheduled with the returning Veendam representing six of those visits.
After their initial announcement earlier this year that they would be returning to Hamilton in 2015, Holland America Line confirmed in June that they will offer six seven-day cruises aboard the Veendam to Bermuda next year.
The Government previously said that approximately 366,000 cruise visitors are projected for 2015, which they said will contribute over $90 million to Bermuda’s economy, which includes Government taxes, on-Island purchases made by cruise visitors and crew members and shore excursions taken by cruise visitors.
The 2015 Cruise Ship Schedule [PDF here] follows below:
Congrats And thank you OBA!!! It is nice to see another downward trend by the plp being reversed!!! Long may it last!!!!!
Paid Blogger give it a break.. It was a collective effort, the PLP Built the second pier enabling succesive governments to maximize their use. Furthur more, the discussion of cruise ship itineraries for 2016 and 2017 are in progress TODAY – Hence the 2015 schedule began in 2012 under the dredded PLP. Also the contracted ship were contracted many moons ago. The OBA will impress me if they can have a ship docked there once a week year round.
Paid blogger??? Sorry champ, I do it for free and from the heart, unlike your plp paid bloggers such as “bud!!! ” As was stated further down on the thread, if the plp were still in power, there would be NO ships in Dockyard because the pier would have fallen into the sea by now??? Once again, the OBA had to come to the rescue!!!!
What the hell are you talking about ?
@Coffee, I believe he is referring to the repairs that had to made to the newly build but not properly built pier in Dockyard. I believe he is also hinting at the fact that it was built by a PLP members construction company.
@Mixitup, I believe Kangocar is referring to the fact that a certain PLP minister of Tourism Minister forgot to sign the cruise ship contract which meant that cruise company was able to take advantage of this loophole and take those ships elsewhere meaning there were (10 or 12 I cant remember exactly) cruise ships last season.
Can anyone confirm if the ships are able to open the casinos while in port now? It was one of the few great ideas that I agreed with that came from the PLP. I was sure the change in law was made, but I don’t know for sure. Can anyone say for sure.
Thank you, ” cruising ” unbelievable the level of ignorance by the plp SHEEPLE???? They will not be content until they regain power over a THIRD world island!!! In 1998 they all thought they would be moving into all the wealthy people’s homes??? Well, the only thing that happened was the wealthy got wealthier, the middle class became poor and the poor are now at the government agencies that are responsible for HAND OUTS!!!! How much pain do they really need to feel until they finally get it????
Not too sure where the Breakaway is going to tie up once my yacht I’ve commissioned to be built as the world’s largest yacht is finished next year. I’ll need Heritage Wharf to keep my yacht at. Hamilton is sufficient for my beloved yacht the Eclipse but the next one is going to make the Eclipse look like a punt.
paah , unlike me , if you can still find wharfs to tie your yacht up to it’s still way tinier than my toy .
It’s so huge there’s 2 time zones between the bow and the stern .
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. We thank you Minister Shawn Crockwell and all others that have “played a role” in bringing this increase to fruition.
@ Commodore JB of BBIRYC. You appear to be lacking somewhere in your life. Seems like you need love.
If the PLP were still in power there would be NO cruise ship visits in dockyard as their wharf would have fallen into the sea by now !
Which it did to an extent.
Still no regular callers for St. George’s…
Probably no significant changes in St.George or Hamilton until some TNT is used to move some rock. Another year has gone by and residents and business owners in both towns continue to complain and talk but nobody seems to want to REALLY offer a few solutions and options. Lots have verbal ideas but nobody seems to really doing anything with those ideas.
I say take that rusty, seized eyesore of a ship offshore and sink it so that it can become another artificial reef. Then sacrifice some of the problem land and Reef in St. George and Hamilton to get these ships back in to these ports.
I never cease to be amazed by all those who would proclaim that history started on December 17th 2012. As the OBA former AG used to say: “don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story”. People, you do well to remember the following FACTS:
1. Anytime there was an increase cruise passenger numbers under the PLP the UBP (and then the OBA) declared it as evidence of a failure in tourism because only air arrivals mattered, they said.
2. The construction of Heritage Wharf and all the ferry dock modifications across the island are what has saved the tourist economy during the 2008 and beyond recession.
3. Every single cruise line visiting Bermuda on this schedule is the result of PLP-inked agreements and the ability of those cruise lines to berth their ships somewhere other than Grassy Bay or Murray’s Anchorage and tender their passengers in. Thanks again too Heritage Wharf.
4. If Heritage Wharf was so broken and busted up why did the Norwegian Breakaway spend its entire season berthed there and we never heard one complaint or otherwise from NCL ?
5. And Kangoocar, there hasn’t been downward trend in cruise calls or cruise passenger numbers in years; in fact I’m pretty sure in one of your rants before the last election you too longed for the return of the air visitor and all they supposedly bring.
And while we’re at it, these are the only numbers going up in tourism and they’re the one area the Tourism Authority has little to do with….hmmmmmmm go figure.
The world was blessed with greatness on December 17,
what we got was a party that lies to it’s people
and does not care about Bermudians
oba is the same old evil ubp
5 bullets points of total nonsense??? I think you must be ” surely jesting??” Because I actually have a life, I will bring to your attention your biggest piece of nonsense!!! The Norwegian Breakaway sailed here on its maiden voyage after the OBA was elected and there was a massive dash to have Heritage Warf repaired before it got here, your selective memory needs to be checked champ?? It just never ceases to amaze me on how much punishment the plp supporters need to feel before they actually get it????
….Surely you jest.
Hamilton was void of any cruse ship {Veendam as an example]under your beloved DR E Brown PLP.
Oh yeah, I forgot, the PLP told the cruise lines to stop making ships small enough to get into Hamilton and St. George’s on purpose. You people are just sick.
They didn’t stop making them. Even if they did, for some reason those that were still in use simply stopped coming here. And, for some strange reason, the powers that be couldn’t (or didn’t) manage to change their minds.
Lots of Facts but you left out a few facts.
1) The PLP minister FORGOT to sign a major cruise ship contract. You do remember that don’t you.
2) The reason the Breakaway was able to dock there is because this brand new Pier that was built was fixed almost immediately after the OBA came into power. Did you not remember that?
3) There was a downward trend in everything that the PLP was responsible for. Think I’m making this up? Ask yourself and your friends what areas improved under the 14 years of PLP rule? Tourism, Education, Crime, Economy, Employment, Road improvements, Infrastructure, International Business registration, new Local Business registration, National Debt, new Construction or redevelopment…what exactly got better in the 14 years? For F’s sake, there are 800,000,000 dollars that nobody in the PLP government seems to know where it went!
Cruise Ship Calls:
2005 — 156 calls
2006 — 181 calls
2007 — 150 calls
2008 — 122 calls
2009 — 138 calls
2010 — 154 calls
2011 — 180 calls
2012 — 162 calls
2013 — 126 calls
2014 — 130 calls
2015 — 136 calls
The numbers speak for themselves.
The 2013 calls were a product of negotiations iin 2012. Ships and contracts were lost under the PLP, particularly after bus debacles at Dockyard. Slowly, it’s rebuilding.
Hoping to see the Disney Cruise here one day!!
not going to happen
Kinda like the America’s Cup, eh, frank?
Great news!! I will be spending a lot of time in and around the Dockyard licensed premises next season…. Girlfriend or not, I enjoy a beverage!
hopefully that chairman @ WEDCO keeps his crazy ideas to himself……(transportation)
It’s nice to have more cruise ships here but from a young persons point of view BDA needs more entertainment we have many young performers on this island that would love to entertain the tourist, we are very popular of our beaches we can be having young people to perform on our lovely beaches and other places to help tourist enjoy a Bermudian feel to the island.Our island doesn’t offer much different from other islands in fact other islands offer more for tourist to do.From me being young the island really needs to have more of a Bermudian feel to inspire our youth a more positive outlook for this island.
Don’t let facts get in the way of the OBA cheerleaders, the North Korea / Russian style politics is showinging on you. No matter what the information received positive or negative, you’ll seemed programmed, to shout with glee,you sre looking kind of silly.
With that said where is the nation plan on the number of cruiseship visitor numbers our infrastructure can effectively manage . What is target numbers plain and simple. The Oba Administration is treating us like door mats.
If the numbers are higher or lower than the previous years, Obaers will cheer it as success, not sure if those are just the paid bloggers or not, but it appears pitiful on all of us.