Holland America Blog
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Holland America Blog Has Just Posted the Following:
Barbados is a peculiar island to call at, for several reasons. First of all the ships have to make an “extra†effort to get there as it is located outside the eastern rim of Caribbean Islands which form the boundary of the Caribbean Sea. The island is surrounded by North Atlantic Ocean at all sides. So is it really a Caribbean Island??? Secondly they are very independent but still very British. They used to close the shops on Saturday afternoon for the weekly cricket game. That happens less now as the booming Cruise Trade force a rethink between tradition and style and raking in the dollars.* Thirdly it acts as a turn over port for cruise ships, far- far away from Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Barbados has excellent airport facilities (the Concorde used the fly here) and can handle a larger number of airplanes and passengers at the same time. Thus British company’s such as P&O use Bridgetown as a changeover port. This is also done by smaller company’s / smaller ships which do not want to make cruises where one day or more is lost to get to and from the Caribbean and still stay in the 7 day circuit. Today being Saturday we had several ships in port doing so. When the good ship Noordam pointed it nose into the harbor, it was the last cruise ship in. Docked were the Ventura, the Royal Clipper, the Seabourn Spirit and the Windstar.* Apart from the Noordam they all used Bridgetown as a changeover port. That cannot be bad for the local economy at all.* The port of Bridgetown has a U-shaped main harbor and apart from a Geest Line Banana Boat the whole port was full of cruise ships. Everything else had to stay outside, at anchor, until they all sailed. *Understandable that we are not always very popular with the cargo ship captains who have to sit idle, losing money while the cruise ships take preference. But we book two years in advance and us show up on the minute to keep the schedule. Cargo ships cannot do […]
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Barbados is a peculiar island to call at, for several reasons. First of all the ships have to make an “extra†effort to get there as it is located outside the eastern rim of Caribbean Islands which form the boundary of the Caribbean Sea. The island is surrounded by North Atlantic Ocean at all sides. So is it really a Caribbean Island??? Secondly they are very independent but still very British. They used to close the shops on Saturday afternoon for the weekly cricket game. That happens less now as the booming Cruise Trade force a rethink between tradition and style and raking in the dollars.* Thirdly it acts as a turn over port for cruise ships, far- far away from Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Barbados has excellent airport facilities (the Concorde used the fly here) and can handle a larger number of airplanes and passengers at the same time. Thus British company’s such as P&O use Bridgetown as a changeover port. This is also done by smaller company’s / smaller ships which do not want to make cruises where one day or more is lost to get to and from the Caribbean and still stay in the 7 day circuit. Today being Saturday we had several ships in port doing so. When the good ship Noordam pointed it nose into the harbor, it was the last cruise ship in. Docked were the Ventura, the Royal Clipper, the Seabourn Spirit and the Windstar.* Apart from the Noordam they all used Bridgetown as a changeover port. That cannot be bad for the local economy at all.* The port of Bridgetown has a U-shaped main harbor and apart from a Geest Line Banana Boat the whole port was full of cruise ships. Everything else had to stay outside, at anchor, until they all sailed. *Understandable that we are not always very popular with the cargo ship captains who have to sit idle, losing money while the cruise ships take preference. But we book two years in advance and us show up on the minute to keep the schedule. Cargo ships cannot do […]
Click here to view the article.
