With 2 cruise calls remaining after today’s call of Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas, Saint John Port Authority officials reflect on the banner season and the many highlights it brought.
Significant among these are:
• A new record in passenger volume in a single season when the 200,000th cruise guest of the year arrived during the call of Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess on October 20th.
• Hosting the Canada-New England Cruise Symposium June 8-10.
• Welcoming the 1.5 millionth cruise guest, fourteen-year-old Camille Stearns and her grandmother Dorothy Wilson, during the call of Norwegian Dawn on October 6th.
• Among the 76 cruise calls there were 3 inaugural calls Carnival Glory (June 6), Celebrity Summit (July 8), and Arcadia (October 2). Carnival Glory went on to be the most frequent caller of the season with 26 visits this year.
• Five double-ship and 3 triple-ship cruise days in a 4-week period.
• Notification that Meet & Greet were named to Top 3 Finalist position for Tourism Award of Excellence (Tourism Industry Association of Canada).
• Notification that Betty MacMillan will receive a peer-nominated honour as recipient of the American Association of Port Authorities 2011 Cruise Award.
The Port Authority is not alone in celebrating these achievements. Hosting this volume of visitors in a five-month period is a team effort. This effort is made from the time a pilot boards the vessel in the outer harbour and the longshoremen tie it up at the terminal to each and every person a cruise guest encounters during their visit.
“As the season winds down and we gear up for planning 2011, it is important for us to state that Port Authority appreciates the hard work of port stakeholders in Saint John and we celebrate these 2010 milestones with our many dedicated tourism industry partners,” explained Jim Quinn, President & CEO of the Saint John Port Authority. “These businesses are the backbone of the natural tourism products which surrounds the Port all along the Bay of Fundy and up the St. John River. These, together with the numerous merchants in the Saint John and surrounding area have very much contributed to this successful cruise season at our Port.”
Two cruise calls remain before the season closes this week, Crystal Symphony on Thursday, October 28th and the final cruise ship of 2010 on Friday, October 29th, Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 which is scheduled to depart at 5 pm and is certain to draw the eye of many Saint Johners as she leaves the harbour.
