Antigua Cruise Port has stated that it is hosting three Celebrity ships – the Silhouette, the Edge and the Reflection – over the period of 10 days for technical calls and warm layups.

“More than one year after the closure of Antigua Cruise Port due to the global shut down of the cruise industry, the management of the port, along with a contingent of Government officials, welcomed the Celebrity Cruises vessel Celebrity Silhouette on Saturday, Apr. 17, 2021, departing on Apr. 20, 2021. Her sister ship, the Celebrity Edge joined her on Apr. 18, 2021, with 60 crew members embarking and will conduct maintenance works while in port remaining in port for a ten-day period. The Celebrity Reflection is expected to call on Antigua on Apr. 21, 2021, with 14 crew members embarking,” the port wrote in a press release.

Up to recently, these vessels were on warm layup in Barbados. But, the port said, due to weather concerns tied to the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines a few weeks ago, special permission to call on St. John’s was granted by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda after strict health protocol requirements were satisfied.

The vessels have no passengers, and the crew are not be permitted to disembark.

“As the cruise port operator, Antigua Cruise Port is pleased to partner with Celebrity Cruises and local Agent Brysons and is grateful to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda for their support of the facilitation of its cruise line partners in such difficult times. Celebrity Cruises has also thanked Antigua Cruise Port for quickly responding to assist their displaced vessels stating that ‘this is another example of a great partnership during hard times’,” the port wrote.

While the ship calls are short-term, they are still bringing some economic benefits to Antigua as the vessels will require maintenance work, crew embarkation services, and other forms of assistance, including taxi transfers, hotel stays, provisioning services, and refueling services, the port said.

Antigua Cruise Port added that its team will continue to work closely with the government and relevant health authorities to ensure that adherence to the approved health measures is strictly maintained, which will help the cruise sector to continue to gain traction in the short and long term.