On 15 October, Norwegian Cruise Line’s 2,376-passenger Norwegian Jewel called at Banana Coast, the newest Caribbean cruise destination, with 2,200 passengers. It was the first mega cruise ship call at the Trujillo port. Alan Lam reports.
The ship was welcomed by Ricardo Alvarez, the vice president of Honduras, who officiated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and traditional plaque exchange attended by Jose Lainez, the mayor of Trujillo, Captain Sven Kenneth Harstrom, master of Norwegian Jewel, and Randy Jorgensen, general manager of Grand Trujillo Autoridad, the port developer.
“The call went extremely well,” said Jorgensen. “The product is a winner and the community and destination received very positive reviews from the exit interviews we conducted. The positive response was validated by Norwegian’s shore excursion team asking us to add more tour capacity as soon as possible.”
According to Jorgensen there were however a few expected hiccups owing to congestion caused by local residents wanting to welcome the arrival of the passengers. He acknowledged that work on traffic flow was needed. The authorities already began to implement changes as soon as the ship had departed. “We expect improvements with every call going forward,” added Jorgensen.
Almost all the shore excursions offered were sold out. 900 guests were accommodated on organised tours. The line expects high demand during its next 12 scheduled weekly calls.
Banana Coast Tours offers 15 tours that, among others, include snorkelling, kayaking, waterfall explorations, horse riding, mangrove boat rides, and a variety of other cultural, historical and gastronomic excursions.
In total six cruise lines have slated 29 calls on eight ships at Banana Coast during the current 2014-2015 Caribbean cruise season: Holland America Line was the first major cruise line to plan to a series of calls to this destination from November 2014 to March 2015; Silversea Cruises will have a number of calls in December 2014 and March 2015; P&O Cruises and Oceania Cruises plan to call in the first quarter of 2015.