Carnival Vista, the latest unit of Carnival Cruise Line, received a theatrical welcome in Piraeus, where the port authority had teamed up with local theatrical groups to provide a different kind of welcome to the passengers and crew of the ship, Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) said in a statement.
“An ‘alternative welcome,’ pleasant surprise awaited 5000 passengers and 1600 crew members of the cruise ship Carnival Vista. This time the PPA Management held a cultural event with a performance from the Piraeus Municipal Theatre and traditional dances from the Keratsini cultural club dance team, called Thymaidai,” PPA said in a statement.
The PPA launched its cooperation with the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus with the show "Sea on the edge, Greece - Climbing the sea" directed by N. Diamantis, a composition of texts from ancient tragedies and poems on a journey where the ancient Greek theater meets poetry and the Greek traditional folk music.
Then took the baton the dance team Thymaidai with representative traditional dances rousing the tourists, who also tasted features Greek products (graviera cheese, crackers, olives, feta cheese and raki). The performances will be repeated in other arrivals in the tourist season of 2016.
It is known that benefits from the increase of cruise diffuse both local communities and the national economy, especially when they come from cruise itineraries using Greek ports as ports of departure (homeporting).
Several cruise lines, such as Celestyal Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard Line, Costa Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, are using the port of Piraeus for turnaround.
The cooperation with Carnival Cruise Lines will contribute to further development of homeporting, since the new ship of Carnival Vista 336 meters long with capacity of 5,300 passengers, is expected to transfer a total of more than 50,000 passengers during the summer of 2016 from and to Piraeus.
This has already reflected in the provisional figures of the first half of the current year with an increase of 14% in homeporting compared with 2015.
“PPA, in order to achieve smooth ship and passenger service has implemented a series of measures and now it serves in the best and safest way over 10,000 passengers in every turnaround, in covered areas of 7,500 square meters,” PPA said.
