Cruise ships dock for the World Cup

Barbados is wearing a festive look as more than 6000 passengers, half of that from the two chartered cricket World Cup cruise ships, started descending here for the showpiece event.

However, another 400 passengers that are supposed to come from India and stay at a special cruise ship are now uncertain. BCCI had booked that ship extending free invitation to every affiliated state units but that now stands cancelled.

Notwithstanding that, by this afternoon, the date of the first Super Eight clash at Kensington Oval between England and Bangladesh, the other chartered ship, Galaxy, along with three other ships, will be in the port.

For the matches here on April 13, 15, 19 and 21, four cruise ships, including the two chartered ships, will bring in a capacity 6000 passengers.

However, the biggest fan influx will be coming in for the April 17 clash between South Africa and England, and the final on April 28.

Nine ships with a full house of 9000 are scheduled to come for the former, while 11 are set to be here for the final match along with more than 10000 passengers.

These were apart from several other smaller vessels that will be sailing in for the various matches in the next few days.

''All systems are go,'' said Martin Ince of Foster and Ince Cruise Services Inc, the port agents for Carnival Cruise Lines, as he commented yesterday on the number of cricket fans scheduled to be here.

Freida Nicholls, head of marketing and public relations at Barbados Port Inc., which is responsible for the operation of the Bridgetown Port, said the facility was ready for the influx.

''We are accustomed to handling 10000 passengers a day when we have five of those mega ships in port. We have that experience and we can handle it,'' she said.

Nicholls added there was an agreed berthing sequence for the ships and none of them was so large that space in the port would become a problem.

She said a few ships had already requested to berth outside of the port after their passengers had disembarked, and this would also relieve any congestion.

Local government provided financial guarantee for the Barbados Tourism Authority to borrow just under 30 million dollar to charter the Carnival Destiny to house fans for World Cup when it was thought the availability of rooms in hotels and villas would have been insufficient. Galaxy is an Australian chartered vessel.

UNI MT PDS KP1755

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