The cruise vessel Horizon Caribbean of Croisieres De France and Pullmantur Cruises, has started home porting at Port St. Maarten from December 8 to April 6, 2015.
Horizon Caribbean will be sailing out of Port St. Maarten on Mondays to Guadeloupe, Martinique, Isla Margarita, Santo Domingo, La Romana and back to St. Maarten. The ship docks at 12.30pm and departs at 7.30pm.
Horizon Caribbean was built in 1990 and was renovated in 2012. The vessel has 721 cabins and 80 per cent have a sea view. The vessel can carry up to 1444 passengers (double occupancy) and has a 620 crew complement.
Pullmantur Cruises is headquartered in Spain. It began operating in the late 1990s as an offshoot of the Madrid-based travel agency Pullmantur.
Pullmantur Cruises offers vacation packages to Riviera Maya, Playa Bavaro, Summer in the Caribbean, Northern Europe Cruises, Mediterranean Cruises, and Caribbean.
The cruise line has four ships at its disposal, namely Monarch, Sovereign, Empress and Horizon Caribbean.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Mingo of Port St. Maarten is very pleased that another cruise vessel is utilizing the destination as a home port.
“We are able to cater to small cruise vessels where home porting is concerned. We can manage 500+ cruise passengers comfortably. This is the first time that we are catering to this size cruise vessel which has a capacity to carry over 1000+ cruise passengers. It will mean business for our hotels, taxi drivers, our airport, excursions, tours, restaurants, gift shops etc.
“These cruise passengers are also potential return visitors who would come back to spend a week or two on our beautiful island. The home porting market is an area we have been pursuing and we will continue to work diligently to bring more of this business to our country,” Port St. Maarten CEO Mingo said.