Technical Calls and Warm Lay Ups Serve as Testing Opportunities for Confirmed Summer Calls
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, April 17, 2021. The ship called on the port to complete a technical call and a warm layup. Her sister ships, the Celebrity Edge and Celebrity Reflection, are expected to call on Antigua on April, 18 and 21, respectively, for ten days.
Recently, these vessels remained on warm lay-up in Barbados. However, 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 will have no passengers and the crew will not be permitted to disembark.
As the cruise port operator, Antigua Cruise Port is pleased to partner with Celebrity Cruises and is grateful to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda for their support of the facilitation its cruise line partners in such difficult times.
While the ship calls are short-term, they will bring 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 refuelling services. The Antigua Cruise Port 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.
