Basseterre, St Kitts – The 4,905 -passenger Oasis-Class “Anthem of the Seas,” refused to dock at St Kitts ‘ multi-million dollar second cruise-ship pier, specifically designed and built to accommodate Oasis-class ships.
The EC$150 million pier was constructed to berth two Oasis-class ships at the same time, but when the Anthem of the Seas on Monday morning, it avoided berthing at the new pier.
Two smaller ships, the 2,450-passenger Celebrity Summit and the 450-passenger Seabourn Oddessey instead berth at the new pier. One other ship, the “Britannia” of P&O Cruises joined the “Anthem of the Seas” at the older pier.
“When completed, the second cruise pier will be able to berth two-Oasis-class ships at the same time,” Minister of Infrastructure, Hon Ian Patches Liburd is on the record as boasting on multiple times.
Completed since mid-November and handed over to the St Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA), the new pier have several shortcomings including its depth and a rock said to be of concern if the Oasis-class ships berth on one of its sides.
The EC$150 million facility has been completed at a time when St Kitts is experiencing a drop in the number of ships and cruise passengers expected for the 2019/2020 season compared to the 2018/2019 season.
According to the itinerary published by the St Kitts Tourism Authority, 420 cruise ship calls with an estimated 1,086,844 passengers are expected during the period October 2019 to September 2020, compared to 447 cruise ship calls with an estimated 1,212,462 passengers for the period October 2018 to September 2019, a decrease of 10 percent and 6 percent respectively.
Based on information printed in the 2019/2020 cruise ship itinerary, Costa Cruises, Cruise & Maritime Voyages, Plantours and TUI which had Port Zante on the 2018/2019 schedule have dropped St Kitts completely from the 2019/2020 itinerary.
Also missing from the 2019/2020 St Kitts cruise ship itinerary are TUI Cruises 2,534 passenger Mein Schiff 5 and Mein Schiff 6, which have a capacity of 2,534 passengers per ship. Carnival Cruise Line which operated five ships with a total of 75 calls during the 2018/2018, season, will deploy one ship less with a total of 66 calls for the 2019/2020 season. Crystal Cruises, which booked 23 calls from its 75-passenger Crystal Esprit and the 1,010-passenger Crystal Symphony in 2018/2019, will only make six calls from three ships in 2019/2020.
The most worrying reduction of all is said to be Royal Caribbean (RCL), which will make 65 calls for 2019/2020 with seven ships, a significant reduction from the 85 calls to St Kitts from 8 ships in the last cruise ship season.
