Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Minister Rene Violenus (standing, fifth right) with the captain of cruise ship “Norwegian Bliss” and representatives of Port St. Maarten, the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau, the Anguilla Tourist Board, and the TEATT cabinet.
PORT–The Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) vessel Norwegian Bliss made her inaugural call to St. Maarten on Wednesday, November 20. This is the third inaugural cruise call to St. Maarten so far in the 2019-2020 cruise season.
Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Minister Rene Violenus and representatives of Port St. Maarten, the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau, the Anguilla Tourist Board and the TEATT cabinet were on hand to offer and exchange the traditional welcome plaques with the cruise ship’s captain.
Norwegian Bliss returned to the United States (US) east coast in November for a winter season of Caribbean cruising, homeporting out of New York City (NYC).
The vessel is the third ship in the Breakaway-plus class built for NCL by Meyer Werft in Germany. The construction of Norwegian Bliss started in October 2016 and the vessel was floated out in February 2018. She took her maiden voyage in April 2018. Her sister ships are Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Escape.
Norwegian Bliss can carry more than 4,000 passengers and 1,700 crew at full capacity. She has an overall length of 333.4 metres (1,094 feet), a width of 41.4 metres, and weighs 167,800 gross tonnes.
“We are once again happy to welcome another cruise vessel to our port and destination. All stakeholders continue to work diligently to ensure that we offer a unique and authentic cruise destination experience. We look forward to more inaugural calls during the 2019-2020 cruise season,” said Port St. Maarten on Thursday.
Norwegian Bliss operated out of Los Angeles, California, this year, before joining Norwegian Joy in Seattle, Washington, for a summer of cruising to Alaska and Mexico. According to NCL, both ships are the largest to homeport on the US west coast.
NCL said it will introduce 10 additional ships through 2027.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/92676-cruise-ship-norwegian-bliss-made-inaugural-call-on-wed
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