POINTE BLANCHE–Mein Schiff 5 made its inaugural call to the island last Thursday. Its sister ship Mein Schiff 4 was the first vessel to open the 2016-2017 cruise season with its inaugural visit in November 2016.
Mein Schiff 5 is the newest member of the TUI Cruises fleet and is identical to Mein Schiff 4.
Governor Eugene Holiday was present during the inaugural visit for the official plaque exchange and words of welcome that took place between Captain Loannis Anastasiou and Port St. Maarten Chief Executive Officer Mark Mingo.
Holiday and a delegation comprising Port St. Maarten Management and Supervisory Board members, representatives of the Cabinet of the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT), St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and Accessible Ventures were given a tour of the vessel after the plaque exchange.
At the end of the tour of Mein Schiff 5 Holiday was given a tour of Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise and Cargo Facility by CEO Mark Mingo, which concluded with a luncheon at the Cruise Terminal Building.
Some of the areas about which Mingo informed Holiday during the tour of the port were the Enterprise Risk Assessment and Port Base/Port Community System plans and work methods; the strategic agreements and relationship the port has with cruise lines; current home-porting investments and future plans; and how preclearance would further enhance expansion of these; growth in cargo shipping and trans-shipment, as well as cruise ship provisioning – currently at 35 per cent.
TUI Cruises, a German cruise line, is a joint venture of the German tourist firm TUI Group and Royal Caribbean Cruises. TUI Group is a multinational travel and tourism company headquartered in Hanover, Germany. It is the largest leisure, travel and tourism company in the world, and owns travel agencies, hotels, airlines, cruise ships and retail stores. The group owns six European airlines, the largest holiday fleet in Europe and nine tour operators based in Europe.
Mein Schiff 5, after being in the Caribbean since October 2016, is making its way back to the Mediterranean, where it will be deployed for Mediterranean Sea cruises. The cruise ship picked up passengers in Barbados and La Romana, Dominican Republic, prior to a stopover in St. Kitts, and its inaugural call to St Maarten last week Thursday.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/65248-mein-schiff-5-makes-first-call-governor-tours-port
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