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Ocho Rios welcomes new cruise ship - Britain-based Ventura visits

Published:Tuesday | November 30, 2010 | 12:00 AM
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Caught on-board the Ventura cruise ship are Karl Fuller (left), justice of the peace, Leon De Sainte Croix (centre), cruise director for the Ventura, and Kumar Sujanani, president, St Ann Chamber of Commerce. - PHOTO BY CARL GILCHRIST
The cruise ship Ventura in Ocho Rios on Thursday. - PHOTO BY CARL GILCHRIST
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Carl Gilchrist, Gleaner Writer

OCHO RIOS, St Ann:

OCHO RIOS welcomed a new cruise ship last Thursday as the Ventura, operated by the Britain-based company P&O Cruises, made the first of five calls for the cruise-ship season.

With a capacity of 3,400 and a crew of 1,100, the Ventura is island-hopping through the Caribbean, having left Southampton a few weeks ago. It will return there in March 2011.

Cruise director Leon De Sainte Croix said Ocho Rios features heavily in future itineraries.

"It's the first visit of the ship to Ocho Rios. We've got five visits this season into Ocho Rios, but I think Ocho Rios will be featured heavily in future itineraries because the island has a lot to offer and there is a very strong link between Jamaica and Britain," Sainte Croix said.

Entertainment officer Anthony McGinley, in explaining the itinerary, said the Ventura would spend roughly five months in the Caribbean.

"We left from Southampton. To cross the Atlantic takes the best part of a week. So it was four or five days at sea until we reached Barbados, and Barbados is very much our base. So every two weeks we overnight in Barbados," McGinley said.

From there, the ship tours the islands of the Caribbean, spending a day in each.

"It's very much what we call island hopping. The ship returns to Britain on March 15. so it spends roughly five months in the Caribbean."

President of the St Ann Chamber of Commerce, Kumar Sujanani, lamented the fact that the ship would only be paying four more visits to Ocho Rios this season.

Only regret

"We welcome the P&O Lines here in St Ann and we welcome the Ventura," Sujanani told The Gleaner. "My only regret is that it only has four more visits for the rest of the season. I wish it could come every week. We welcome them - every ship - to our port, our town. We welcome them. we need the business."

A welcome reception was held on-board and was attended by several persons, including president of the St Ann Chamber of Commerce, Kumar Sujanani; immediate past president, Horace Wildes; Vana Taylor of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association; Kerrian McLean of the Port Authority of Jamaica; Karl Fuller, deputising for Custos R.O. Walters; Blossom Deidrick; cruise-shipping manager from Lannaman and Morris (Shipping) Limited; Dennis Richards, Ocho Rios terminal manager; Sharon Williams; and Claudia Strudwick of JTB, among others.