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Carnival Cruise Lines gone!

PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten suffered a major blow yesterday when Carnival Cruise Lines, the largest cruise line in the world, announced that it had dropped St. Maarten from its itinerary.

The Carnival Cruise Lines ship "Fascination" will, as of April 1, 2001, no longer make its weekly stops in St. Maarten. Instead, Carnival has chosen to replace St. Maarten with port calls to St. Kitts and St. Barths.

The terrible news was broken yesterday via letter to Commissioner of Tourism Theo Heyliger, who was visibly dismayed by the decision. The move came after several warnings by the cruise line, the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) and Heyliger himself.

The loss of Fascination translates into St. Maarten losing approximately 100,000 passengers annually, 2,400 per week, and US $10 million annually in revenue.

"In direct revenue for the harbour, which makes it feasible for us to pay back our loans, this means a loss of close to $1 million a year. This would of course endanger future projects that still need to happen within the harbour complex itself," Heyliger said.

The main reason stipulated by Carnival about its decision is the constant harassment its passengers have to endure when disembarking at Captain Hodge Wharf. This harassment comes from taxi drivers, car rental operators and from other individuals to whom Heyliger referred as "radical people."

In addition to Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' ship Enchantment of the Seas has also submitted various complaint letters about the situation at Captain Hodge Wharf. These complaints have been echoed by NCL, owner of the Norway, whose crew members were recently verbally assaulted by people on the pier using profanity and obscene language.

"This is becoming an extremely frustrating issue to deal with. Tourism is supposed to be our livelihood and yet we are doing everything that is possible to destroy that livelihood," Heyliger said.

Commissioner Heyliger fears the worst case scenario, which could see Royal Caribbean and NCL following the lead of Carnival Cruise Lines by ceasing their port calls to St. Maarten.

Carnival Cruise Lines also felt that every possibility should have been in place to ensure that its passengers could get to Philipsburg from the new harbour facilities. Heyliger explained that while the taxis are available, as well as tendering from the pier into Philipsburg, Carnival had additionally preferred a way which would have allowed their passengers to walk into town at their own leisurely pace.

"This was one of the reasons why months ago I brought up the suggestion of the boardwalk, which met with opposition," Heyliger said. "Hopefully, now it will take a situation like this to bring some of the things I have been calling for and, as people would say, bring reasoning to my `madness.' It is not only my vision, but a vision that our partners in the cruise industry have been screaming for," Heyliger said.

The Commissioner was further informed by Carnival Cruises that St. Maarten had lost the attraction it once had. Not only physical attraction, but the fact that there is little or no marketing of the island in the major tourism markets.

He disclosed that St. Maarten had a tourism marketing budget of US $120,000, drastically cut from US $5 million. Being quite frank, Heyliger said this amount was ridiculous and not even enough for a bad promotional commercial in the foreign tourism markets.

He admitted that he was not pleased with the budget he had been given to work with. If this budget were to be increased, discussions would first have to take place among his colleagues in the Executive Council.

Heyliger stated that if everyone, including Government, wants a secure future for St. Maarten, then priorities will have to be examined and changed. "Because tourism is our life, plain and simple. US $120,000 will not get the job done."

"We as a people have to wake up and smell the coffee. Other islands want our business. There are other avenues for the ships and their passengers to explore. I don't want the people to think that we have something so incredible on this island that we can afford for tourists to not come here," the Commissioner stressed.

He continued: "We can't have the attitude that we have to stand up and fight these people at every turn and not have these guests come to the island. It is very simple: Carnival Cruise Lines means 100,000 passengers on an annual basis. You're standing up to them demanding this and that; when the day comes that we have no tourists, then what do we do? In the end it is not only detrimental for St. Maarten, but for taxi drivers, business owners, everybody," he concluded.

The Daily Herald learned late last night that leader of Government Commissioner Sarah Wescott-Williams had called an emergency meeting for this morning to discuss the issue. Whether or not government will be able to salvage anything is doubtful, however, since Carnival has not indicated that it will resume port calls anytime in the near future.

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Carnival Cruise Lines not
gone, merely replacing

PHILIPSBURG--Carnival Cruise Lines has not dropped St. Maarten from its itineraries completely. Jennifer de la Cruz, the company's spokesperson, speaking from Miami, told The Daily Herald yesterday that the cruise line is indeed stopping its ship Fascination from coming to St. Maarten, but only to replace it with another new cruise ship, the Spirit.

St. Maarten will not be featured on any of the cruise line's itineraries from April till November 2001. "But we have already scheduled the Spirit to call in St. Maarten on a seasonal basis, starting November 2001," De la Cruz said.

Weighing 84,000 tons and accommodating 2,124 passengers, the ship--which is now being built and which will be launched by early 2001--is slightly bigger than the Fascination, which can carry 2,040 passengers.

According to De la Cruz, Carnival is trying out a completely fresh unique approach that involves shifting a variety of ships from their regular itineraries and adding a couple of new ports.

"Where St. Maarten is concerned there were some issues of concern, but this decision was primarily based on a new marketing strategy," De la Cruz said. She declined to make any comments as to what those "issues" involved.

The Fascination, which had been calling in St. Maarten once a week, will continue calling until April next year, after which it will be replaced by the Holiday.

However, St. Maarten will not be included in the itinerary of the Holiday, as that ship will be used for the company's new "unusual" six-port itinerary. This itinerary will include St. Kitts and St. Barths. "The Holiday is a smaller ship that accommodates 1,452 passengers, if there are two in every room," De la Cruz said.

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Terry Donegan

We will be cruising on the Norway in about 5 weeks and I would like to be prepared.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what excursions are the best?

Haveagoodone.

KruzinKat