MV Minerva of All Leisure Cruises Line made its inaugural call to Dominica on Wednesday December 23, 2015 at the Woodbridge Bay Port. This is the ship’s only call to Dominica for the 2015/2016 cruise season.
With a gross tonnage of 12449, MV Minerva has a carrying capacity of 350 passengers and 160 crew members. The ship is 437 feet in length. Prior to calling to Dominica the ship called in at Barbados. From Dominica the ship sails to St. Lucia.
As the ship was originally designed for Swan Hellenic’s intensive cultural enrichment programs, which cater to mostly British passengers, it has a country-house hotel atmosphere and is decorated with many paintings, prints and drawings that reflect its cruising regions. The officers are European, the stewardesses Ukrainian and the restaurant and bar service personnel Filipino.
To mark the Ship’s inaugural call, a Welcome Ceremony to include plaque exchange was held aboard the ship at 11:00am. Government Officials and tourism stakeholders were present to officially welcome the ship’s captain and crew.
A total of one hundred and seventy four (174) cruise calls are projected for the cruise season. This translates to approximately 290,000 passengers. Additionally, Dominica will welcome nine (9) new cruise ships. Inaugural ceremonies to include plaque exchange will be organized to welcome the ships. While the 2015/2016 will have 9.4% less cruise calls than the one hundred and ninety two (192) received during the 2014/2015 season, there is a projected 5.8% increase in passengers. During the 2014/2015 season Dominica welcomed 274,346 cruise passengers.
DDA will continue to work with the relevant authorities to enhance the appeal of our City and cruise sites and therefore solicits the cooperation of all tourism stakeholders in ensuring a welcoming and enjoyable visit for the cruise visitors. We ask that every effort is made to ensure a safe, friendly, clean and hassle free atmosphere for cruise visitors.
This is a beautiful tourist ship. Note the Dominica background on a beautiful sunny day (or cloudy?). Nevertheless, gorgeous scenery!
By now they must have left Dominica. I hope everyone had a pleasant, an enjoyable and safe visit. Visit again, soon!
Face the facts, you are full of kaka and pretence. Yes it is a beautiful ship but how the hell do you know this a Dominican background when there are no discerning features to tell us that. It may be Dominica but again it may not be. Tell us where exactly in Dominica this is and I may believe you.
I still haven’t seen anything done about the paros in Roseau, the drug dealing or the smelling drains. That is going to backfire on us.
Wonderful news. We need all the business we can get but it is about time we invest in a dedicated cruise ship location, out of Roseau. Especially on a day like today, Christmas Eve, getting in- and out of town is s nightmare when we also have cruise traffic to content with, not to speak of a parking nightmare. The traffic from the north into town this morning was backed up all the way to the Old Mill. and I bet the southern approach resembled a furred up artery too. Tropical storm Erika has convinced me that we must keep Canefield operational as an airport and we need to look for an alternative spot for a cruise port. How about bringing the redundant DCP facilities at Belfast into the equation? Or swap that with the deep water port at Woodbridge Bay? It certainly would create much needed employment for Mahaut and Jimmit. Just a thought!
Great comment this is the things we need to bring up good constructive comments that could help our country while we say we need another airport I agree we should look at grand savannah at Salisbury is true there are homes there but the land was already survey for an airport it will cost money but on the long run it will pay off if we recall they did relocate people for the Canefield airport it was the freedom party government that scrap the plan and sold the land just a thought