By
Laura Hyde |
Antigua Cruise Port in the Caribbean is expecting the winter 2023-2024 season to be the best since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
Seabourn Pursuit opened the season with an inaugural call at Heritage Quay near Antigua’s capital Saint John’s on 7 October 2023. Tourism officials boarded the 264-passenger vessel for the traditional plaque exchange ceremony, where the ship’s captain Ertan Vasvi thanked them for their hospitality.
In November 2023, both P&O Cruises’ Arvia and Emerald Cruises’ superyacht Emerald Sakara will recommence homeporting operations at the port. It will also host turnaround calls from Star Clipper’s tallships, Royal Clipper and Star Clipper, and Sea Dream Yacht Club’s small cruise ship SeaDream II later in the season.
Home to three piers, the port can handle up to five cruise ships simultaneously and serves over 800,000 passengers annually. The port will be redeveloped under the Antigua Cruise Port Development Project, a 30-year lease agreement between the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and Global Ports Holding. The redevelopment project will create a new pier that can accommodate the biggest ships in the industry, which will make it possible for the port to serve as many as one million passengers per year.