Carnival Cruise Line will resume regular calls to Grand Bahama from tomorrow (Friday) as recovery efforts continue following devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian last month.
Carnival Pride is due to dock in Freeport on a week-long itinerary from Baltimore followed by Carnival Elation on Sunday and Carnival Freedom on Tuesday.
Carnival Cruise Line expects to make 39 calls in Freeport, bringing more than 100,000 visitors to the destination by the end of the year.
More than 400,000 passengers will visit Grand Bahama on a Carnival cruise vacation aboard ten different ships sailing from nine different US ports in 2019.
Nautical and port operations senior vice president Terry Thornton said: “Cruise ship visits are important to the local economy and our shore excursion team has been working closely with local tour operators and has confirmed a variety of attractive onshore excursions for our guests.”
Senator James Kwasi Malik Thompson, minister of state for Grand Bahama, added: “The rebuilding of Grand Bahama has begun. We welcome the return of Carnival Cruise Line back to Grand Bahama after Hurricane Dorian.”
Carnival Ecstasy arrived in Freeport on Monday to undergo a 12-day dry dock at the Grand Bahama shipyard, becoming the first cruise ship to use the facility since Hurricane Dorian.
The company’s relief efforts include a $2 million pledge from Carnival Corporation and the Micky and Madeleine Arison Family Foundation, as well as relief shipments delivered by Carnival Cruise Line ships and via a partnership with Tropical Shipping.
Carnival employees and guests have also donated more than $500,000.
Meanwhile, Global Ports Holding started operating Prince George Wharf Cruise Port in Nassau on Wednesday.
GPH and its partner Bahamian Investment Fund plan to spend up to $250 million in expanding capacity and improving facilities.
Two years of building work is due to start this autumn.
GPH chairman and co-founder Mehmet Kutman said: “This is a truly transformational moment for Global Ports Holding, with Nassau now the largest cruise port in our portfolio.
“The GPH team very much look forward to working with our partners, the cruise lines and the people of the Bahamas to transform both the cruise port and downtown Nassau for the benefit of all stakeholders.”