Celebrity Cruise Lines – Solstice – At Port Zante
Photo By Erasmus Williams
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
December 13, 2010 (CUOPM)
Celebrity Cruise Line is living up to recent remarks by St. Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Richard Skerritt that Celebrity/Royal Caribbean International Cruise Line has adopted St. Kitts as a preferred cruise destination in the Caribbean.
Two weeks after making that statement at a Plaque and Keys Exchange Ceremony to mark the inaugural call of the MS Celebrity Eclipse to St. Kitts on November 24th, Minister Skerritt has been informed by Federico Gonzalez-Denton, RCI/Celebrity’s Director for Government Relations, that the Celebrity Solstice will make two unscheduled calls to St. Kitts on February 2nd and March 3rd next year.
The information was relayed to Minister Skerritt during a meeting at the Port of Miami offices of Royal Caribbean International & Celebrity Cruises last Friday.
Ministr Skerritt, who was accompanied by Tourism Authority CEO, Rosecita Jeffers, described the meeting as positive.
Senator Skerritt said the face-to-face meeting with top Celebrity officials enabled him to apologise in person on behalf of the Government and citizens of St. Kitts & Nevis for the recent unprecedented at Brimstone Hill involving passengers from the Celebrity Mercury.
The Tourism Minister also took the opportunity to discuss measures being taken locally to strengthen cruise passenger safety and security, and to minimise the risk of a similar incident recurring.
Celebrity’s Head of Security, Gary Bald, also confirmed that, since the incident, security officials from the cruise line were in ongoing contact with the St. Kitts and Nevis Police High Command on matters related to the police investigation.
During the meeting, Federico Gonzalez-Denton disclosed that the Celebrity Solstice will make two unscheduled calls to St Kitts on February 2nd and March 3rd next year.
According to Skerritt, the addition of these two calls is a clear vote of confidence in the viability of St. Kitts as a port-of-call for Celebrity Cruises. Five other Celebrity ships are already making 47 scheduled calls to St Kitts, but this season’s schedule did not previously include calls from the “Solstice”.