Mammoth luxury cruise vessel calls at New Mangalore Port

Mangalore, November 12: Cruise vessel M V Aida Diva with 1975 cruise passengers and 598 crew members called at New Mangalore Port on Saturday.

The vessel started its journey from Muscat and called at Goa and from there to NMP and the vessel will be sailing out to Cochin today evening.

This is the biggest cruise vessel ever called at the Port. Out of these 1975 passengers from Germany, around 1200 passengers opted for ground tour and enjoyed the scenic beauty and cultural heritage of Dakshina Kannada district like 1000 Pillar Jain temple, monolithic statue of gommateshwara, Gokarnanatha temple, St Aloysius chapel, Kadri temple, cashew factory, city shopping etc.

These tourists were taken around in 40 a/c buses by the local ground tour operators, M/s Globe International and the agents of the ship is M/s J.M. Baxi & Co.

The tour operators M/s Royal Caribbean International, one of the leading cruise operators of the World, has visited the Port twice during the current year and had discussion with the Port Chairman, Traffic Manager & Deputy Conservator and visited the port area and expressed happiness over the facilities available at NMPT for handling cruise vessels.

They were very much impressed upon the world class facilities available at the Cruise Lounge, neat and tidy berth area, concretised roads, security arrangements, emigration facility, greenery in and around the port, availability of local ground tour operators, proximity to tourist areas, etc. The above Liner has already prepared their plan for bringing 12 more cruise vessels during the next 1 year period.

The biggest vessel 'MV Brilliance of the Seas' with a length of 293.5 metres and 3000 passengers is expected to call at the Port during April 2012 which will be the biggest cruise vessel ever handled at the Port.

Dr P Tamilvanan while expressing happiness over the smooth handling of such a big cruise vessel stated that the captain of the vessel M.V. Aida Diva has expressed very much happiness over the facilities available at NMPT especially the neatness and greenery in and around the Port and the , excellent security arrangement and the world class cruise lounge.