by Linda Straker
- SeaDream I was scheduled to sail into Port St George’s on Friday, 13 November
- Cancelled its call because of a Covid-19 outbreak onboard
- Cruise Operations Advisory Working Group recommended Grenada restart cruise in gradual manner
The small cruise ship SeaDream I which was scheduled to sail into Port St George’s on Friday, 13 November 2020, as the first ship for the 2021/2021 cruise ship season has cancelled its call because of a Covid-19 outbreak onboard.
“The ship will no longer be coming to Grenada,” said a representative from Huggins Shipping Division, the local tour operator for the cruise line.
The ship was on its first Caribbean cruise since the pandemic caused sailing to cease in March. Passengers on the current cruise had boarded the ship on last Saturday in Barbados. The ship had already called at St Vincent, Canouan, the Tobago Cays and Union Island, with trips ashore to empty beaches and for snorkelling in a carefully orchestrated bubble, with no contact allowed with local people.
Passengers were required to take a Covid-19 test at home before flying to the island and test negative within 72 hours of travel. They then were given another PCR test by the cruise line’s ship doctor at the dock before boarding.
In a recent news conference, Niyokan Roberts, Manager of Nautical Development at the Grenada Tourism Authority said the Cruise Operations Advisory Working Group has recommended that Grenada restart cruise in a slow, safe and gradual manner. Roberts disclosed that SeaDream would arrive in Grenada on 13 November and that passengers would be engaged in a mainly water sport activities such as snorkelling, kayaking and river tubing and visits to a nutmeg processing plant and chocolate factory. The attractions were recommendations from the ship’s tour operator.
The ship which will homeport in Barbados, according to reports from the USA online newspapers, currently has 53 passengers on board and 66 crew. There is a mix of nationalities on board, including passengers from Austria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden. Ten people are from the United Kingdom. There are 37 Americans, all of whom embarked the ship in Barbados on Saturday.
Tourism very good for Grenada if visitors stay in Grenada.
Cruise ships are very bad for most people in Grenada. Cruise passengers seldom spend money with local people. If they spend money it’s in the cruise terminal mall. Local people don’t benefit from that.
The only thing that cruise passengers bring to grenada is the rubbish they leave on Grand Anse beach and the germs they breathe all over locals fruitlessly trying to sell them trinkets so they can feed their families.
plezzzzz noooooo we will become poor without tourism. grenadians are becoming tooo racist now. i am anti propagandic. we have no choice but tourism