Island Cruises enters Caribbean market

**Ally** · 07-27-2007, 05:29 AM

Island Cruises is deploying Island Star in the Caribbean for the first time during winter 2008/09. Currently the line's two ships, Island Star and Island Escape, leave the Mediterranean after summer and spend the winter season dedicated to the Brazilian consumer based out of Santos.

‘We have carried over 350,000 British guests in the Mediterranean over the last six summers and our excellent satisfaction levels have created a loyal customer base. From December 2008 we will be giving these customers an Island Cruises winter holiday option for the first time,’ comments Patrick Ryan, md Island Cruises. ‘The decision to leave just one vessel in Brazil is made easier by the high costs of operating in Brazil, including head taxes and cabotage rules,’ Ryan said.

Island Star will homeport in Barbados from December 4, 2008 until March 26, 2009 from where she will operate three new 14-night itineraries. These itineraries visit, in total, 20 different ports of call including Barbados, Grand Cayman, Panama Canal, Jamaica, Cartagena (Columbia), Aruba and Grenada.

Ryan calls the Caribbean ‘a tough market’ with a number of lines already operating winter fly-cruise programmes from the UK, including Ocean Village, P&O Cruises and Fred Olsen Cruise Lines but the decision to enter, he says, has been driven in part by many of its past customers who have expressed an interest in cruising with the line in the Caribbean. ‘Island Star’s itinerary-rich offering will set us apart from others already in that zone,’ remarks Ryan.

‘The Caribbean programme opens up a whole new region for our guests providing port intensive cruising for first-timers to the Caribbean, a bit of Latin America on a Panama Canal adventure for the more experienced and an unusually expansive itinerary that takes in diverse ports from the east and west of the Caribbean Sea,’ he adds.

Four direct flights will operate to Barbados every Thursday from Manchester, Glasgow and Gatwick airports plus drop offs to pick up passengers in Belfast and Dublin.

Ryan confirms Island Escape will continue to serve the Brazil market in winter and that if Island Cruises – a joint venture between Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and First Choice Holidays – expands to a third ship, ‘we would re-look at winter deployment in the growing Brazilian market’.