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Carnival cancels some cruise ship visits
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff Writer
KEY WEST —
Carnival Cruise Lines will stop port calls to the Southernmost City that
require ships to be tendered offshore while the Outer Mole Pier is
renovated.
Passengers
don't like being shuttled to Mallory Square from cruise ships anchored
offshore, said Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz. The ships
Imagination and Fascination are in town from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and
passengers have complained about the amount of time it takes to be
shuttled to and from land, she said.
"With the
amount of time in Key West, it just wasn't worth it," de la Cruz said.
The Outer Mole
Pier is closed to cruise ship traffic until at least September as the
Navy dredges the shipping channel and does work on the pier. Work began
in March and is slated to take more than two years to complete.
The
Imagination will cease coming to Key West until the pier reopens. The
Fascination will come to Pier B every other Thursday, de la Cruz said.
Currently, the Fascination comes once a week and the Imagination docks
in Key West every two weeks.
"It is
important to the city that guests enjoy their visit to Key West," said
city Port Director Raymond Archer. "If tendering to our docks resulted
in unhappy visitors, we understand why the cruise line wants to
temporarily stop visits to Key West. While the news is disappointing,
the loss estimated last year by our financial department is within the
shortfall ..." expected while cruise ships are diverted from the Outer
Mole Pier, which the city leases from the Navy.
Of the three
cruise ship piers in Key West, only the privately owned Pier B and the
Outer Mole Pier can handle large cruise vessels. The city's Mallory Pier
is used for smaller cruise ship dockings. Since the Outer Mole Pier
closed, some traffic has been diverted to Pier B and some ships have
been rescheduled to be anchored offshore. Other cruise ships canceled
their visits.
The city
receives $10.63 for each passenger that disembarks at Mallory Square and
the Outer Mole Pier. The city receives 25 percent of passenger
disembarkment fees from Pier B.
Archer and the
finance department are assessing the impact of the Outer Mole Pier
closure and plan to take money out of reserve funds to cover lost
revenue from cruise ship cancellations. The city has tentative plans to
take $415,000 out of reserves, city records show.
Carnival's
decision comes as cruise ship and passenger counts are declining.
Passenger and ship counts are down from October to April of this fiscal
year, compared to last fiscal year, port records show.
tohara@keysnews.com |
