PORT ROYAL
A step in the right direction… How offshore technology opened way to revival of historic Port Royal BY JOHN TAVNER
T
he decision by the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) to revive historic Port Royal, at the mouth of Kingston Harbor, as a cruise port has caused a ripple of excited anticipation in the cruise and tourism sectors. Port Royal’s revival has been made possible by an ingenious system called SeaWalk, invented and designed in Norway and inspired by offshore technology, that allows passengers to disembark from a vessel moored a couple of hundred meters offshore by means of a floating platform. This allows a harbor with no purpose-built cruise quay to receive cruise ships. Using the SeaWalk system, Port Royal – gateway to one of the world‘s most important archaeological sites – is due to receive its first cruise call on 20 January 2020 in the form of Marella Cruises’ vessel ‘Marella Discovery 2’, with a passenger capacity of 2,000-plus.
JAMES BOND The extraordinary thing is that no passenger vessels have used Port Royal for more than 50 years. In fact, according to William Tatham, the PAJ’s vice president of cruise shipping and marina operations, one of the last passenger/cargo vessels to
The Prime Minister mandated the PAJ to take the lead in ensuring that cruise shipping returned to the area. The PAJ immediately identified Port Royal as the ideal location… call Port Royal can be seen in the James Bond film ‘Dr. No’, which came out in 1962 – national independence year for Jamaica. There’s no question about the current demand for a suitable cruise port on the south coast of Jamaica. Hitherto, the north
coast has long been the destination of choice for seven-night itineraries out of homeports in Florida and the Gulf states. However, as Mr Tatham told CM: “The explosive growth in the ship orders, extension of itineraries, congestion of existing ports and the desire to deliver new experiences has made the timing right for Port Royal.” An indication of this demand came in December 2016 when the Port of Kingston – not normally a port of call for cruise ships – received the ‘Monarch’, operated by Pullmantur Cruises, the largest cruise ship ever to call Kingston with a passenger capacity of 2,700-plus.
Image courtesy of Port Authority of Jamaica | Hamilton Multimedia
14 www.caribbean-maritime.com
