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Latest News...Princess Cruises' highly anticipated second Sphere-Class ship, the stunning Star Princess, which is currently being built by Fincantieri, has reached a major milestone with the successful completion of its sea trials. The ship is on track to welcome its first guests on October 4, 2025, sailing the scenic Mediterranean from Barcelona.During these final sea trials from August 9–12, Star Princess departed the Fincantieri Shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy,...
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"Obviously, our program out of Baltimore has been extraordinarily successful; the sales have been fabulous," said Jennifer de la Cruz, a Carnival spokeswoman. "We'd like to come back to Baltimore at some point. It's just that the program for 2005 is already completed, and we don't have a ship to come up there."
Norwegian Cruise Lines, another of the five lines that make up the port's cruise industry, is also eliminating Baltimore as a departure point next year, as well.
But Royal Caribbean, one of the most popular cruise lines sailing from the port, plans to increase its number of Baltimore cruises.
Port officials said Carnival's decision is typical of cruise lines.
"They make year-to-year commitments," said Deidre McCabe, a port spokeswoman. "Because one line doesn't call a port one year doesn't mean they can't come back the following year."
The port expects to handle 240,000 cruise passengers this year, more than double the 115,813 last year and far more than the 5,103 in 1999. Baltimore's cruise business picked up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, attracting passengers who didn't want to fly to other cruise terminals.
About 30 cruises are confirmed out of Baltimore for 2005 — about half this year's number — but the port is working to bring additional departures, McCabe said.
State economic development officials said they are working on a strategy to keep the cruise industry in Baltimore. Some officials would like to build a new terminal for cruise ships, but political support may be lacking. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
[ 08-12-2004: Message edited by: petede ]
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