Another massive cruise ship sails into Galway Bay
Dearbhla GeraghtyNews
Galway Bay played host to its biggest cruise ship of 2013, the 204m-long Holland America Line’s Prinsendam, which arrived into the city in the early hours of yesterday morning and left last night.
The ship, which is registered in the Netherlands, is considered small by today’s standards in luxury liners, with 740 passengers and 460 crew on board, this ship had come straight from Dublin, and Liverpool before that; today’s destination is Foynes in County Limerick.
Galway Harbour pilot, Bob Ellis, says that at 39,000 tonnes, the Prinsendam was much too big to come any closer to the city than Mutton Island – something that will change if and when the new harbour development project gets the green light.
“Planning for the new port will be going in towards end of this month or early September and, once construction starts, within 18 months we should be in a position to berth ships as big as the Prinsendam,” he says.
The future of the port does not rely exclusively on passenger vessels, however, with the main focus being on cargo.
“We are promoting the cruise liners, but our core business will be cargo,” says Mr Ellis.
For more on this story, see this week’s Connacht Sentinel