MANGALORE: It was double delight for New Mangalore Port Trust authorities when two cruise vessels – MV Legend of the Seas and MV Pacific Princess called on the port here on Saturday.
These are the third and fourth cruise vessels calling on the port in the current fiscal. Incidentally, the port had handled two cruise vessels on the same day last year. The next vessel is expected on April 15.
MV Legend of the Seas had 1,707 passengers and 795 crew, while MV Pacific Princess had 585 passengers and 378 crew on board. Legend of the Seas had passengers from 40 nations, majority of them being from the US, Canada and UK, came from Kochi. Pacific Princess with passengers from US and UK came from Phuket in Thailand and both the vessels sailed out to Goa in the evening.
Around 2,000 passengers and crew opted for ground tour arranged by local tour operators and visited various locations in and around the city such as Sri Mangaladevi temple, Sri Gokarnanatha temple, St Aloysius Chapel, cashew processing units, monolithic statue of lord Bahubali at Karkala, Soans Farm and 1,000 pillar Jain Basadi at Moodbidri, and also indulged in shopping in the malls here.
P Tamilvanan, chairman and senior officials of the port, welcomed the vessels by presenting bouquets to the captains of the vessels. The captain and passengers were impressed with the facilities available at cruise lounge, neat and tidy berth areas, concrete roads, security arrangements, emigration facility, greenery in and around the port, availability of local ground tour operators, Tamilvanan said.
