MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
The Falkland Islands prepare for a summer of superlatives
“Bigger, longer and better” are some of the words used to describe the coming cruise season in the Falklands by Debbie Summers, Tourism Development Manager of Sulivan Shipping Ltd.
Sulivan Shipping are agents for many of the record number of forty two cruise ships which will be making two hundred and nine visits ? also a record - to various destinations in the Falkland Islands between this weekend and Friday 30th of March.
First to arrive and visiting West point Island and New Island to the West of the archipelago on Saturday, before arriving in Stanley on Sunday, is the 464 berth Nordnorge, (limited to 350 berths for Antarctica), which will also be visiting South Georgia and Antarctica.
The last ship expected, making its tenth visit of the season and also by coincidence Norwegian, is the much larger Norwegian Crown. With just over 1000 berths, this is a much larger ship than the Nordnorge, but by no means the biggest expected in the Falklands this season. That honour goes to a newcomer, the Golden Princess, which will be the first ship with a capacity of over three thousand passengers ever to visit the Falkland Islands.
Obviously such a large ship, together with six others of a capacity of one thousand or more, does not visit any of the outer islands, where many of the Falklands wildlife sites are situated, but is limited to visiting Stanley, the Islands' tiny capital. Here there are many penguins to be seen also, but most wear labels proclaiming manufacture in Asia.
Stanley will receive 102 cruise ship visits this year, representing an increase on last year of over 25%. Finding something to keep this seasonal invasion - estimated to reach around 50,000 people this year - busy and occupied, keeps local shore excursion providers like Debbie and the Falkland Island Company's Melanie Clausen, busy all year round. Among the things to do on offer, apart from shopping for penguins, are excursions to penguin colonies, farm visits, battlefield tours, nature rambles and town tours, including one in the Falklands' first stretch limousine. There are even rides on a rescued London double-decker ?Routemaster' bus.
Most expensive tour is a five and a half hour visit to Sea Lion Island, one of the Falklands' premier wildlife sites. Clients are carried by helicopter belonging to British International, which also service the transportation requirements of the Falklands military garrison. In the second season of offering this tour, which also provides unrivalled opportunities for aerial photographs of Stanley, Debbie Summers has seen the number of departures grow from two to eleven, with the expectation that despite a credit-card-melting price tag, these, like the others, will be a sell-out.
John Fowler (MercoPress) Stanley
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