Norwegian Cruise Line’s Sun returns to Port Canaveral for the second season of popular cruises from the Port to Cuba, as well as excursions to the Bahamas. Starting Monday, April 15, the Norwegian Sun, which in 2018 became the first home-ported cruise ship to sail from Port Canaveral to Cuba, will offer four-, five- and seven-day cruises to Havana, Cuba, with select sailings also calling to Key West during its four-day cruises.
Chile reports that this last cruise season (October 2015/April 2016), has been the best in seven years, according to the Southern Cone Ports Corporation, with a 47% increase in the number of vessel calls and 43% in landed passengers, compared to 2014/2015.
Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile is encouraged by the cruise industry prospects for its port and facilities: this season Norwegian Sun has returned with at least ten calls and for 2016/2017 a line will be cruising to Antarctica with Punta Arenas as a home port.
A Philippine crew member from the Norwegian Sun cruise vessel jumped overboard before reaching a port in South Chile and has been declared 'disappeared' by the Chilean navy which organized a rescue operation.
The return of the Norwegian Cruise Line to South America this season with nine planned calls to the Falkland Islands “is a massive boost to our cruise ship industry,” Sulivan Shipping Tourism Coordinator Samantha Marsh told Penguin News this week.
Cruises through the waters of Patagonia and around the most southern point of South America are a popular tourist attraction for US and European tourists. In more recent years however, cruise lines have started avoiding Chilean ports.