COZUMEL (December 14, 2009) – This morning, the Puerta Maya Cruise Center in Cozumel welcomed Carnival Cruise Lines’ newest and largest ship, the 130,000-ton Carnival Dream.
Carnival Dream is one of the largest cruise ships ever to call at a Mexican port , with a basis-two capacity of 3,646 and 1,170 crew members and is the 93rd. ship of Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise vacation company with a portfolio of brands operating in North America, Europe and Australia.
Carnival Dream has been carefully designed to be able to berth in a wide range of cruise port facilities , including those in Mexico and other Caribbean destinations. Carnival Dream operates year-round seven-day Caribbean cruises from Port Canaveral, Fla., visiting Cozumel on alternating Mondays.
The governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Lic. Felix Gonzalez Canto, has announced that the region is expected to experience an 11 percent increase in cruise passengers from 2009 to 2010, surpassing the previous estimate of seven percent growth. Collectively, 1.89 million cruise ship passengers will visit the three ports of call within the Quintana Roo region: Cozumel , Calica, and Costa Maya.
Carnival Corporation & plc brands in 2009 alone will bring an estimated 5 million passengers to 21 ports in Mexico, with 37 ships from eight different Carnival Corporation brands calling within the State of Quintana Roo alone. “We are grateful to the governor of the State of Quintana Roo, Lic. Felix Gonzalez Canto, the mayor of Cozumel, Lic. Juan Carlos Gonzalez Hernandez, the executive director of API Qta. Roo, Javier F. Zetina Gonzalez, and other city and state officials for their goodwill and cooperation toward Carnival Corporation activities to invest and expand in the state,” said Giora Israel, Carnival Corporation & plc’s senior vice president of port and destination development.
Israel added that Carnival Corporation & plc also appreciates the efforts of the Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transporte, which is responsible for the overall port development, and tariffs regulations, more specifically to Alejandro Chacon Dominguez, general ports coordinator, and to the state and federal tourism ministers to ensure that this segment of tourism into Mexico that complement other segments of the industry continue to thrive despite the difficult times the world economy has endured in 2009.
For more information on the new Carnival Dream, visit www.carnival.com.
For additional information on Puerta Maya and their cruise ship schedule, visit www.puertamaya.com