Two giant cruise liners in Mangaluru

Two giant cruise liners in Mangaluru

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, March 4, 2018: Two huge cruise liners – M V Costa Victoria and M V Insignia – docked at New Mangalore Port on March 3, Saturday. While M V Costa Victoria had 1,771 passengers and 809 crew on board, M V Insignia ferried 612 passengers and 407 crew on board. These are the 19th and 20th cruise vessels calling at the port during the current financial year 2017-18. Both the cruise vessels that were berthed alongside each other, sailed out in the evening to Salalah (Oman) and Kochi respectively.

M V Costa Victoria – an Italian cruise vessel with passengers from 35 nations, a majority of whom are from France, Netherlands and Germany, came from Colombo. M V Insignia – a Norwegian cruise liner with passengers from the US and Canada, came from Male. Around 1,300 passengers from these two cruise vessels opted for a ground tour arranged by local tour operators – M/s Globe Travels and M/s Lia Travels, and they visited various locations in and around Mangaluru.

Places visited by the tourists include Mangaladevi temple, Gokarnanatha temple, St Aloysius College Chapel, cashew processing units, monolithic statue of Lord Bahubali at Karkala, Soans farm and the 1,000-pillar Jain Basadi at Moodbidri and Belmont House at Balmatta. The tourists also did shopping at the city. After enjoying the city’s scenic beauty, they returned to their respective vessels, and sailed out to the next port. M/s J M Baxi and Co are agents of both vessels.

It was a treat to see a group of the cruise visitors educate our drivers on road manners at Hampankatta, where the literally blocked the road for people to cross at zebra crossing, when the drivers failed to be courteous, indeed our city drivers have a lot to learn.

Suresh P Shirwadkar, in-charge chairman, recalling the steady growth of cruise vessels calling at the port, said during the current financial year, as on Saturday, 20 cruise vessels called at the port with 20,400 passengers on board. The next vessel is scheduled to call at the port on  March 6,Tuesday. The captain and passengers of the vessels were impressed with facilities available at the cruise lounge, neat and tidy berth area, concretized roads, security arrangements and immigration facilities.