Cruise ships come for Trini Christmas

SOME 4,000 tourists got a taste of what a Trini Christmas is like when the MS Oriana and one of its smaller sister cruise ships docked in Port-of Spain yesterday. The Oriana is the second major vessel of the British P and O Cruise lines to visit these shores, with its sister vessel MS Oceana making a port-of-call in Port-of-Spain nearly a week ago. The Oriana has a maximum capacity of 2,272 passengers and its sister vessel has a slightly lower passenger capacity. From the minute the ships docked yesterday morning, several passengers just could not wait to explore the city, take in the sights and experience what Christmas time in Trinidad and Tobago is like.

Some of the passengers who spoke with Newsday said they were happy to escape the cold winter in England and bask in the warmth of the tropics for the holiday season. Others said they were pleasantly surprised by the hospitality of the locals they encountered and expressed an interest in returning to TT in the near future. Like the Oceana, the Oriana is scheduled to make additional ports-of-call in the Caribbean (and TT) in 2004 and 2005. Recently, Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift said discussions between the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom have resulted in three British cruise lines agreeing to make TT a regular port-of-call during the 2003-2005 cruise ship season. P and O was one of those cruise lines.