Homeporting begins on St. Maarten with Celebrity Millennium.

PHILIPSBURG:— St. Maarten had much to celebrate on Saturday morning as the island made history by beginning Homeporting for cruise lines. The first cruise line that opted to begin their Caribbean cruise from St. Maarten is Celebrity.
Among those that attended the historic ceremony were Members of Parliament Grisha Heyliger Marten, Mellissa Gumbs with Ministers of Health Rodolphe Samuel, Minister of Health Omar Ottley, Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion, Minister of Justice Anna Richardson, Minister of Economic Affairs Ludmilla de Weever, and Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs.
Port Services representative Alexander Gumbs thanked everyone for believing in St. Maarten especially Celebrity Cruise lines. Gumbs thanked especially Josh Carrol.
Gumbs reminded that St. Maarten closed off to commercial cruise traveling since March 2020, 448 days to be exact since the last cruise ship docked on St. Maarten. He said that the 448 days were hard though times for St. Maarten thankfully there are stakeholders that still believed in the island. He said St. Maarten made the necessary sacrifices to be successful.
The Celebrity Millennium will set sail this evening with about 2000 passengers said Minister of Economic Affairs and Tourism Ludmilla de Weever, who said it took a number of people to get the homeporting to kick off. De Weever said St. Maarten always wanted to begin homeporting since it was on the books for a very long time, she made clear she did not invent anything but actually worked tirelessly with the Port of St. Maarten and Celebrity Cruises to achieve homeporting for St. Maarten.
Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs was also ecstatic as the Minister of TEATT Ludimilla de Weever and her team was able to pull off homeporting, she said that St. Maarten and its people are special, with their friendliness. “This is why St. Maarten remains viable as she believed that things just don’t happen by accident. St. Maarten maintained its relationships even in the height of the pandemic and that she said paid off.”
Jacobs said that St. Maarten and its people do not like to rely on others but in fact, St. Maarten and its people like standing on their own feet and it is because of that everyone that was involved in planning and putting the homeporting together that kicked off on June 5th, 2021.
Jacobs thanked the Minister of Health Omar Ottley who has been working extremely hard to get everyone vaccinated so that the island could achieve herd immunity that would greatly strengthen the tourism industry.

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