Larger cruise ship coming to Port of New Orleans

NCL will send its passenger ship Spirit to the Mediterranean on April 15 to spend the summer in Europe. The Spirit came to New Orleans in November 2009 and sailed through May 2010. It returned in November 2010, when Norwegian decided to keep it ported in the city until its departure next year.

 

The Spirit, with a capacity of 2,018 passengers, will be replaced by the larger Norwegian Star, with a capacity of 2,348, Nov. 4, 2012. The Star will leave every Sunday for a seven-day cruise to Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico; Belize City, Belize; and Rotan, Honduras.

Earlier this week, the Port of New Orleans reported that the Spirit was a key reason why its second quarter cruise passenger count was up significantly from a year ago.

Figures released Wednesday showed a 46.8 percent jump from April 1 to June 30 compared with the second quarter of 2010. In the three-month period this year, 164,536 passengers cruised out of New Orleans compared with 112,118 during the same time in 2010.

The trend is also higher for the year, with second quarter passenger numbers that are 3.4 percent higher than those in the first quarter.

The port is also running 20.7 percent ahead through the first six months of the year with 323,699 passengers through June 30 compared with 268,224 in the first half of 2010.

The port attributes the increase to NCL’s decision last year to keep the Spirit docked in the city.

There were also more cruises from New Orleans in the second quarter, 31 up from 20 a year ago. For the year, 62 cruises have departed from New Orleans compared with 50 during the first half of last year.