Cruise liner departure not due to Cyclone Pat

Last Tuesday’s quick departure of the luxury yacht style cruise liner Seabourn Odyssey was reportedly unrelated to cyclone Pat which hit Aitutaki that night.

Destination Management Cook Islands (DMCK) cruise ship events coordinator Marlene Cuthers says the ship, the third to visit Rarotonga this year, did not send its passengers ashore citing the official reason as bad sea swell conditions.

Cuthers says the ship captains are generally aware of bad weather situations such as cyclones and steer clear of it so as not to endanger passengers.

But this can all depend on what kind of threat is posed. At the end of the day the captain makes the call on shore visits and relays that to ground agents.

Bad sea swells are causing more and more ships to bypass Rarotonga as a destination each year and there are hopes that a proposed alternative port on the western side of the island may solve the problem.

Rarotonga would have been among the first Pacific Islands to be visited by the brand new five-star liner Seabourn Odyssey.

By the end of last week the ship and its 500 passengers had arrived in Auckland. After sailing the Caribbean last year, the Odyssey is now on its first world cruise, a 108-day voyage that departed last month from the US and plans to visit 42 ports across 26 countries – completing the adventure in Greece.

There are at least three local cruise ship agents in the Cooks who are all expecting more liners to visit this year.

DMCK is next expecting to host French cruise ship Princess Danae due to visit Rarotonga for the first time on March 4.