Page 8 - AHATA

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LOCAL Thursday 5 May 2022

For the first time in our history Aruba welcomes a Mega Cruise Ship

“Bon Bini” Allure of the Seas!

Oranjestad - Yesterday was a historic day for Aruba Ports
Authority NV as we welcomed Allure of the Seas, one of
the biggest cruise ships in our Port of Oranjestad. This was
welcomed with a traditional water salute by our tug boats.

Allure of the Seas from the Royal Cairbbean Cruise Lines
company is one of the biggest cruise ships in the world.
They received a warm “Bon Bini” (welcome) with a tradi-
tional salute from our tug boats. There were a lot of prep-
arations made to receive this mega cruise ship in Aruba.

Allure of the Seas arrived in Aruba with a total of 4505
passengers on board. The most positive part for Aruba is
that in the entire route and schedule of the cruise ship,
the port at Oranjestad is the one where it will be docket
at for the longest, namely for 15 hours. This means that
the passengers will have more hours to contribute to Aru-
ba’s economy and enjoy of our beautiful Island. The ship
can hold 5400 passengers, with a total of 18 floors and a
length of 362.12 meters. It also travels using 30% LNG gas
which makes it much friendlier to the environment.

The preparations to receive a mega cruise ship at our
port had started a long time ago already. Since 2018 the
government of Aruba made an investment of 14 million
florins so that we could receive the Colorado Tugboat to
make this possible. 3 months ago, Aruba Port Authority
invested 1.6 million florins to being with underwater con-
struction jobs, namely digging and cleaning the sea floor
to reach a depth of 12 to 13 meters again. Today, we see
the results of our investments with the arrival of one of the
biggest cruise ships that have ever stationed at our port.

Minister Dangui Oduber firmly believes in the recovery
of Aruba’s tourism and economy, and that is the reason
why the government is doing all they can to stimulate our
economy.

Words of gratitude go to the director sr. Marc Figaroa, man-
agement of APA N.V and the board of commissioners.q