A British tourist ship, EasyCruiseOne, will be calling at Anguilla each Sunday as it travels to a number of Caribbean islands, offering low fares but charging passengers for everything extra.

EasyCruiseOne at Road Bay Anguilla

The ship dropped anchor at Road Bay on Sunday, December 12, when it paid its inaugural visit to the island having recently been on a dry dock in Greece prior to arriving in St. Maarten (one of the regional bases) to begin its Caribbean cruises. The other islands on its schedule include Antigua (the other home base), St. Kitts-Nevis and St. Barths.

Many persons from Anguilla were invited aboard the cruiser and were entertained at a reception on the top deck hosted by the owner, captain and crew. There was an exchange of plaques between Governor Andrew George and the ship’s captain, Roy Dearman.

Owner Stelios, Captain Dearman and Governor George

Owner of EasyCruiseOne is 39-year-old Stelios, who prefers to be called by his first name. He also owns another tourist ship, EasyCruiseTwo, which operates in Holland and Belgium. He is best known as the owner of EasyJet, Europe’s largest low-cost airline be revenues with a growing fleet of aircraft ranging in size from small passenger planes to airbuses.

Stelios told local media representatives that EasyCruiseOne will be visiting Anguilla once a week, on Sundays, and that the cost of a long weekend cruise was well under 100 pounds sterling for each passenger. The luxury ship carries 170 passengers and has a crew of 55.

Calvin Bartlett, Trudy Nixon and Gina Brooks-Hodge

Chairman of the Anguilla Tourist Board, John Benjamin, expressed delight over the island’s inclusion in the cruise ship’s list of destinations, saying it was adding to the diversification of the travel industry.

Marketing Officer with the Tourist Board, Jina Brooks-Hodge, commented that EasyCruiseOne was another niche in the travel industry for Anguilla. She noted that the ship is expected to attract young tourists on its cruises and hoped that many of them coming to Anguilla would eventually become long-staying visitors.

Mr & Mrs John Benjamin

She said that various tours of Anguilla would be organised and that taxi drivers would stand to benefit from the trips as well as merchants at whose business places the tourists would be stopping on their way across the island.

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