From Yucatan Times

As part of its 55-day tour of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, the luxury cruiser Aurora, which departed on January 4th from Southampton, England, arrived this week for the first time to Progreso with 1,748 passengers and 850 crew members.

On behalf of Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal, the head of the Ministry of Tourism Development (Sefotur), Michelle Fridman, went to the cruise terminal to receive Captain David Pembridge, his crew and the passengers of this ship of the P&Q cruise line.

It should be noted that the Governor has promoted the state focusing primarily on cruise tourism, which in 2019 registered the arrival of 146 vessels and a total of 470,418 passengers, that is, an increase of 6.1% compared to 443,233 that arrived in 2018.

In the first month of this year alone, 57,042 passengers arrived at Progreso in 23 cruise ships, so again, the state breaks records in this type of tourism, since the year 1998, when cruisers strated arriving at Progreso.

In addition to the arrival of 51 cruises belonging to the luxury companies MSC Cruises, Viking Cruise, Disney Cruise Line and Silversea, in the next two years, the growth in cruise tourism in Yucatan is expected.

Meanwhile, the MSC Cruises shipping line scheduled 41 arrivals of its Harmony cruise to the Port of Progreso for the 2020-2021 season, operations that will begin in November; with a vessel that has capacity for 2,340 passengers and 721 crew members, so in that period alone, the Harmony will bring with it 30,000 crew members and 96,000 cruise passengers to the Yucatan coast.

The Aurora cruise takes a 55-day trip called “Round-trip USA and Caribbean” and Progreso is one of the last ports visited before passing through New Orleans, Louisiana; Miami and Port Canaveral, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; Hamilton, Bermuda; Ponta Delgada and Sao Miguel Island in Azores to return to Southampton, England.

Before arriving at the Yucatecan port, the boat and its passengers already toured Cozumel, Quintana Roo; Madeira Island, Portugal; Bridgetown, Barbados; Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago; Willemstad of Curacao Island and Kralendijk of Bonaire Island of Netherlands Antilles.

He was also already in Saint George, Granada; Saint Vincent Island, Kingstown Grenadines; Castries, Santa Lucia Island; Saint John, Antigua and Barbuda; Tortola Island, Road Town; Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis; Philipsburg, Netherlands Antilles; Grand Turkish Island, Cockburn Town; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; and George Town, Cayman Islands.The Yucatan Times Newsroom