Mérida, Yucatán — A total of 19 cruise ships will arrive in Progreso in February. Six of them arrive in the space of a week.
This month the Triumph, Valor, Fantasy, Norwegian Pearl, Viking Sky, Vision of the Seas and Costa Deliziosa, dock in the port.
Double the normal arrival of cruises is scheduled today and Saturday, a situation that will be repeated from Feb. 5 to 11, with five consecutive cruise ship days.
This uptick is expected to last for months.
On Thursday alone, the Triumph and Pearl, coming from Galveston and New Orleans, respectively, delivered a combined 5,610 passengers and 3,000 crews.
The Triumph docked at 9 a.m., while the larger Pearl — arriving here for the first time ever — came an hour earlier. About half of the tourists stayed in Progreso, renting a palapa and splashing in the water.
While some merchants reported low sales, others were content.
“I was very good. I sold more than 12 small planes. In general it was a very good day, thank God,” said Luis Lopez, who sells toy airplanes for US$6 each.
The masseurs that were removed from the main entrance of the tianguis that faces Calle 80 now operate in the taxi drivers’ union parking lot. They struggled to get customers.
Both ships left by 5 p.m.
Today, Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas from Galveston and the upscale Viking Sky from Miami bring a combined 3,578 passengers.
With information from Sipse, Punto Medio and Diario de Yucatán
