Princess Cruises has put the kibosh on a two-year pilot program that might have had two cruise ships calling at Yorktown, Virginia, throughout summer season 2024.
The cruise line advised native officers it has determined that Island Princess and Emerald Princess will as an alternative go to Norfolk, Virginia, on three itineraries. The change is more likely to be welcome information to a number of thousand native residents who opposed the pilot program and signed a petition to forestall it from going ahead.
Princess Cruises Chooses Norfolk Over Yorktown
A proposal by Princess Cruises to be the primary main cruise line to name at historic Yorktown, Virginia, has been withdrawn in favor of visits to Norfolk, Virginia. The cruise line in February 2023 introduced that two ships would make a number of calls on the port, providing friends the chance to discover Virginia’s Historic Triangle — Yorktown, Jamestown, and Williamsburg.
It was the Battle of Yorktown that decisively ended the Revolutionary battle; Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum; and Jamestown is the positioning of the primary everlasting English settlement in North America. The three historic websites are inside a brief drive of one another, lending themselves to thrilling shore tour potentialities.
The two,200-guest Island Princess was to make three calls and the three,080-guest Emerald Princess would have made two. With the Princess ships crusing at full capability, the deliberate port calls would have delivered round 14,000 cruise friends to the world, representing a lift to regional tourism and to native tour operators.
Each ships would tender friends to the port’s Riverwalk Touchdown, the place tour guides for excursions and impartial touring choices can be out there. A communication from Princess Cruises to York County officers on January 26, 2024, delivered the information.
“To make sure our friends expertise legendary Virginian hospitality as they discover the area’s vital historic contributions to American historical past, Princess is confirming Norfolk on the printed itinerary for Island Princess and its three new calls to the Commonwealth this summer season,” wrote Vicki Johnson, senior vice chairman of communications for Princess Cruises.
Historical past Cruises to Discover Jap US, Canada Ports
Norfolk, a significantly bigger port some 40 miles south of Yorktown, would be the recipient of the ships’ financial advantages.
Island Princess will function 10-day “American Heritage” cruises on June 4 and 25, 2024, roundtrip from New York, and calling at Norfolk, Charleston, South Carolina, Boston, and Halifax, Canada. An 11-day possibility, departing on June 14, 2024, provides Newport, Rhode Island.
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Emerald Princess will sail one 14-day “Canada & Colonial America” cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Quebec Metropolis on July 19, 2024, with calls at Charleston, Norfolk, New York, Newport, Boston, and Sydney and Saguenay, Canada.
“We hope the collaboration between Norfolk and Princess Cruises is a mutually profitable one and in addition that the ship passengers have great holidays the place they make lifelong recollections of their travels to Virginia,” mentioned Mark Bellamy, interim county administrator for York County.
York County had come beneath hearth from native residents for its dealing with of the Princess Cruises’ proposal, which was not totally revealed till a public discussion board was held in August 2023. A month later, a grassroots group had gathered greater than 5,400 signatures on a petition from folks opposing the plan.
The petition, by a neighborhood group known as Protect Yorktown, cited environmental considerations and impacts in town’s tradition. Yorktown joined a rising record of ports, each small and huge, that query the results of cruise ships on the native high quality of life and on environmental practices. These embody small ports equivalent to Bar Harbor, Maine, and huge ones equivalent to Barcelona, Spain, and Venice, Italy.
Only one cruise line at present contains Yorktown on its itineraries — American Cruise Strains, which operates small ships carrying beneath 200 friends. The road’s 10-night “American Revolution Cruise,” crusing roundtrip from Washington, DC, is obtainable from March to June 2024 then once more in October and November 2024. The crusing, operated by American Structure, calls at each Yorktown and Norfolk.
