Plain sailing for season’s first

Cape Town 121120- Ship Cruise MSC Opera at the Cape Town Habour.Picture Cindy Waxa.Reporter Argus

Cape Town 121120- Ship Cruise MSC Opera at the Cape Town Habour.Picture Cindy Waxa.Reporter Argus

Published Nov 21, 2012

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Cape Town - The MSC Opera had a smooth sail into Cape Town harbour at 8.30am on Tuesday – the first major international cruise liner of the season to dock in the city.

The luxury liner sailed from the Mediterranean and Namibia with 1 284 passengers. She was to set sail for Durban at 11pm on Tuesday.

Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde welcomed the ship and wished the passengers a good stay in the city.

The liner stands at 54m, is a little over 251m long and weighs 59 tons. She has 856 cabins and can travel at a maximum of 21.7 knots. MSC operations manager Rob McEwan said:

“This year considerable improvements have been made at E-berth, the rubble has been removed, the area is very spacious…

He added that the MSC Sinfonia would be docking in Cape Town on November 28 and Cape Town harbour would be its home base.

Winde said last year 19 cruise liners docked in Cape Town carrying about 11 144 passengers and 6 342 crew.

“We look forward to welcoming other cruise liners during the summer season. While we have not yet been able to return to docking at the Waterfront, the facilities within the port have been significantly improved,” he said. - Cape Argus

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