Saint John welcomes season’s first cruise ship

CBC News

Posted: Jun 6, 2012 12:20 PM AT

Last Updated: Jun 6, 2012 1:25 PM AT

The first cruise ship of the year made its way into Saint John Harbour on Wednesday morning, bringing 3,000 guests to the Port City.

The Carnival Glory is the first of 73 cruise ships that are expected to make a stop in Saint John this summer.

Melanie Colpitts, a spokesperson with Aquila Tours Inc., said it takes all winter to prepare for their arrival.

“We do a lot of training with our tour guides, from the tiniest details of having buttons and stickers, to keeping our guests organized, to the big things like making sure we’ve got all of the buses,” she said

More than 187,000 passengers are expected to visit Saint John between now and the end of October.

Clive Douthwright, a greeter in the city, said he looks forward to the stampede of passengers coming off the ships.

Even though there’s not a lot of time for conversation, Douthwright said adding old-fashioned hospitality to the meet and greets makes a big difference for the tourists.

“We get feedback from all over the world of people who remember Saint John and the friendliness of the place,” he said.

Colpitts said the idea is to promote and market the city while the passengers are here, so they can visit on their own in the future.

In 2010, the Saint John Port Authority claimed they set a new tourism record with more than 200,000 passengers stepping off almost 80 cruise ships.

Despite poor weather in the city and a busy tropical storm season in the Atlantic in 2011, an estimated 189,000 passengers visited the city last year.