By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper said yesterday the Ministry of Tourism has “some concerns” about Margaritaville at Sea’s schedule of calls for 2025.

Responding to concerns raised by Opposition leader Michael Pintard about Margaritaville at Sea, Mr Cooper confirmed the cruise line has decided to reduce the number of trips to Grand Bahama and increased the number of calls to New Providence.

Mr Pintard said Grand Bahama residents had a “tremendous amount of anxiety” about the cruise line’s schedule for 2025 which did not include its usual number of sailings to Grand Bahama.

“With respect to Margaritaville, there is a notice, as a number of us are aware, particularly those of us in Grand Bahama, that the vessel has determined, that the owners have determined that they will be cancelling one particular schedule that they had in Grand Bahama, and that vessel will now be coming into New Providence,” said Mr Pintard.

“We have looked at one of the itineraries that that is circulating from the company, but are uncertain as to whether or not the Margaritaville has completely left Grand Bahama or it has just dramatically reduced its sale and service to Grand Bahama. So, we just wanted to get clarification. It has been the source of tremendous amount of anxiety in Grand Bahama”

Mr Pintard said the cruise line has been the subject of “intense discussions” over the past months and while they will not be discontinuing service into Grand Bahama they have restructured their calls.

“The Margaritaville cruise to Grand Bahama has been the subject of intense discussions over a number of months,” said Mr Cooper.

“The short answer is they are not discontinuing service to Grand Bahama, however, they are restructuring their calls. Some months there will be more calls than they currently have. Some months there will be less.”

Mr Cooper noted the cruise line discontinued one-way travel from Grand Bahama to Florida and vice versa earlier this year due to the intervention of US Customs and Immigration (ICE) but ongoing discussions may lead to “some adjustment”.

“We are continuing the dialogue with them on an active basis,” said Mr Cooper.

“There are certain things I cannot say about this entity. I will speak with the leader of opposition offline, but I will tell you that over the course of time, you know that they discontinued service to Bahamians traveling back and forth on Margaritaville at Sea, we are aware that it’s caused some concern. That was precipitated by ongoing dialog that they had been having with the USA Custom and Border Protection Services, it had nothing to do with The Bahamas or the Bahamas government, and we anticipate that ongoing conversations with Margaritaville at Sea may cause some adjustment.”

He said the Ministry of Tourism has “some concerns” about the cruise line’s adjusted itinerary and will continue to monitor the change.

“The Ministry of Tourism has some concerns as it relates to the schedule, and those conversations are continuing,” said Mr Cooper.

“We met with Margaritaville at Sea only a week ago when we were advised that there would be some adjustments, and we only received the adjusted call schedule yesterday. So this is new, and therefore we’re continuing monitoring, and I’ll make a further comment on it later as it progresses.”

Margaritaville at Sea announced on social media yesterday that Margaritaville Paradise will begin sailings to Nassau on two- to four-night trips.

“Paradise is setting sail to more Bahamas destinations! In addition to Freeport, Paradise will head to one of the most popular cruise ports in the world — Nassau! Enjoy new two- to four-night getaways AND a unique ship-to-resort experience at Margaritaville Resort Nassau,” said Margaritaville at Sea.

The company’s website has also been updated to offer two-night Nassau sailing, three-night Nassau weekend sailing and four-night Nassau and Grand Bahama sailing, with either one or two-night stays in Grand Bahama.

The cruise line still offers a two-night Grand Bahama sailing and a three-night Grand Bahama weekend sailing.