As the 2023-24 winter cruise tourism season draws to a close, two ships made their final visit to St. John’s Harbour on Saturday.

The Antigua Cruise Port (ACP) is now eagerly awaiting the 500,000th passenger, expected to arrive shortly.

The Operations Manager, Rawle Reynolds, reported that the Star Flyer has now left Antigua and Barbuda and the region, marking the end of the season’s home-porting exercise.

The Star Flyer is en route to Portugal and is expected to return to the shores of Antigua and Barbuda on December 1st, 2024.

ACP expressed its gratitude to AidaPerla for a fantastic season as the vessel departs from Antigua and Barbuda, heading across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands and then to Portugal.

The AidaPerla is scheduled to return to St. John’s Harbour on November 3rd, 2024. The Arvia of P&O Cruises completed its nine home-porting calls for the 2023-24 season in March.

On Saturday, 3,769 passengers arrived, bringing the total number of passengers welcomed in Antigua and Barbuda from January 1st, 2024, to April 6th, 2024, to 453,859.

The number of passengers is just 46,141 short of reaching the half a million-passenger mark for this calendar year. Reynolds is anticipating that the 500,000th passenger will arrive in a matter of weeks.