![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/discovery-cruise-line-150x101.jpg\" "\\"discovery-cruise-line\\"")
When Discovery returns from dry dock on September 16, it will be operating with a new schedule.<\/p>\nWhen Discovery returns from dry dock on September 16, it will be operating with a new schedule.<\/p>\n
The vessel will remain on dry dock from September 8 – 15.<\/p>\n
Yanick Toussaint, Discovery Cruise Line’s island representative explained that the present schedule has been beneficial to the company, but it has been too much of a hassle for the cruise passengers.<\/p>\n
She noted that the current departure time of 6:00 from Grand Bahama makes the arrival time into Port Everglades too late.<\/p>\n
When the ship gets in, sometimes after 12:00pm, immigration officers at the terminal have already been reduced to three persons which makes for a very long debarkation process.<\/p>\n
Sometimes people are at the terminal until 2:00am in the morning Toussaint said, waiting to be processed.<\/p>\n
“To have people leave the terminal at 2:00am, is really crazy,” she said.<\/p>\n
According to Toussaint the initial time change was done as a manoeuvre to attract more same day passengers to the ship.<\/p>\n
Potential clients felt that going on a one day cruise was not worth waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning, but the time change helped to boost the number of same day passengers Discovery brought to the island.<\/p>\n
“It worked out very well,” Toussaint said. “The count of round trip same day passengers tripled.”<\/p>\n
While it was a smart marketing tactic on some fronts, the new schedule also had its weaknesses Toussaint acknowledged.<\/p>\n
She explained that same day passengers and Bahamians were not too pleased with the long wait it took to get off the ship once it arrived at Port Everglades.<\/p>\n
“If we arrive late, everybody has a rough time and they swear that they’ll never come back on Discovery, so this adjustment is going to be made,” Toussaint said.<\/p>\n
With the present schedule, the terminal doors in Port Everglades close at 8:45 a.m. and departure is at 10:00 a.m.<\/p>\n
The new schedule will see doors closing promptly at 8:00am with departure at 9:30am.<\/p>\n
Terminal doors in Grand Bahama will also close earlier changing from 4:45pm to 4:00pm.<\/p>\n
The ship will set sale promptly at 5:15 p.m. and is expected to arrive at port Everglades at 10:30pm.<\/p>\n
Toussaint noted that the new sailing times will make travelling much easier on passengers as the ship will get in much earlier.<\/p>\n
“That gives us enough time to arrive in Port Everglades at a decent time,” she noted. “Our passengers and guests won’t have to suffer through hours of being processed through immigration because there are only three officers available.”<\/p>\n
By CLEOPATRA MURPHY
\nFreeport News Reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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