The ‘Vasco da Gama’, the latest vessel to be part of the Madeira International Shipping Register (MAR) fleet, has already docked in the port of Funchal. Coming from the island of Pico, in the Azores, the cruise makes its inaugural stop in Madeira, carrying 275 passengers.
As the DIÁRIO advances in the printed edition, 443 crew members also arrive on board, in what is the largest cruise ship with the Portuguese flag, acquired precisely a year ago, at auction, by Mystic Cruises, which is owned by Portuguese businessman Mário Ferreira.
With a gross tonnage of 55,451 tons, its 219 meters long and 30.8 meters wide and 40 meters high, make the ‘Vasco da Gama’, which completes 30 years of activity in 2022, the largest ship of the company and, at the same time, the largest cruise ship actually Portuguese.
The Madeira International Shipping Register currently has 12 registered cruise ships and the ‘Vasco da Gama’ with its 14 floors (9 for passenger use), six restaurants, theaters, cinema, casino, swimming pools, fields tennis, volleyball and basketball, gym, spa and, of course, bars and terraces, all to receive up to a thousand passengers (before the maximum capacity was 1,258 passengers and 557 crew). That is, this trip arrives with 27.5% of the capacity of tourists and 79.5% of the crew.
In its 600 sea view cabins and its own balcony, the ship also has 120 superior ‘premium’ cabins, 29 ‘deluxe suites’ and the top of the range, a ‘royal penthouse suite’ that can cost more than 6 thousand euros for 11 days on the next trip the ship makes, in November, passing through Madeira.
The ship docked at 8:00 am this Tuesday and leaves in the afternoon, at 6:00 pm, heading for Morocco.