At around 5:45 am, the ship that today marks another historic milestone in this infrastructure arrived at the Port of Funchal. The ‘Carnival Celebration’, although just barely, has just broken the record for ships at scale, breaking the previous maximum of the ‘Iona’, set just over a year ago.
Weighing 204,400 gross tonnage, measuring around 345 meters in length, with a capacity for around 6,500 passengers and almost two thousand crew, the newly debuted ship – making its maiden voyage from Southampton to Miami – came from Vigo and will stay in Funchal until 4 pm, then heading to Tenerife.
On this voyage it carries 4,575 passengers, mostly Americans and British, and 1,808 crew, which means that on this transatlantic voyage, the ‘Carnival Celebration’ arrived with just over 70% of its passenger capacity and around 90% of its crew.
In his company, the ‘Oosterdam’ also arrived, a ship almost 20 years older (2003) and much smaller (82,820 tonnages), which was sheltered further inside the Port of Funchal, and this stopover will last from 5:20 am ( anticipated arrival which was scheduled for 7:00 am) until 20:00.
This Holland-America Line ship has a capacity for 1,964 passengers and 812 crew.