The port of Funchal is receiving three cruise ships this Friday, carrying a total of 7,050 people. More than five thousand of them are passengers. The ships, Marella Explorer 2, Ventura and Wind Star, will spend the night in Funchal, continuing their journey on Saturday.
Will be interesting to see if they leave tomorrow or not with the continued bad weather.
The first to arrive, still on Thursday late afternoon (6 pm), was the Marella Explorer 2. A stopover organized by Agência Ferraz, with two overnight stays in Funchal, bringing 2,499 people to Madeira: 1,740 passengers and 759 crew members.
The ship, from the Marella Cruises fleet, is on a week-long cruise through the Canary Islands and Madeira, with stops in Tenerife, Lanzarote (where it arrived on Thursday), La Palma (where it departs on Saturday at 2 pm) and Gran Canaria.
In a stopover arranged by Blatas, the Ventura, with 4,291 people on board (3,120 passengers and 1,171 crew members), was the second to arrive. It entered Porto at 8:30 am, coming from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and departs Saturday at 6:00 pm, bound for Southampton, United Kingdom. It is concluding a 12-day voyage, which began and ended in Southampton, and which has already passed through Lisbon, Lanzarote, and Gran Canaria, before arriving in Madeira.
Also handled by Blatas, the Wind Star arrived at 9:15 am from the Canary Island port of Lanzarote, with 124 passengers and 105 crew members. It will remain at Pier 6 until 6 pm on Saturday, at which time it will continue its 10-day voyage following the Cruise Atlantic Islands itinerary: stops in Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria. The next stop is Santa Cruz de La Palma.