M’luru port welcomes luxury cruise vessels Costa Neoriviera, Marella Discovery 

Team Udayavani, Dec 13, 2018, 4:14 PM IST

Mangaluru: The New Mangalore Port welcomed two cruise vessels — Costa Neoriviera and Marella Discovery — on their maiden visit to the port on December 11 and 12 respectively.

Costa Neoriviera, an Italian cruise vessel started her voyage from Mumbai port and Marella Discovery, a Malta-based cruise vessel started her voyage from Murmogoa port. The passengers received traditional welcome at the cruise longue of the port with Kannada folk dances like yakshagana and huli kunita. A total of 1,727 passengers with 500 crew members of Costa Neoriviera and 1,839 passengers with 720 crew members of Marella Discovery arrived at the port. 

This is the third port call by cruise vessels in this season. The vessels were given a warm reception by the port officials and the shipping agents, and the same was reciprocated by the captains of the vessels. The vessels sailed to Cochin port later in the evening on the respective days.

The continuous efforts of port officials and improvements at port are yielding results with increasing number of cruise vessels and passengers in every season.  New Mangalore Port has handled 24,258 passengers and 22 cruise vessels during last year. This year 32 cruise vessels are scheduled to arrive in the port. The season will conclude with the last vessel scheduled to arrive on May 7, 2019.