• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 01 / 28 / 2011

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caribbeanbusinesspr.com. America Cruise Ferries is already looking to expand to Cuba in the wake of its announced plans to launch passenger and cargo service between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic this spring, company officials confirmed.

Company partner Daniel Berrebi said the proposed passenger ferry service to the Caribbean country has been broached with the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. The talks centered on the need for such service to the largest island in the Caribbean, he said.

Berrebi said Cuban government officials in the U.S. capital accepted America Cruise Ferries’ offer to launch the service once travel between the two countries is normalized.

Berrebi and Marine Express President Néstor González Romero said America Cruise Ferries already has been granted a license to deliver cargo to Cuba on its Caribbean Fantasy vessel, which will also ply the Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic route.

There was daily passenger ferry service between Havana and Miami until the Cuban Revolution.

President Barack Obama is loosening Cuban travel policy to allow students and church groups to go to the island, the administration announced this month.

Students seeking academic credit and churches traveling for religious purposes will be able to go to Cuba. The plan will also let any American send as much as $500 every three months to Cuban citizens who are not part of the Cuban administration and are not members of the Communist Party.

Also, more airports will be allowed to offer charter service. Right now, only three airports — in Miami, Los Angeles and New York City — can offer authorized charters to Cuba. That will be expanded to any international airport with proper customs and immigration facilities as long as licensed travel agencies ask to run charters from the airport. Officials at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan and from airports in Tampa and New Orleans have expressed interest in launching such flights.

The White House press office sent out a release on Jan. 15 saying Obama had directed the changes, which do not need congressional approval. They will be put in place this month.

Changes that Obama made last year already increased Cuban-Americans’ ability to visit family and send money to relatives. The changes are similar to travel policies under President Bill Clinton. Critics said they will not improve the lives of Cubans.

Cuban officials, some members of Congress and travel companies like Orbitz have all demanded that the travel ban be lifted, not just for Cuban exiles but for all Americans.

Berrebi, meanwhile, detailed American Cruise Ferries’ $65 million investment in the Caribbean, which he said will sustain some 100 direct jobs and 300 indirect jobs in both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

The operation is being built around a new ferry service between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic that is set to launch in mid March with scheduled sailings to Santo Domingo from both San Juan and Mayagüez.

America Cruise Ferries, a joint venture among French, Mexican and Puerto Rican investors, said its Caribbean Fantasy vessel will make its inaugural trip across the Mona Passage on March 16 from Mayagüez.

The ferry will also serve San Juan, with scheduled sailings from the Puerto Rican capital’s Panamericano Pier on Mondays at 7 p.m.

Mayagüez runs are scheduled for Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 p.m. The San Juan trips, which will take 12 hours to reach Santo Domingo, are priced at $189 per passenger. The eight-hour runs from Mayagüez will cost $169 per person.

The information and reservations systems will be up and running by the end of this month.

“There is potential to run ferries between the Caribbean islands. A ferry is like a bridge over the ocean,” Berrebi said.

Berrebi and González Romero touted Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba as the potential nexus of ferry travel throughout the Caribbean from Florida.

America Cruise Ferries is stepping in to fill the void left by the idling of Ferries del Caribe last year amid a legal dispute over fees at the Port of Mayagüez.

Ferries del Caribe’s Caribbean Express carried about 170,000 passengers, 19,000 passenger vehicles and 11,000 trucks annually. The service was plagued by disagreements between Ferries del Caribe, the private operator of the Port of Mayagüez and the quasi-public Ports Commission.

The 650-foot Caribbean Fantasy has triple the cargo capacity of the Caribbean Express, according to America Cruise Ferries. It can carry 1,100 passengers, in addition to automobiles and cargo containers, on every crossing. The vessel boasts recreation areas and 140 cabins.

By : CB ONLINE STAFF


Source: www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news03.php?nt_id=53426&;ct_id=1&;ct_name=1