A missed chance to be hospitable

An unprecedented event will occur on Saipan next week: The Queen Mary 2 cruise ship will arrive on March 15 with some 2,400 passengers and 1,600 crew members. Though the Marianas Visitors Authority has known about it for some time, and did inform its members, it did not see fit to inform the general community, giving it no opportunity to participate in this rare and exciting event.

While there aren’t enough pigs, cows and chickens on Saipan to feed 4,000 guests, it would have been nice if locals had been consulted in helping the ship’s cooks purchase and prepare a meal of kelaguen and tetiyas, the barbecued chicken and ribs, the red rice, the roast pig that are so uniquely local foods, so that cruise passengers could, literally, get a “taste of the Marianas” while in the vicinity.

Nor are there enough buses and taxis to give rides to all the passengers who might want to see some of Saipan’s sights. But, admittedly belatedly, the Chamber of Commerce is now encouraging local residents to offer rides—either just into Garapan or Susupe, or to tourist sites around the island, to any passengers that might be walking along the roads on the 15th. The ship arrives at about 5am, and is due to leave at about 5pm the same day.

Though it’s not yet in the works, it might be nice, helpful, if someone could erect tents at the entrance to the port, and put up signs so that residents ready to offer rides could just show up at the tents, rather than accosting people as they walk along the roads, which could cause some traffic hazards. QM2 passengers who just wanted to walk could do so uninterruptedly, and those who wanted a ride would only have to go so far as the tent, while those offering rides would not have to cruise up and down the roads looking for pedestrians, but could go directly to the tents.

If there’d been time and notice, Saipan’s youth could have provided a dance/concert/performance at the dock, say mid-afternoon, for passengers interested in local culture and entertainment.

The visit of the QM2 will bring in a fair amount of much-needed revenue to the CNMI. It is, moreover, an extraordinary event. Yet there’s no evidence that anyone has made any effort to take advantage of this rare opportunity to make some headlines, to offer some island hospitality to the passengers, to give the community an opportunity to participate in the event, to make the event memorable to the passengers, to the crew, to the island’s residents.

Tours of the ship for residents would have been nice too. But residents’ druthers are probably the last thing those big cruise line owners and managers would ever think of. At least we can all gawk at the sight of the huge liner towering above the port.

It’s just too bad that such a wonderful opportunity to come together as a community and show the island’s hospitality is apparently being so totally wasted.