Cruise ship cancels port call

The Diamond Princess, an over 900-foot-long British-registered cruise ship, was supposed to visit Saipan last Saturday to make a port call but windy weather changed those plans midstream, even as the ship was on its way to Saipan, resulting in the ship turning back.

Saipan Tribune visited the port of Saipan early Saturday morning, in hopes of joining the welcoming group that was tasked with receiving over 1,000 passengers aboard the Diamond Princess. Unfortunately, the port was empty, besides a few merchant vessels.

Later, Commonwealth Ports Authority seaport manager Jerra Cing told Saipan Tribune that the Diamond Princess cancelled its visit to Saipan because of harsh weather conditions affecting passage into the Saipan lagoon.

“Unfortunately, the Diamond Princess had to cancel due to strong winds and inclement weather,” she said.

Cing said the notice was given to CPA at around 7:25am last Saturday morning, just a few minutes before the ship was scheduled to pull into the port of Saipan.

This is not the first time that a scheduled stopover was cancelled at the last minute. Several years ago, a cruise ship was also forced to make a U-turn even as it was already within sight of the Port of Saipan, also because of bad weather that made docking at the Port of Saipan hazardous. The visit’s cancellation also disappointed many of the island’s many businesses, which had readied themselves to man the welcome bandwagon.

The Diamond Princess was initially supposed to make its port call on Saipan at around 8am Saturday and was scheduled to depart at around 6pm.

The vessel, which is roughly 946 feet long and carried about 1,546 passengers and about 1,097 crew members, made a U-turn and headed straight for its next port call, Japan.

The last-minute change in schedule was sad news for the island of Saipan as it was learned that many tourism stakeholders were excited to have an influx of visitors even if it was only for 10 hours.

Prior to making its way to Saipan, the Diamond Princess made a port stop in Guam where passengers were able to spend a whole day visiting famous tourist sites, trying some of Guam’s famous dining spots, and shopping.

According to online sources, the Diamond Princess is a British-registered cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises.

The ship started operations back in March 2004 with its route around Asia during the northern hemisphere summer and then Australia during the southern hemisphere summer.

Prior to visiting the Marianas, the cruise ship began its journey from San Diego, before making a port call in Hawaii, then making its way to the Marianas and now Japan.

The Diamond Princess was built in Nagasaki, Japan, by Mitsubishi Industries and was refurbished back in 2019.

The cruise ship was named “Best International Ship in Japan” according to a Cruise Magazine’s reader’s poll.