THE MS Hamburg Cruise Ship has returned to Guyana’s shores just short of a month after its previous visit, with 300 passengers on board.Speaking briefly during a tour of the ship, Guyana Tourism Authority’s (GTA) Director, Indranauth Haralsingh relayed greetings to Captain Vokobyov on behalf of the Minister of Tourism (ag)

Irfaan Ali. He thanked the captain and crew for visiting Destination Guyana again. “You were only here in December 2014 and have returned, and this we are very happy about since this is the shortest turn-around time for any vessel,” he said. Haralsingh noted that he is happy that the cruise line has this much confidence in Destination Guyana to make the recommendation to revisit.

Captain Vokobyov explained that the ship had encountered some difficulties in Venezuela and could not have docked there so they decided to visit Guyana. The captain said that the ship is carrying some 300 passengers and most of them disembarked the ship for some tours of Georgetown, Kaieteur Falls and to do some craft-shopping. During a tour of the ship, media operatives were given the opportunity to view the different sections.
MS Hamburg is a 15,000-ton, 420- passenger, luxury cruise ship owned by the Conti Group and is now operated by PlantoursKreuzfahrten. The ship was built in 1997, in Wismar, Germany. The ship’s relative size allows her to transit the Great Lakes in North America, which she cruised seasonally between 1997 and 2011- one of the few modern cruise ships and the only German one able to do so.
However, she is flexible enough to cruise worldwide as well, for example travelling the Mediterranean for cultural cruises with Martin Randall Travel. Her crew complement consists of 170, and her top speed is 16 knots.