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    - Photo via Institute of Tourism - |
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Published on Tuesday, May 24, 2022
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The
cruise ship MS Queen Elizabeth, of
the Carnival Corporation & Plc
shipping company, anchored this
Monday morning in Puntarenas
Beach as
the last ship of the 2021-2022
cruise season in Costa Rica. The
cruise was coming from Aruba and the
Panama Canal with more than 1,300
passengers and over 900 crew
members, according to the Institute
of Tourism. The
ship remained in port throughout the
day allowing passengers to visit
beaches such as Jaco and Herradura.
As well as towns in the countryside
Esparza, Sarchí, La Guácima and
Naranjo. The
visit of cruise ships in Puntarenas
allows the activation of tourist
services such as booking certified
guides, transportation services,
entry to national parks and among
others. The
cruise season reopened in September
2021, after 17 months of being
closed due to the pandemic. During
the 2021-2022 season, more than 80
cruise ships arrived on the Pacific
coast with more than 30,000 cruise
passengers. The MS
Queen Elizabeth is a ship designed
to fit the maximum dimensions
allowed for transit through the old
locks of the Panama Canal and was
built at the Fincantieri plant in
Monfalcone, Italy.
In 2010, this ship was named by Queen Elizabeth II in the English city of Southampton.
The cruise is 294 meters in length, 32.2 meters in beam and weighs 92,000 tons. It includes elevators, laundry, beauty salon, gym, library, shops, outdoor pools, theater, jacuzzi, spa, bars, casino, disco, restaurants, cinema and games room among other amenities.
MS Queen Elizabeth is part of the British Cunard cruise line, owned by Carnival Corporation & Plc., which is a global cruise company in which, annually, more than one million passengers spend their vacations in more than 200 destinations on five continents.
To boost tourism, in April, Costa Rican authorities eliminated the covid pass requirement for fully-vaccinated people and the policy insurance requirement for unvaccinated people.
Since then, the government eased the pandemic health guidelines. The country will no longer need tourists to present a negative covid-19 test, quarantine upon arrival, be fully vaccinated against covid-19 or travel policy insurance. Also, the online Health Pass was disabled.
As of April, Costa Rica had over 845,000 tourists in the country.
Last year, over 1.3 million tourists arrived in Costa Rica.
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