Cruise port for the largest Carnival and Royal Caribbean Ships (Grand Cayman)

The Cayman Islands Governor and the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands (“PACI”) have committed to developing new facilities to enhance the management and development of cruise tourism, passenger and cargo handling in the Cayman Islands.

With the advent of larger vessels (“Oasis Class”) and the resultant increase of passengers per vessel, the Government/PACI has recognized the need to develop four berths and reclaim land in order to accommodate the direct shore side docking of cruise ship. Included in the development will be the generation of reclaimed land at the port which will allow the cruise operations to be separated from cargo operations.

This separation will increase operational flexibility and growth potential.

The reclaimed land will be developed from material generated by dredging operations necessary to allow cruise ships access to the berths.

The existing Port Facility at George Town is currently utilized both for tourism and cargo. It is composed of three terminals: two are used for tender berthing, the other one for Roll On/Roll Off and cargo.

Currently the cruise ships anchor at the edge of the shallow shelf in front of the port.

The cargo port provides for the handling of break bulk cargo, bulk aggregate and cement.

The primary technical purpose of the George Town Port Expansion Project is to provide two cruise ship piers with the capability to simultaneously berth four cruise ships permitting direct debark and embark of passengers from ship to pier versus the present practice of tendering to transport cruise passengers to the shore and back to the ships.

The main new marine works are the following:

• Cruise Piers and relocated Tender Berths;
• Revetment and breakwater;
• Dredging and reclamation.

The upland area will consist of the following major components:

• Cruise terminal including sterile areas;
• Non-sterile cruise related and retail area;
• Transportation areas.

The below figure provide the layout of the proposal upland areas devoted to cruise related activities.

The Cruise terminal including sterile areas will allow passengers to be debarked and embarked from cruise ships and tenders to the new “Wharf Portal”. From the Portal, passengers can walk to the tour operators for island experiences and to visit George Town.

The Transportation Area will be configured as a “spiral” allowing busses direct access to the drop on/off area or to the staging area. This configuration will allow a better traffic handling and improve the safety of passengers/tourists. The south side of the parking area will be available for cars and on the south-east an emergency/services vehicles entrance will be allowed for direct access to the cruise piers.A guard house will be reinstalled at the entrance to the cargo area.

The Non-sterile cruise related and Retail area will consist of: existing cruise terminal building, canopies, retails and prefabricated booths. The existing cruise terminal building will be renewed for other uses.The canopies will be open covered walkways or gazebos and will allow access to the city or to parking area. The retail area will consist of enclosed retail spaces.

Finally, the prefabricated booths will accommodate the tour operators.