Apr 27, 2009 5:40 pm US/Eastern
Baltimore Now Home Port For Cruise Ship
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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State and local officials were delighted to see a huge pile of money sail into town.
CBS
State and local officials were delighted to see a huge pile of money sail into town.
As
Mike Schuh reports, for the first time ever, Baltimore is the home port for a cruise ship.
The Pride of Baltimore is a replica of the famous Baltimore clipper ships. She escorted the new pride, the Carnival Pride cruise ship, to her new home port in Baltimore Monday.
At noon, her first Baltimore passengers walked the gangway. Among those were Crystal Stewart from Deep Creek.
"It's close, fairly close for us to get here. Otherwise, it's driving to Florida for us to take a cruise," she said.
She's exactly who the cruise line had hoped for, a customer within a six or eight-hour drive of Baltimore.
"So we've just done some research. With this economy, some people will come from even further," said Joni Rian, Carnival Worldwide Sales.
Most cruises go out of New York or Florida. Baltimore taps into a rich pool of customers in the mid-Atlantic, boosting the city's image.
The Pride's new home port is the state's cruise ship pier. No incentives were given to the cruise line, other than attractive lease and services rates. The state says the ship will bring in $150 million a year to Maryland.
A check of Carnival's website shows that most of the cruises leaving Baltimore will cost between $550 and $1,500 for a six or seven-day excursion.
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