Bermuda may be finally starting to want to understand their customers - cruise lines. They seem to have finally realized that cruise lines are no longer standing in line to sail into Bermuda, and they need to work with the lines if they want more calls or longer calls.
To that end, it's being reported in the Bermuda press that the country's Minister of Transport, Derrick Burgess, made a trip to Florida to meet with executives of six cruise lines. Among other things, he wanted to market the idea to lines with smaller ships of having them call at Hamilton and St. George's where most ships can't fit today.
Along the way, he called on an old friend of Bermuda's, Rick Sasso, now the president of MSC USA. Sasso has worked with Bermuda since his days as president of Celebrity Cruises, and Bermuda was at that time one of their signature destinations, running as many as three ships at a time there during the season. What they talked about may be part of a solution to Burgess' problem.
