Grand Princess, Cruise Ship Visits Holyhead

Cruise ship Grand Princess recently visited Holyhead on her 12-day round Britain and Ireland cruise.

The largest member of the Princess Cruises fleet carries over 2,500 passengers and has a crew of 900.

She will be returning on two further occasions over the summer.



This video of Grand Princess, this colossus of a cruise liner was taken after the strong wet winds from the south west had abated.

You will see how big she is when the Irish Ferries fast ferry, Jonathan Swift, leaves port and sails behind the anchored cruiser.

As a result of the inclement weather earlier in the day, the disembarkation of passengers had to be delayed.

Having arrived off Holyhead since the early morning, the plan is normally to ferry the passengers using the small orange topped ship launches to Holyhead Fishing Quay on the Turkey shore side of the inner harbour.

From there, visitors are usually taken by luxury coach to various local attractions, or they stay in the town of Holyhead visiting its famous St Cybi church nesting within the old Roman walls, high up in the town and overlooking the port.

On this occasion time may have been limited, but it is possible, for example, to visit the last working windmill in Wales or the World Heritage site of Beaumaris Castle.

Sometimes passengers will venture even further afield to see places like Caernarfon Castle and Snowdonia.

This year has seen an almost doubling in the number of cruise ships like the Grand Princess visiting Holyhead, and certainly the local officials at Anglesey County Council are encouraged by the benefits of these cruise stops to the local economy.

Indeed her sister ship Golden Princess has visited Holyhead last year.

And building on the success of these visits, there are now plans being developed to construct a new deep water terminal off Salt Island to accommodate these big cruise ships.

So the future is looking bright for Holyhead and for Anglesey more generally with the estimated growth in cruise ship traffic.

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We hope you enjoyed this video of the Grand Princess.

Return to Anglesey Today from Grand Princess