Three cruise ships carrying more than 7,500 passengers will sail into Belize City early tomorrow morning but the big question tonight is if there will be enough buses to carry all those passengers.
Late this evening Beli-Tur said it got confirmation from Novelo's General Manager Bob Garcia that 60 buses will be available tomorrow. And for their part, a Cruise Solutions representative says that company will have the 19 buses needed for the passengers that will disembark from Royal Caribbean's "Enchantment of the Sea."
But the story doesn't end there because 7NEWS _has obtained a copy of a report from the Carnival Corporation which after an inspection last week of the Novelo fleet of buses described them as "below par forCruise ship tourism and cannot supply two Carnival ships arriving on the same day to Belize."
The report is from Carnival's Manager of tour operations Robert Blythman who wrote that of the 55 buses he inspected, 11 of them were not suitable. The rest of them he said were "marginal in terms of their condition and safety aspects." What's wrong with the buses? Well according to Blythman the issues range from defective engines and electrical issues to bald tires and cracked or splintered windshields.
Blythman warned that problems were averted last Thursday because to fulfill the requirement for 58 buses, Beli-Tur had to rent 21 from Cruise Solutions since Novelo’s was only able to provide 37. That of course won't happen tomorrow since Cruise Solutions will need their buses and so Blythman reported to his bosses in Miami that for tomorrow August 5th "there is a serious concern for the supply of safe and presentable buses."
We note that the team from Carnival only inspected the MCI air-conditioned buses and it was done in the presence of Novelo receiver Kevin Castillo and General Manager Bob Garcia. All this might be moot tonight since Novelo's says they have the buses and tomorrow all eyes will be on the tourism village to see if Novelo's will show up with the 60 buses.