Globe Travels Welcomes ‘AIDAbella’-the Last Cruise Ship of the Season at New Mangalore Port
Mangaluru: Globe Travels which takes pride, having introduced New Mangalore Port to the world of the cruise in 1970, and ever since then, the movement of cruises at New Mangalore Port, has increased by 400%. Today New Mangalore Port is having more than 40 cruise ships visiting between October – May every year, and for that matter Globe Travels is one of the Premier and a leading tour operator of Mangaluru city, having handled quite a number of cruise ships during all these years. And for this season, the last cruise ship named “AIDAbella” docked at New Mangalore Port, with approximately 1250 foreigners of mixed nationals alighting to take a trip around Mangaluru City. Looking at this ship arriving at Mangaluru, brought back memories of my three cruise trips that I took between 2010-2015 from Florida-USA to Bahamas, Bermuda and Mexico- and they were the best that I ever experienced!
The Vessel AIDAbella a passenger (cruise) ship built in 2008 at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany and currently sailing under the flag of Italy, with 230 m length overall and a beam of 32 m, and gross tonnage is 69203 tons arrived here during the weekend. AIDAbella is a cruise ship operated by AIDA Cruises, she is a sister ship to AIDAdiva and AIDAluna. The ship has a passenger capacity of 2,500 and crew 646. The name AIDAbella was chosen after a competition to name the new ship. The name was meant to signify how beautiful the ship is. The ship features 1,025 passenger cabins, many with balconies. Amidships is a circular, glass-walled, and roofed Theatrium in the center of the ship which can be used as a nightclub.
Globe Travels takes pride in being the ground handling agents, with nearly 58 team members, including 9 staff from the Globe Travel office. Globe Travels being the well known and pioneer travel and tour agents has the credit of introducing Mangalore to the Cruise World way back in 1970. While most of the passengers opted to take bus trip to the Famous and historically important places like St Aloysius Chapel, Kadri Manjunatha Temple, Gokarnanath Temple, Artisan Village, local market- a few others took bus trips to Udupi Sri Krishna Temple, Thousand Pillar Temple, Dr Soans Farm, Bahubali Temple, Karkala etc.,- and I hopped into KSRTC Airavath bus no 4, which took us to the Moodbidri/Karkala and Udupi side.
With 40 members comprising of mostly Germans in our bus, our guide Venkatakrishna Rao was the best guide one could have – he was like a “Human Encyclopedia” who knew about 99% of Mangaluru and its surroundings- and trust me, the entire group in the bus appreciated his elaborate details during the sightseeing tour. He even had his own compilations of the heritage, culture, and traditions of DK, including Yakshagana details incorporated in a book that he passed around the members in the bus. Great guy, and a great guide- Kudos to Rao for a job well done- the best one that I have come across my many bus tours in decades. Thanks to Globe Travels for having such kind of tour guides in their team – Globe Travels does the job right with the right crew!
With our bus leaving the New Mangalore Port at around 9:00 am, our first stop was at the Thousand Pillar temple, and from there we headed on to see the Gomatehswara statue – although the group had to walk a few hundred steps to witness the statue, they didn’t mind it – since they had no other option- either sit in the bus or take a tour. The next on the schedule was the Soans Farm, where everyone had a good time, walking through the farm and experiencing the best of Mother Nature, in the form of fruits and vegetables. With a welcome drink of freshly made pineapple juice offered at the Soans Farm, everyone took a walking tour throughout the farm and gained much knowledge about the exotic plants and fruits that 83 old Soans had to describe to them.
Wow- it was nearly 1:00 pm, and it was time for lunch- where the group had a choice to quench their taste- either a soft drink or a pint bottle of KF beer- imagine Germans being the world’s largest consumers of beer, are given a choice of one beer when they are in a different country. Many sacrificed by sticking to one beer, while a few others managed to get a couple extra cold ones-cheers! And for the lunch menu, they had to take a break from sausages, Bratwurst, Ham, and German delicacies like Sauerbraten, Spätzle, Leberkäse, Maultaschen, Currywurst, KönigsbergerKlopse etc- instead these Germans along with other Nationalities enjoyed the Kudla delicacies like- Sanna, Apam, Sevio, Banana Sukha, Chicken Sukha, Anjal (Sear) fish fry, Lamb Curry, Sweet Pulav, Gherkins Cashew, etc- and they all enjoyed without any complaints- and for desserts they were all treated with Payasam and Gulab Jamun.
When asked with one of the group members about our local food, Steven from Frankfurt-Germany said that he loved Sweet Pulav with sweet chutney (because both were sweet) and he loved both the desserts- no wonder Steve is a “Sweet Guy?”. Shirley, yet another German origin said she loved the Lamb curry, Chicken Sukha, Fish fry and the Gulab Jamun. Compliments to Loy D’Souza of M D’Souza Caterers for providing the delicious Mangalorean food, which made these foreigners happy. Having satisfied their hunger, the next destination on the schedule was Udupi, where a couple of temples were looked at, before heading back to to the port. I had a jolly good time with a bunch of these Germans, Russians, Italians, and few Malaysians- and they were all nice people who loved to mix with other nationalities- and we all had a ball throughout the bus trip.
The cruise trip which started from Malaysia on 19 April had made stops at Singapore, Kaula Lampur, Maldives, Cochin, reaching Mangaluru during the weekend, and then proceeding towards Goa, Muscat, and culminating at Dubai. Speaking to Team Mangalorean, William D’Souza, the Managing Director of Globe Travels said, “We feel proud to say that we introduced the arrival of cruise ships to Mangaluru Port. This season we handled approximately 30 cruises, with nearly 50,000 passengers on these cruise ships taking local tours. We are proud of our achievements and our staff and guides have done a great job in taking care of all these visitors to their sheer satisfaction. We are looking forward to a better season and will do our best to give the visitors to Mangaluru the best hospitality and courteousness”.
And regarding Globe Travels they offer travel solutions to a wide range of clients, and provide different holiday options for both leisure and corporate traveller. Recognised as a trendsetter in the travel industry, Globe Travels cater to the needs of their customers with quality services. They make use of powerful forces of Trust, Vision and Relationships. Globe Travels known for transparent deals and prompt service, still strive hard to enhance their travel services at a global level. All their staff are committed to following a powerful strategic approach that matches with the travellers requirements and needs. Globe Travels always tries to coordinate and create innovative solutions for their customers, and also try to focus on customer care, reliability, excellence on service.
In conclusion, all I have to say is that a job well done to William D’Souza, his staff members and the tour guides for an extraordinary service and hospitality provided to these foreigners during their visit to Mangaluru – keep up the good work that you all are entrusted- and you all will be rewarded with high praises and compliments. Great Job, keep it up!
Three cheers!
congratulation William.you all have surely put mangalore in the tourist map