The Queen Mary II: The World's Largest Cruise Liner Visits Tomorrow
The world's largest cruise liner, the Queen Mary II, will dock at Puerto de Moín, in Limón tomorrow (Wednesday), the first visit by the cruise liner in Costa Rica's history.

The Queen Mary 2 is the world's largest, longest, tallest, grandest ocean liner ever. She set sail from Southampton on her maiden voyage on January 12, 2004. At 1.132 feet in length, with a beam of 135 feet and height of 236.2 feet (keel to funnel), she weighs about 154.400 gross tons and can carry 2.620 passengers and a crew of 1.253.

The Queen Mary 2 is powers by a environmentally friendly, gas turbine/diesel electric plant generating 157.000 horsepower.

With five restaurants, four bars and ballrooms, five swimming pools, a casino, a mini golf court, a cinema and gym, among other attractions, the cruise liner entertains its passengers in class and style.

The cruise liner will make two more visits this year, again on February 17 and March 13, though the March visit it will dock at Caldera, Puntarenas on the Pacific coast.

For Tourism Minisiter, Rodrigo Castro, the visit by the Queen Mary II is a confirmation that Costa Rica has reached a world level destination, "feeding the apetite of hungry tourists" from major markets, tourists who demand first class service.

The "cruceros" (cruise liners) season is between October and April. In the 2004-2005 season, the industry earned us$31.7 million dollars for Costa Rica, a 20% increase over the 2003-2004 season.

The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) expects 238 cruise ships, the most docking on the Caribbean coast, to visit with a total of 476.000 visitors, which spend an average of 8 hours each on Costa Rican soil.