Seven Seas Explorer – a cruise ship operated by Regent Seven Seas Cruises, paid a port call to the North Bali Port of Celukan Bawang in Buleleng Regency on Tuesday, 14 February 2023. This ship was the second cruise ship to visit Celukan Bawang in February, following an earlier visit on 03 February by the 170-passenger MS Ocean Odyssey operated by Vantage Cruise Lines.
As reported by Kompas.com, the Seven Seas Explorer weighs 55,524 gross tons with an overall length of 225 meters. The ship carried 647 passengers served by a crew of 530.
Traditional Balinese dancers welcomed the ship’s passengers with floral tributes presented on the port’s dock.
The Head of Tourism Services for the Regency of Buleleng, Gede Dody Sukma Oktiva Askara, said the passengers of the Seven Seas Explorer visited many North Bali tourism objects, including The Banjar Hot Springs, Vihara Arama Banjar, the Chinese temple Klenteng Ling Gwen Kiong, the Pura Beji Desa Sangsit temple, the war monument at Desa Jagaragam, and the Anyar market.
Commenting further on the cruise ship visit, Askara said that 410 passengers from the ship undertook tours offered by a local agent while 100 other passengers went on independent tour excursions. The tourism official said the Port of Celukan Bawang was becoming increasingly popular as a cruise ship port-of-call, with more ship visits scheduled for the remainder of February.
In the early decades of the 1900s, Dutch passenger ships used Celukan Bawang exclusively as their port-of-call, with passengers traveling by car to Denpasar and other parts of the Island’s south.
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