Island Princess Receives a Warm Welcome as She Makes Her Inaugural Call to Dover

Princess Cruises’ Island Princess today made her inaugural call to the Port of Dover. The first visit by the Island Princess is extra special as the ship played a crucial role in bringing the Port’s sustainable Seatrade stand back to the UK from Miami to be recycled earlier this year. The Port of Dover’s Cruise team met with the ship’s Captain to present a plaque to commemorate the inaugural visit of the Island Princess and to thank them for transporting the stand materials back to the UK.

The Port of Dover exhibited at Seatrade Global in Miami in 2019 with a stand made entirely from waste plastic collected from the world’s oceans and beaches. The stand, made from recycled plastic – from the frame, walls and flooring to the furniture and soft furnishings returned to the UK in June 2022 from Port Everglades via Princess Cruises’ Island Princess. To continue to utilise this waste and to ensure it never returns to the sea or landfill, the Port of Dover has now recycled the plastic into four sets of children’s chairs and tables for use by schools and kid’s clubs.

Alongside the plaque presentation, the Port of Dover’s Head of Cruise, Sonia Limbrick and Chief Commercial Officer, Christian Pryce, were delighted to gift a table and a set of four chairs to the Island Princess for use in their Camp Discovery Kids Centre onboard. The chairs each have a sticker on the back that tells the story of the plastic being retrieved from the ocean, recycled into an exhibition stand and ultimately becoming several table and chair sets. The remaining sets are due to be donated to schools local to Dover.

Sonia Limbrick, Head of Cruise at the Port of Dover, said:

“The Port is delighted to welcome the Island Princess for the first time today, midway through the busy summer cruise season. It’s always a pleasure to host Princess Cruises and we hope that Dover’s offering – including strong transport links, beautiful surroundings and our sustainable credentials – will mean this is the first of many calls by the Island Princess to the Port.

We are also thrilled to be able to gift a set of the recycled table and chairs to the Island Princess as a thank you for their help and a valuable learning opportunity for children on board to learn about ocean plastic and the importance of recycling.”

On behalf of the Island Princess, Captain Lorentzen said:

“I am grateful to the Port of Dover for their warm welcome this morning and pleased to receive this plaque marking our inaugural call to the Port.

In June, we were delighted to assist with the return of the Port’s sustainable Seatrade stand; ensuring that it was able to journey back to the UK contributing zero additional emissions. We are therefore overjoyed to receive one of the recycled table and chair sets to use in our Camp Discovery Kids Centre and look forward to using them to teach our younger guests the importance of protecting our seas.”

A selection of photos are available to download via WeTransfer here. 

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Dover is one of the most popular cruise ports in the country with two dedicated terminals set amongst the stunning backdrop of the White Cliffs and Dover Castle. This, combined with Dover’s inspirational heritage, makes it the port of choice for many of the world’s leading cruise lines. With a new multi-purpose berth; the Port has the capacity to accommodate four cruise ships at once.

The Port of Dover is the UK’s busiest international ferry port, handling more lorries than all other UK ports put together through an unrivalled and fluid operation capable of facilitating 120 ferry movements and 110 miles of freight per day. £144bn worth of UK trade and 33% of all trade with the EU is handled by the Port of Dover.

Dover also has a marina and property business primed to benefit from a new waterfront and a busy cargo business handling fresh produce, containers, project cargo, general cargo and grain operating from a state-of-the-art terminal.

The Port of Dover holds ambitious net zero targets, placing it at the vanguard of decarbonisation within the UK ports industry. More information on these can be read here.