AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

Re­porter

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

As T&T wel­comes 1,700 pas­sen­gers aboard the Bril­liance of the Seas cruise lin­er, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has promised a safe Car­ni­val, point­ing to low crime num­bers as proof that the streets are ready for lo­cals and tourists.

On Fri­day, the cruise ship docked at Port-of-Spain, wel­com­ing an ad­di­tion­al 300 pas­sen­gers aboard, as part of the Epic Car­ni­val Ex­pe­ri­ence cruise for the fes­tiv­i­ties.

Dur­ing a fes­tive on­board cer­e­mo­ny, Gue­var­ro greet­ed trav­ellers from across the Caribbean and the di­as­po­ra.

TTPS Gold Com­man­der for Car­ni­val 2026 Suzette Mar­tin and ACP Tac­ti­cal Sup­port Col­lis Hazel, who sup­port­ed the CoP, en­cour­aged trav­ellers to par­take in var­i­ous as­pects of T&T’s cul­ture, as­sur­ing them of their safe­ty “every sin­gle day un­til Ash Wednes­day.”

Gue­var­ro said he was sure the vis­i­tors would ven­ture to Car­ni­val events and fes­tiv­i­ties, adding he knew they will be “go­ing right down, till they lie down.”

“At this time, the coun­try is en­joy­ing its low­est crime sta­tis­tics in over 15 years. And we are here with a se­cu­ri­ty plan to en­sure that you en­joy your­selves,” Gue­var­ro told pas­sen­gers.

“Our shores are open, our hearts are open and you are safe to fete.”

Epic Car­ni­val Ex­pe­ri­ence founder and CEO Jonathan “Jon­ny” Mack echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments, ex­press­ing grat­i­tude to the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice.

“Epic, for the last three years, has been con­sis­tent­ly safe and pro­tect­ed, where the po­lice force has gone above and be­yond to make sure there is safe routes, walk­ing routes and mak­ing sure every­one on Epic is safe,” Mack said.

Mean­while, Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John came in a par­ty mood, re­mind­ing trav­ellers that they “came here for the vibes.”

De­spite re­fus­ing to show off her dance moves when Mack chal­lenged her to prove whether Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters could “wine,” John in­vit­ed those aboard to at­tend the Panora­ma fi­nals to­day, with free ac­cess to the North Stand.

“Wine up to we so­ca, wine down, but look out for each oth­er. We want to see you again next year… we want to dou­ble the num­bers next year.”

In the same spir­it, Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin promised trav­ellers she would join them on the main Sa­van­nah stage.

Though Ben­jamin in­vit­ed trav­ellers to Fla­va Vil­lage last night to see Machel Mon­tano per­form, the so­ca king gave them a pri­vate per­for­mance yes­ter­day, singing his so­ca hit En­core—a ma­jor con­tender for this year’s Road March.

The 2026 cruise of­fered var­i­ous pack­ages: a nine-day ex­pe­ri­ence start­ing in Puer­to Ri­co, and a five- to six-day op­tion with board­ing in Trinidad.

Us­ing the char­tered Bril­liance of the Seas, Mack says this year’s book­ing reached ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1,000 cab­ins – the largest since the cruise’s in­cep­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, the Epic Car­ni­val Cruise in­jects around US$5 mil­lion in­to the T&T econ­o­my each Car­ni­val sea­son, gen­er­at­ed from pas­sen­ger spend­ing on ac­com­mo­da­tion ex­ten­sions, food and bev­er­ages, trans­port, en­ter­tain­ment, cos­tumes, and oth­er an­cil­lary ser­vices.