By Dana Niland
CJ Contributor

MSC Cruises is returning to St Maarten.

The company will be making its first post-Irma call on St Maarten on March 28 with its MSC Opera cruise ship.

MSC Cruises will be making 29 port calls in St Maarten for 2018, bringing in approximately 115,000 cruise passengers.

The port calls will also include MSC Seaside, the line’s newly inaugurated, 4,140-passenger vessel sailing out of Miami, which will make its inaugural call on April 4.

St Maarten will mark the first port of call for many of these sailings.

The cruise line made 26 port calls to the island in 2016, transporting 91,734 passengers to the destination.

In 2015 the cruise line made 24 port calls, allowing 71,167 passengers to visit the island.

In a statement, Port St. Maarten management said it was “looking forward to the return of MSC Cruises, and will be working with the cruise line to strategically develop the relationship in the coming months and years with respect to the growth potential for the destination.”