Carnival Cruise Ship to Call SD Home

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 2, 2006 at 11:30 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

Carnival Cruise Lines is basing a ship in San Diego so the company can begin year-round trips to ports in Baja, Mexico. Port of San Diego spokeswoman Marguerite Elicone says officials have been workin

Carnival Cruise Lines is basing a ship in San Diego so the company can begin year-round trips to ports in Baja, Mexico. Port of San Diego spokeswoman Marguerite Elicone says officials have been working a long time to have a cruise ship use San Diego as its home base.

Elicone: This is our first ever of a year-round cruise, usually you see the cruise ships and they start in October and they go until May. But this is the first time that we’ll have one that is year-round.

She says 2,000-passenger ship Elation is expected to pump $250 million into the local economy each year. Most of that spending will come from tourists who fly or drive to San Diego and spend part of their vacations in the region. Carnival officials say the new ship and another one it operates in San Diego will carry more than $230,000 passengers each year. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and Port officials say the move puts the city on the map as a major cruise port. Port officials say the B Street pier will be expanded as permanent berthing areas.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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