DOCKYARD, Bermuda -- In 2007, when Celebrity Cruises pulled out of Bermuda after almost 20 years, the cruise line was clear: It wanted to dock its ships in Hamilton, Bermuda's picturesque capital.
Bermuda's response was also clear: Ships longer than 700 feet are too large for Hamilton or Bermuda's other main town, St. George's. Despite pressure from the cruise industry, Bermuda was not willing to dredge the channels into Hamilton to accommodate bigger ships, for environmental as well as developmental and planning reasons.
It didn't take long for Celebrity to come back. The cruise line now calls here in the Royal Naval Dockyard area of Bermuda's West End, popularly known simply as Dockyard, along with the vast majority of cruise ships.
Dan Hanrahan, Celebrity's CEO, explained that the demand for Bermuda was finally met with an upgrading of the facilities that made Dockyard a plausible place to drop anchor.
"The West End experience is so much better than when it opened," Hanrahan said.
Bermuda recently gave Dockyard a $50 million revitalization to lure cruise ship traffic back after ship visits began to decline in the past decade.
Larry Jacobs, Bermuda's minister of transportation, said the upgrade included building a second pier to accommodate the largest of cruise ships; widening the roads to the pier; and building a beach area as well as bars, restaurants and several stores, all within walking distance of the cruise ships.
Most important, according to Jacobs, was the addition of high-speed ferries that get people from the ships to Hamilton and St. George's in 15 and 30 minutes, respectively.
"The infrastructure and transportation was not good before," he said. "I can understand why ships didn't want to come here. People don't feel isolated now."
On a recent visit to Dockyard, with both Princess Cruises' 3,100-passenger Caribbean Princess and Norwegian Cruise Line's 2,224-passenger Norwegian Dawn in port, the area was busy but not bustling, despite thousands of cruise passengers who had descended from the ships.
The high-speed ferries have a lot to do with that; Jacobs said the quality of the transportation means that people can get out of Dockyard quickly and easily to see the island's main tourist sites.
"We realized when we built it that we'd better have the transportation down," he said.
Dockyard has several high-speed catamarans that can ferry up to 350 passengers at a time to St. George's and Hamilton. A slower ferry to Hamilton carries up to 700 people.
There are also many buses and shuttles that take people to the island's most popular beaches on its southern coast. A bus ride from the island's famous Horseshoe Beach to Dockyard took 30 minutes.
Jacobs said the cost of the Dockyard upgrade was controversial in Bermuda, but the second pier alone generated $25 million for the island last year and is expected to contribute $30 million this year.
Cruise ships are an $80 million industry for the 21-square-mile island.
Formerly a small-ship cruise destination, Bermuda needed to find a way to accommodate cruise lines' ever-larger vessels, and Dockyard was the only place on the island with the necessary space, Jacobs said.
Last year, he said, Bermuda had 150 ship calls that brought 360,000 passengers to Bermuda. Only about 34,000 came through Hamilton or St. George's. Holland America Line's 702-foot Veendam is the only ship that calls regularly in those ports.
The challenge Dockyard faces now is getting people to use its facilities, because Bermuda made it so convenient to leave the area that most people do just that.
Very few people were hanging out at the small strip of man-made beach at Snorkel Park Beach, and Hammerheads, the bar and restaurant, was empty.
The Dolphin Quest Bermuda, which offers various programs to swim with 12 dolphins, was very popular.
The area's restored historical buildings now house a rum cake factory, glassblowers and pottery studios.
Jacobs said Dockyard is more popular with passengers on ships doing multiday cruises to Bermuda; the Caribbean Princess was in town for one day, while Celebrity, NCL and HAL stay for multiple days.
This report appeared in the Aug. 2 issue of Travel Weekly.