Will Falmouth be ready in time?

Following recent reports that cruise ships had cancelled calls at the unfinished new terminal at Falmouth, Jamaica, the island’s tourism minister is claiming the facility will be ready to open in January.
But Edmund Bartlett’s promise, made in an interview with USA Today’s Gene Sloan, is far from a confident prediction.
“The inclement weather of the last few months has put us back a bit, but the construction work has been going fairly well and we’re hoping to have it substantially ready by January.”
Fingers crossed then.
Bartlett says the terminal, designed to accommodate Oasis and Allure of the Seas – the biggest cruise ships in the world – “will be a world-class mega-port,” with “state of the art facilities.”
But although the port itself will be ready to welcome ships in January, and has an official opening ceremony scheduled for March, Bartlett concedes that the town itself will be a building site for months to come.
Falmouth, founded in the 1700s and once one of the busiest ports in the Caribbean, is on the north coast of Jamaica, about 20 miles east of Montego Bay. “The town is a Georgian architectural dream,” says Bartlett, adding that a lot of work is being done to restore its period charm – work which could take another 18 months to complete. “Falmouth will be a continual work in progress,” he said.
Oasis should have been making regular calls at Falmouth from March this year, but is unlikely to pay her maiden visit until March 2012. P&O’s Aurora cancelled a visit planned for November 3. The first ship to use the new port is now expected to be Navigator of the Seas on January 7.