Cruise ships visiting the Island are already noticing seasonal changes in passenger travel.

Meyer Agencies -- local agents for the Meridian , Dreamward , and the Zenith -- reported a decline in passenger numbers for all three ships this week.

The Meridian , which normally brings some 1,400 visitors to the Island, arrived on Tuesday with half that number.

A Meyer spokesman said the cruise ship arrived at Dockyard close to 8 p.m.

that day due to bad weather with 705 passengers.

The Zenith arrived in Hamilton on Monday morning with 1,247 passengers and the Dreamward arrived the same day with 1,017 passengers.

Both ships' passenger count had dropped by some 200 people, the spokesman noted.

And he attributed the decrease to the end of summer.

"We have noticed a decline due to the fact that (foreign) students have returned to school,'' he said.

Both the Dreamward and the Zenith are expected to leave Bermuda this afternoon.

The Meridian is scheduled to return to Baltimore, Maryland, tomorrow afternoon.

John S. Darrell noted that the Royal Majesty brought in 802 passengers on Tuesday morning and is scheduled to leave tomorrow.

And the Song of America , which also arrived on Tuesday morning with 1,324 passengers, is expected to leave the same day.

Meyer also reported that the irregular caller MV Seabourne Legend made her third and last visit of the year to Bermuda last Thursday. She arrived on September 19 with 132 passengers and left last Saturday.

The shipping agency also noted that the motor tanker Stride arrived from Nassau, Bahamas, on September 20 to deliver oil at the Shell docks in St.

George's. The vessel left the next day, bound for Houston, Texas.

Motor vessel Aflan I also arrived in local waters from Port Arthur, Texas, for refuelling last Saturday. It left the same day for Saudi Arabia.

Turning to news from the docks, Meyer said the container ship Somers Isles arrived on Monday morning with 88 containers, including eight refrigerated ones.

The Bermuda Islander also arrived on Monday with 96 containers, including 15 refrigerated ones, two 40-foot containers of general items, and four horses.

The ship left the same evening for Salem, New Jersey, with the 26-foot catamaran Glacier Bay which just completed a 728-mile voyage from Virginia to Bermuda in record time of 36 and a half hours.

The catamaran, operated by Americans Troy Shields and Larry Graff, is expected to be taken from New Jersey by truck back to Virginia.

Container Ship Management reported that the Oleander arrived on schedule last Sunday with 163 containers, including the last batch of new public buses, a sailboat, one office trailer, a car, a horse, and three 45-foot trailers of steel.

The Oleander left on Monday to go into dry dock at Baltimore, Maryland. It is expected to return to the Island on October 6.