Bermuda will see fewer cruise ships next year but significantly more visitors, the new 1993 cruise ship schedule reveals.

Tourism's target is 150,000 visitors -- a 13 percent increase over the 132,000 cruise passengers who came to the Island this year.

The new target is possible because of two key newcomers: Kloster Cruises' Dreamward , a 1,250-passenger ship, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's Song of America , a 1,412-passenger ship.

Together the ships add capacity for at least 20,000 more visitors. The changes, which were made possible by the retirements from the local scene of Kloster's Westward and RCCL's Nordic Prince , will enable the Tourism Ministry to meet business community pressure for more cruise ship business.

However, the Ministry has stuck to its guns in not scheduling weekend calls -- a restriction branded by retail businessmen as unnecessary since it began in 1990.

Only two ships will visit on weekends, Holland America's Statendam on Sunday, May 9, and Cunard's Sagafjord on Saturday, October 2.

The backbone of the 1993 schedule is provided by the four ships which will call each week during the season: the Dreamward , the Song of America , and Chandris' Horizon and Meridian .

Together the ships will visit 109 times from mid-April to late October. The remainder of the visits -- 16 in all -- will be made by irregular callers such as Black Sea Cruises Kazakhstan and Holland America's Statendam .

The 16 irregular callers are scattered throughout the year but are generally concentrated at either end of the cruise ship season, which begins on May 12 and runs through to the last visit on November 5 by the Royal Viking Sun .

The new shipping schedule confirms Meyer Agencies as the champion of local shipping agents. The company represents 92 of the 125 scheduled cruise visits.

Meyer's success is anchored in its contracts with Chandris and Kloster Cruises. But the firm also has contracts for irregular visitors including ships represented by Crown Cruises, Regency Cruises, Black Sea Cruises and Princess Cruises.

John S. Darrell, after being bludgeoned to near extinction in the mid-1980s after decades at the forefront of the local industry, remains a gritty and patient competitor.

The firm, on the strength of winning the RCCL contract last year from Bermuda Travel Tours, represents 25 calls next year, the second largest number.

Harnett & Richardson, representing Holland America and P&O, will act as agents for four calls next year.

It shares the same number of calls with Bermuda Travel Tours, whose business is hanging by a thread with its one remaining contract with Cunard Lines.

The company, which once operated under the name of the now defunct Bermuda Travel & Shipping Ltd., is the latest victim in what has proved to be a volatile industry.

Bermuda Travel Tours, which is operated by Mr. Llewellyn Peniston, suffered a blow late this year when RCCL switched its business to John S. Darrell. The move brought the company a full circle, six years after Mr. Peniston left JSD with the contract along with the bulk of its other cruise business.

The new schedule is the latest move away from the strictures of a Government policy announced in 1989. It began in 1990 with a controversial cutback to 120,000 cruise visitors a year -- a far cry from the late 1980s when policy allowed more than 155,000.

The 1990 restriction backfired when the Royal Viking Star failed to sell its ship well. The year-end result of 112,000 total visitors fanned the flames of frustration in the business community.

In 1991, the 120,000 target was exceeded by 8,000 with the regular ships reporting industry-leading 90-percent occupancy figures. And this year, more than 132,000 arrived on the Island, again the result of near-capacity sales by the regular callers.

SONG OF AMERICA -- a regular visitor next year with capacity for 1,412 passengers.