Ports & destinations

Sir Stephen Hawking used two cruise liners to attend Tenerife science festival

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations

Published: 22 October 2014 22 October 2014

The renowned British scientist, physicist, cosmologist and writer Sir Stephen Hawking sailed to Tenerife on a P&O cruise ship and returned ack tobRitain on a Royal Caribbean ship after attending a science festival

He sailed to Tenerife in September on board of the P&O Cruises' Oceana, the Tenerife port authority said in a statement.

His attendance at the Starmus Festival, that took place at the end of September in Tenerife, motivated his nearly one month stay in the island.
Sir Stephen Hawking is considered one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Albert Einstein, his work on the origins and structure of the universe, the Big Bang to black holes, has revolutionized the field of cosmology. Moreover, his best-sellers “A Brief History of Time” (1988), “The Universe in a Nutshell” (2001) and “The Grand Design” (2010) have helped popularize science and make it accessible to everyone…..

The Starmus Festival is open to anyone who holds a passion for astronomy and space exploration: beginners, amateurs and professionals.

This event features presentations from astronauts, cosmonauts, Nobel Prize Winners and prominent figures from science, culture, the arts and music.
Stephen Hawking’s historic talk on “The Origin of the Universe”, that took place in Tenerife on the 23 September, revealed some significant recent discoveries about the origin of the Universe, which made public for the first time during this presentation.

During his stay in Tenerife, he had the opportunity to discover the outstanding weather conditions, the natural environment and visit the traditional villages of the island. He also visited the most modern astronomical research center in the North Hemisphere: the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

Hawking departed from the island on 7 October on board Royal Caribbean´ s Independence of the Seas.

Security concern for cruise business in Venezuela’s Isla Margarita

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations

Published: 20 October 2014 20 October 2014

Despite recent unrest in the country and serious security issues concerning the safety of visitors to the country, Venezuela’s hedonist holiday island of Margarita has been included in the Caribbean itineraries of a number of cruise lines this season. Alan Lam reports.

On 26 October, over 680 passengers on Oceania Cruises’ Insignia will be the first cruise ship of the present season to call at the island’s Puerto Internacional El Guamache. There will be four further ship calls in November and seven in December. The port has 40 confirmed calls between now and April 2015. The Venezuelan season will end on 10 April with the anticipated call by the new Le Ponant of Ponant Yacht Cruises.

Tourism is vital to the economy of the island, which has suffered a severe decline in recent years owing to the country’s perceived worsening security situation. A number of visitors to Margarita have been mugged and even murdered.

Venezuela’s Minister of Tourism, Andrés Izarra, and the Governor of Margarita, Carlos Mata Figuerosa, recently met with port operators to discuss ways of facilitating the much needed cruise tourism to the island.

According to the Governor, the authorities will put all the necessary security measures in place to safeguard cruise tourists during their stay.

The security measures will include deployment of tourist security personnel from 8 am to 6 pm throughout the designated routes where cruise tourists are channeled.

Ostensibly these measures are as much for the safety and security of the locals as for the tourists. They are also designed to prevent such virus as Ebola from entering the country via international cruise ships.

Ebola has just become a major issue for cruise business in the Caribbean. On 17 October Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Magic was prevented from calling at Cozumel by the Mexican authority on account of the ship carrying a quarantined Texas laboratory worker who had been involved in the care of an Ebola victim. This incident forced Carnival to reimburse more than 4,000 passengers $200 each and an offer of 50% discount for a future booking. 

Despite fewer calls, Rostock set passenger record in 2014 season

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations

Published: 20 October 2014 20 October 2014

A call on 18 October by the cruise liner Marco Polo at the Warnemünde Cruise Center and ended the most successful cruise shipping season with the highest passenger number to date in Rostock on the German Baltic coast, although the number of calls fell slightly, the port said in a statement.

“In all, the holiday ships that called in Warnemünde 182 times this year carried 378,000 passengers, creating an annual passenger volume of 756,000 by embarking and disembarking at the port, “ the port authority said.

According to a definition by the Cruise Europe Association on the method of counting cruise passengers, which adds the disembarking (131,000) to the embarking (139,000) passengers [who are, however, largely identical] and to the transit passengers (239,000), the number for Rostock-Warnemünde comes to 509,000.

"Even though we had 16 port calls less compared to our record year 2013, more cruise tourists than ever came to river Warnow due to the larger passenger capacities of the vessels employed", Ulrich Bauermeister, MD of the Rostock Port Development Company, summarizes.

Of the 182 port calls by cruise vessels this year, 170 took place in Warnemünde and twelve at the overseas port. The largest vessel ever to set course for the mouth of river Warnow was the Royal Princess with a length of 330 meters and a gross register tonnage of 142,741. The vessel, which was commissioned in June 2013, is able to carry around 3600 passengers and 1350 crew.

All or some of the passengers were changed during 99 port calls. Rostock-based shipping company AIDA Cruises for instance sent two ships on Baltic Sea cruises from the base port Warnemünde: AIDAbella and AIDAmar. This season, 26 international shipping companies included the Baltic Sea port on river Warnow in their route planning with 182 port calls by 36 cruise vessels. About 52,000 out of 378,000 cruise passengers visited Berlin

Of the 378,000 cruise travellers the majority this year were Germans at 133,000, followed by 61,000 Americans, 38,000 British, 21,000 Italians, 17,000 Spaniards and the same number of Canadians, 11,000 Australians and 80,000 tourists from 138 other nations. The ships also carried 137,000 crew members from 124 countries, more than one third of whom went on shore leave.

"14 percent of all cruise guests in Warnemünde, that is around 52,000, went on a day trip to Berlin by train or coach this season", states Ulrich Bauermeister. "About 187,000 passengers set out to discover Warnemünde, Rostock or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on day trips and 139,000 started and/or ended their cruise in the passenger port at the mouth of river Warnow."

Based on a study by Rostock University on the spending behaviour of passengers and crew members one may assume that the cruise travellers and crew members spent at least €16 million during the 2014 season, especially in local and regional shops, hotels and restaurants, on public transport, taxi rides and car parking in Warnemünde, Rostock and their environs.

Adding to this is the turnover realised  through cruise shipping by coach operators, railway, travel agents for shore excursions, utilities, supply and disposal companies, shipping agents, pilots and port operators.

Latest Caribbean cruise destination opens for business in Honduras

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations

Published: 18 October 2014 18 October 2014

On 15 October, Norwegian Cruise Line’s 2,376-passenger Norwegian Jewel called at Banana Coast, the newest Caribbean cruise destination, with 2,200 passengers. It was the first mega cruise ship call at the Trujillo port. Alan Lam reports.

The ship was welcomed by Ricardo Alvarez, the vice president of Honduras, who officiated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and traditional plaque exchange attended by Jose Lainez, the mayor of Trujillo, Captain Sven Kenneth Harstrom, master of Norwegian Jewel, and Randy Jorgensen, general manager of Grand Trujillo Autoridad, the port developer.

“The call went extremely well,” said Jorgensen. “The product is a winner and the community and destination received very positive reviews from the exit interviews we conducted. The positive response was validated by Norwegian’s shore excursion team asking us to add more tour capacity as soon as possible.”

According to Jorgensen there were however a few expected hiccups owing to congestion caused by local residents wanting to welcome the arrival of the passengers. He acknowledged that work on traffic flow was needed. The authorities already began to implement changes as soon as the ship had departed. “We expect improvements with every call going forward,” added Jorgensen.

Almost all the shore excursions offered were sold out. 900 guests were accommodated on organised tours. The line expects high demand during its next 12 scheduled weekly calls.

Banana Coast Tours offers 15 tours that, among others, include snorkelling, kayaking, waterfall explorations, horse riding, mangrove boat rides, and a variety of other cultural, historical and gastronomic excursions.

In total six cruise lines have slated 29 calls on eight ships at Banana Coast during the current 2014-2015 Caribbean cruise season: Holland America Line was the first major cruise line to plan to a series of calls to this destination from November 2014 to March 2015; Silversea Cruises will have a number of calls in December 2014 and March 2015; P&O Cruises and Oceania Cruises plan to call in the first quarter of 2015.