Ports & destinations

Work starts on cruise ship quay in Visby

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 08 February 2016 08 February 2016

Work started today on the cruise quay in Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic, Copenhagen Malmo Port (CMP), the Swedish-Danish port company that will operate the facility, said in a statement.

Two 340 metre long ships will be able to dock simultaneously at the cruise quay when it is completed. Including abutments, it will extend a total of 530 metres out into the sea. It will be possible to dock at Visby with an average wind of up to 14 metres per second. A terminal for passengers and crew of about 300 square metres is planned on the abutment. The main contractor is the Danish company Aarsleff A/S. The quay will be completed in the spring of 2018.

"We have long experience of developing cruise ports and marketing destinations. Being able to offer our customers Visby as a cruise destination will make the cruise routes in the Baltic more attractive. We are anticipating 150 arrivals per year in the future. Naturally this is positive for us, but it also contributes to developing tourism on Gotland. We are really looking forward to it", says Johan Röstin, CEO CMP.

Visby is the only walled medieval city in Scandinavia, It is very well preserved.

Pullmantur to operate seven Rostock turn arounds with Monarch

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 04 February 2016 04 February 2016

Pullmantur, the Spanish unit in Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RRCL) group, will operate seven turnaround calls at the German port of Rostock this year, the port said in a statement.

“Due to the excellent traffic connections of Rostock overseas port with a direct motorway link to the airport of Rostock-Laage it has been possible to win over the Spanish cruise shipping company Pullmantur Cruises for port calls with changes of passengers in Rostock,” the port said.

Monarch will call at berth 31/32 in port basin B of Rostock overseas port seven times in the course of this season in order to allow around 2,400 passengers to disembark in the morning and take new passengers on board in the afternoon“, explains Jens A. Scharner, managing director of Hafen-Entwicklungsgesellschaft Rostock mbH.

From 18 June to 10 September Pullmantur Cruises, which mainly carries Spanish passengers, will use the airport of Rostock-Laage as a hub for its charter flights on every other Saturday. On the days with changes of passengers a bus shuttle will be put in place for the cruise tourists between the airport and the overseas port.

The company has its headquarters in Madrid, has been a regular customer of the Warnemünde cruise port for years. To date the cruise liner Empress has been a guest at the mouth of river Warnow 46 times. This season the Empress (211 m, passenger capacity 2000) will be replaced by the larger cruise liner Monarch (269 m long, capacity of 2,700 passengers). The usual transit port calls in Warnemünde, offering a wide range of shore excursions, will turn into port calls with changes of passengers at Rostock overseas port, this year's base port of Pullmantur Cruises in the southern Baltic.

Rostock expects 182 cruise calls in 2016

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 21 January 2016 21 January 2016

The 2016 cruise season starts at Warnemünde cruise port on 28 April with the arrival of the cruise liner AIDAdiva. "We are confident that we will be able to mark the start of the new cruise season at the then newly built berth P7 together with the Hanseatic City of Rostock", emphasizes Jens A. Scharner.

All told, 182 port calls by 33 cruise liners are expected this year, more than in any other German port. 163 times the vessels will berth in Warnemünde and 19 times at the overseas port. Four vessels will be heading for the mouth of river Warnow for the first time: Koningsdam and Zuiderdam of the Holland America Line, Viking Sea of Viking Ocean Cruises and Monarch of the shipping company Pullmantur.

Rostock-based shipping company AIDA Cruises will again send two of its vessels to its Baltic home port of Warnemünde, AIDAdiva and AIDAmar. 40 out of 49 port calls with change of passengers have been notified by AIDA Cruises for 2016. Also, Costa, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruidse Line and other shipping companies plan to change some of their passengers here. Especially German passengers will be embarking and disembarking in Warnemünde.

The 2016 cruise calendar shows one quintuple port call on 27 August, five quadruple port calls and ten triple port calls. More than 100 port calls by cruise liners take place on Fridays (28), Saturdays (49) and Sundays (27). All told, cruise liners will call at the port on river Warnow on 117 days, less than one third of the year. With around 800,000 cruise passengers embarking and disembarking, Warnemünde is heading for another record.

Norwegian Jade to offer 16 cruises from Southampton in 2017 as line returns after seven years

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 26 January 2016 26 January 2016

Norwegian Cruise Line, the contemporary market unit in the Norwegian Cruise Line Holding group, will have a UK-dedicated ship sailing from Southampton for the first time in seven years from 2017 when Norwegian Jade will offer 16 cruises from the port.

The cruise line will offer a series of 11 Western Europe and three Norwegian Fjords sailings between 12 May and 20 June and 7 August and 16 October, while two shorter taster cruises will also be on offer, Travel Weekly reports.

The news came a day after the company said the same ship would offer 19 cruises from Hamburg, the first time it has operated a ship from a German port.

Norwegian’s managing director for EMEA, Christian Boell, was quoted as saying: “We’re clearly demonstrating our commitment to our European customers, especially cruisers in the UK, with these exciting summer itineraries.”

“Not only are we offering the possibility to embark in Southampton but we are also bringing one of our newest and most innovative ships back to Europe. We’re convinced that this will encourage continued growth in the UK market, where we have just seen record breaking guest numbers in 2015.”

Valletta Cruise Port reports a record year

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 20 January 2016 20 January 2016

Valletta Cruise Port recorded a sharp increase in the number of passenger movements in 2015.

A total of 668,277 passenger movements were recorded on 306 cruise vessels (2015) calling Valletta. This means an increase of 150,683 passengers or a 29.1% increase on the previous year (2014). The previous record was set in 2012, with 608,786 passenger movements being recorded.

As per NSO statistics, which exclude embarking passengers, the 2015 landed passengers amounted to 600,156 (2014: 471,554). This exceeds the previous record year in 2012 (562,812), by circa 6%.

The largest component of cruise operations remains port of call amounting to 79% of passenger movements. Homeport operations amount to 21% of the total passenger movements.

The busiest month in 2015 was October with 105,164 passenger movements equivalent to 15.7% of passenger movements for the year. Several busy cruise days were recorded during the year with the busiest day being the 22nd July with over 13,500 passengers. This was indeed a challenging operation particularly since two ships, MSC Fantasia and Costa neoClassica were berthed at Boiler Wharf and Lab Wharf.

Stephen Xuereb, CEO of Valletta Cruise Port said, “Improving the infrastructure on Quays 4/5 and a proposed extension towards Barriera Wharf is critical to the continued growth of the industry in Valletta. Valletta Cruise Port is currently working on these plans in order to meet the challenges that lie ahead. 2016 is looking very positive and Valletta is expected to welcome an unprecedented 740,000 passenger movements. It is indeed an exciting time for Valletta Cruise Port."