By
Rebecca Gibson |
Kiel’s cruise season opened on 5 April with the arrival of AIDA Cruises’ AIDAcara, which berthed in the port after sailing through the Kiel Canal.
AIDAcara will embark on 16 different cruises to destinations such as Iceland, Spitzbergen and the Northern Cape this season.
In total, Kiel handle 125 visits from 22 cruise vessels during the season, which ends in mid-October. These include twelve calls from Costa Cruises’ Costa Pacifica – which will be the largest vessel to berth at the port – and return calls from Phoenix Reisen’s Amadea and Artania, Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ Astor, Vishal Cruises’ Delphin, Portuscale Cruises’ Azores. Hapag-Lloyd’s Hamburg and Europa will also return to Kiel.
In addition, Kiel will be the first German port to welcome TUI Cruises’ latest newbuild Mein Schiff 3, which will berth at the port on 26 May after sailing from STX Finland’s yard. This year also marks the first time all three of TUI Cruises’ ships have visited Kiel.
Several other vessels will make inaugural calls at the German port this year including Hapag Lloyd’s Europa 2, Holland America Line’s Eurodam, Fred. Olsen Line’s Braemar and P&O Cruises’ Adonia.
Three cruise ships will berth simultaneously on ten separate occasions, while 16 cruise vessels will visit the port during the Kieler Woche regatta, which takes between 21 June and 29 June.
“The demand in Germany for sea travel is bigger than ever before,” said Dirk Claus, managing director at the Port of Kiel. “As both an arrival and departure port we benefit from this development and we are in the process of further expanding our capacities right now. The Kieler Woche is growing year by year into an ever bigger attraction for cruise ship passengers and we are also particularly looking forward to the international cruise ship guests who will visit Kiel for day excursions onshore.”
To cater for the increased demand, Kiel is currently constructing a passenger pavilion at Berth 1 in Ostuferhafen. Scheduled for completion in May, the pavilion will enable the port to simultaneously process passengers on three large cruise ships for the first time.
The new passenger area at Berth 1 will be opened on 2 June to coincide with the arrival of Costa Pacifica.