Today, on May 8, just before the day of celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, Passenger port of Saint Petersburg has at once received three cruise ships that have never come to the Port before – AIDAcara, Celebrity Silhouette and Regal Princess. It is currently a record in the history of Passenger port since 2008. According to the port’s press center, the three vessels have brought over 10 000 passengers aboard.
The AIDAcara ship belonging to the largest cruise company Carnival Corporation & plc left Port of Kiel on May 2 and has already called the ports of Klaipeda, Riga and Tallinn. After leaving St. Petersburg on May 9 it will also visit Turku, Mariehamn, Visby, Gdansk and Malmö and then complete the cruise back in Port of Kiel on May 16. It is notable that AIDAcara was the first ship in the fleet of AIDA Cruises – the German brand of Carnival Corporation – and it was in operation under the name AIDA-Das Clubschiff until 2001. Today AIDAcara is the smallest ship of AIDA Cruises, and its size allows for some unique routes – like the Amazon River basin, for instance, where bigger ships cannot go. At the end of 2006 AIDAcara became the first vessel of the company to do a cruise around the Arabian Peninsula. Since 2011 the ship sails around Northern Europe. During the 2015 cruise season AIDAcara will make a total of 5 calls to Passenger port of Saint Petersburg.
Celebrity Silhouette of Royal Caribbean & Celebrity Cruises has left the Port of Amsterdam on May 3 and has called the ports of Warnemünde and Tallinn. The ship will spend two days in St. Petersburg, and then will continue to Helsinki, Stockholm, Fredericia, Copenhagen and come back to Amsterdam on May 16. Celebrity Silhouette is a sister ship of Celebrity Eclipse, which comes to passenger port of Saint Petersburg every year since 2010. During the 2015 cruise season Celebrity Silhouette will make a total of 7 calls to Passenger port of Saint Petersburg.
On its first cruise around the Baltic Sea, Regal Princess of Carnival Corporation & plc has left Copenhagen on May 2 and has already visited Oslo, Aarhus, Warnemünde and Tallinn. The ship will spend two days in St. Petersburg, and then will continue to Helsinki, Stockholm and back to Copenhagen on May 13. Regal Princess is a sister ship of Royal Princess, which made 11 calls to Passenger port of Saint Petersburg in 2014. This year one call of Royal Princess and 12 calls of Regal Princess are planned. On September 8 after the final call to Passenger port of Saint Petersburg of the 2015 cruise season Regal Princess will embark on a transatlantic cruise to New-York, and sail there until spring 2016.