This year’s cruise shipping season ended in Kiel on Saturday (October 8th) with a call by the “AIDAvita”. Overall, the port of Kiel was visited 147 times this year by 26 different cruise ships of more than 9.3 million GT, compared to 133 cruise ship visits in 2015. That was an increase in tonnage of 8.1 % over last year. More than 485,000 passengers boarded or disembarked at the port’s various terminals – 5.8 % more than in 2015.
This year’s success has been made possible by the fact that, for the first time ever, two cruise shipping companies – AIDA Cruises and TUI Cruises – have each made Kiel the base port for three of their ships. Along with AIDA and TUI, the most frequent visitors have been MSC, Holland America Line and Costa with together more than 100 visits. On no fewer than twelve occasions three and even four cruise ships were berthed in the port at the same time. The highlight of the season, from a numbers point of view, was the opening Saturday of the Kieler Woche sailing regatta on June 18th when a record five ocean-going and two river cruise ships were berthed in the port at the same time in addition to the regular big ferries.
Other highlights of the 2016 cruise shipping season in Kiel included the maiden voyage of “Mein Schiff 5” and the first visits by the Holland America Line flagship “Koningsdam” and P&O’s “Arcadia”. The port welcomed back “The World” and also Cunard’s “Queen Elizabeth” – a ship notable for being the 2,500th cruise vessel ever to call at Kiel. Among the shipping companies which have been visiting the port for decades are Hapag-Lloyd and also Costa. The latter marked its 40th Kiel anniversary with a reception on board the cruise ship “Costa Pacifica”.
As of this moment, 131 ship visits to the port have been booked for the coming season and they involve 26 different cruise ships. The new season will begin on April 9th when the “AIDAcara” arrives in Kiel. During 2017 and for the first time the shipping company MSC will base a cruise ship of the MSC-Fantasia Class in the port.