High passenger numbers and 147 port calls at the Baltic Sea spa
On Monday November 4, 2024 the cruise vessel AIDAdiva will tie up at berth P7 in Warnemünde at around 8 a.m., concluding this year’s cruise season.
All told, 532,000 cruise travellers (2023: 410,000) will then have embarked and disembarked here during 147 port calls (2023: 130) by 37 cruise liners (2023: 30) this season. On 113 out of 365 days in the year, cruise vessels of 22 German and international cruise operators were tied up at the port of Warnemünde.
„Despite the changed general conditions for cruise shipping in the Baltic Sea we are able to report gratifying numbers of port calls and passengers for the Warnemünde cruise port that are on the rise again thanks to the efforts of many maritime and tourist companies from Rostock and the federal state”, summarises Dr. Gernot Tesch, managing director of ROSTOCK PORT GmbH.
The biggest ship this season was Norwegian Getaway with a gross register tonnage of 145,655 and a capacity for approx. 4,200 passengers. 95 port calls saw a complete or partial turnarounds of passengers. Rostock shipping company AIDA Cruises for instance sent two of its ships, AIDAdiva and AIDAmar, on 69 cruises around the Baltic or to Norway from their home port of Warnemünde. The shipping company TUI Cruises changed passengers during six port calls of Mein Schiff 7 at Warnemünde.
Among the highlights of this season were the nine first-time port calls of the cruise liners Ocean Albatros on 5 May, Viking Neptune on 31 May, Spirit of Adventure on 6 June, Coral Princess on 12 June, Caribbean Princess on 4 July, Mein Schiff 7 on 15 August, Azamara Onward on 27 August, Sirena on 17 September and Nordstjernen on 28 September 2024.
International visitors explore Rostock and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
This year the Germans once again accounted for the largest number of cruise tourists at 195,000 passengers, followed by 51,000 US citizens, 15,000 British citizens, 7,300 Canadians, 5,500 Australians, 4,600 Italians as well as 36,100 tourists from 136 other nations.
More than 97,000 passengers from around the world went on day trips to explore Warnemünde, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or the German capital Berlin and 435,000 cruise travellers started or ended their cruise in the passenger port at the mouth of river Warnow by embarking or disembarking here.
This year, 23 cruise liners availed themselves of the opportunity to dispose of ship’s waste water directly into the public sewer system in the course of 95 port calls. All told around 35,000 cubic metres of ship’s waste water were thus disposed off in an environmentally friendly manner.
Twelve cruise liners used environmentally friendly shore electricity during 79 port calls in Warnemünde, totalling around 2.7 million kilowatt hours.
„The continued and regular use of the shore electricity installation is an important contribution to improving the air quality in Warnemünde and a major step towards a climate-neutral port,” says Jens A. Scharner, managing director of ROSTOCK PORT GmbH.