182 ships called at the Warnemünde cruise terminal and 24 at the overseas port
The cruise liner Balmoral was expected to tie up at berth P7 at 8am on 24 October to mark the conclusion of the main season of passenger shipping in the Baltic Sea spa of Rostock. Due to strong winds the ship does not head for Rostock so that this port call was cancelled. Three more port calls are expected in December this year: the cruise liner Albatros of Phönix Reisen has been notified for December 2, 9 and 16. In all, 923,000 cruise travellers will then have embarked and disembarked during the 206 port calls by holiday ships this year. "ROSTOCK PORT is proud of the demand and the trust shown by cruise operators and guests. Warnemünde is and remains the most popular German port for international guests and also an important starting point as well as destination for German-speaking cruise tourists”, says Jens A. Scharner, Managing Director of ROSTOCK PORT GmbH.
Of the 206 port calls by 45 cruise vessels in 2018, 182 were or are yet to be serviced in Warnemünde and 24 at the overseas port. The largest vessel this season was the Norwegian Breakaway with a gross register tonnage of 145.655 and a capacity of approx. 4,800 passengers. 110 port calls by cruise vessels involved a full or partial turnaround of passengers. Rostock-based shipping company AIDA Cruises, for instance, again sent two ships on cruises around the Baltic Sea from the base port Warnemünde 43 times: AIDAdiva and AIDAmar. On 2 June there was a surprise visit by AIDAbella. This year, 26 international shipping companies included the Baltic Sea port on river Warnow in their route planning.
Among the highlights of this season were eight cruise liners calling in Warnemünde for the first time: Brilliance of the Seas of Royal Carribean Cruises, Britannia of P&O Cruises, Marella Discovery of Marella Cruises, MSC Orchestra of MSC, Norwegian Breakaway of NCL, Sapphire Princess of Princess Cruises, Viking Sun of Viking Cruises and Zenith of Pullmantur Cruises.
Another highlight was the Rostock Cruise Festival held for the first time. Between September 14 and 16, six cruise liners called at the port. As partner of the festival, ROSTOCK PORT aided by the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock organized a well attended conference on the subject „New environmental technologies to reduce pollution in shipping“. The grand parade of the ships leaving port accompanied by great fireworks on 15 September drew thousands of visitors to the Baltic Sea spa Warnemünde. The Cruise Festival is to be held every other year, taking turns with the Hamburg Cruise Days.
International visitors discover the city and the region
This year the majority of cruise travellers were again Germans at 125,500 passengers, followed by 99,000 US citizens, 47,000 British, 31,000 Spaniards, 23,000 Italians, 22,000 Canadians, 14,000 Australians and 100,000 tourists from 144 other nations.
Around 100,000 international guests went on a day trip to Berlin by train, coach or car. About 167,000 passengers from around the world set out to discover Warnemünde, Rostock or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on day trips and 194,500 cruise passengers started or ended their cruise in the passenger port at the mouth of river Warnow.
26 cruise liners availed themselves of the opportunity to discharge ships’ waste water directly into the public sewer system during 112 port calls this year. In total 25,000 cubic meters of ships’ waste water were disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.