Friday, October 30, 2015 - 11:02 by ce-press
Hamburg is expecting 160 calls on 33 cruiseships for the 2016 season, four more than this year. The number of passengers is set to rise from an estimated 525,000 passengers in 2015 to approximately 661,000 next year, making it a record year.
“The strong growth - up by 26% - is attributable to the fact that in 2016 we will have more calls by higher-capacity liners than has been the case to date,” explained Sacha Rougier, managing director Cruise Gate Hamburg. These will include 39 calls from AIDAprima on its weekly itinerary to the European capitals beginning April 30, and MSC Splendida (16 calls) which has been based in Hamburg since May 2015. Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten, Cunard, and Phoenix are also frequent callers.
The 2016 season is scheduled to begin on 8 January with a parallel call by Cunard Line’s Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth and will end on 31 December. Of the total 160 calls, there will be 27 double, six triple, a quadruple and even a quintuple call if the Albatros berthing at Kirchenpauerkai is included. Apart from the new AIDAprima, the City of Hamburg will also be welcoming Oceania Cruises’ Marina and Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess for the first time.
This year the season closes on 31 December when P&O Cruises’ Aurora will be docking at Cruise Center HafenCity. An estimated 525,000 passengers will have visited Hamburg on 156 calls. The highlights of the cruise year 2015 have already included the opening of the third cruise terminal at Steinwerder and the commissioning of the power barge Hummel to supply the vessels with liquefied gas. In addition the largest ship to have called Hamburg, newbuilding Norwegian Escape sailed from Hamburg on its introductory cruise on 23 October.
