Friday, April 29, 2016 - 14:03 by vigo
May will be the best month of the Port of Vigo 2016 cruise season: more than 45.000 visitors, 32.000 passengers and 16 calls, including 3 inaugural, 4 doubles and the return of embarking/disembarking calls to Vigo. After a successful 2015 that has meant the return of the Port of Vigo to the figures over 200,000 passengers, reaching at the end of the season more than 204.000 passengers, 2016 early season highlights included Celebrity Silhouette inaugural call as well as other important visitors as Emerald Princess, P&O Ventura, MSC Splendida and Musica or Costa Luminosa, among others; but it is with the arrival of May that cruise traffic at Vigo will reach is peak this year.
On the one hand, May landmarks have to do with inaugural calls of highly anticipated cruise ships like RCCL Ovation of the Seas and HAL Koningsdam. Ovation of the Seas will call Vigo in a double inaugural call with Grand Circle Travel Corinthian. After 10 calls of sibling Anthem of the Seas in 2015, Vigo will be the second call of the new third member of RCCL Quantum Class on her inaugural 52-night Global Odyssey cruise from the Port of Southampton to Tianjin, her 2016 Summer Home Port in China. Barely a week afterwards, Holland America Line MS Koningsdam, the largest ship ever built by HAL, will call at the Port of Vigo on her way to Rotterdam for her gala christening. As usual, the Port Authority will develop a special welcome program for the three inaugural calls, including institutional plaque exchange ceremonies and cultural and festive activities.
On the other hand, the first of May, in a double call with Silversea Silver Explorer, MSC Opera will recover Vigo as a turnaround port in a cruise to the North of Europe recalling 2013 and 2014 seasons. This is very important news for the port of Vigo, because it confirms its suitability and possibilities to become a regular interporting port of call, after past experiences by MSC and Iberocruceros and with future projects like Pullmantur’s, that will begin also this year with its flagship Monarch, that will embark more than 800 passengers in Vigo in June.