Today Fred Olsen Cruise Lines’ Balmoral called Oslo on a Christmas cruise with P&O Cruises’ Oriana docking the week before (see photo). 

Margrethe Austad, marketing manager cruise Port of Oslo, commented that the latter found the cruise easy to sell. While snow cannot be guaranteed, last year the port together with Oslo Cruise Network arranged for Santa Claus to be at the pier along with musicians.

This year there were 166 calls in total, 10 having been rerouted elsewhere due to the pilots’ strike earlier in the year. 

In 2012 calls to Aalborg numbered seven and passengers 6,451, the best year yet. The season opened on May 30 with a call from Holland America Line’s Prinsendam and closed on September 6 with a maiden call from Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ Ocean Countess.

Feedback from passengers on Ocean Countess was very positive according to Lars Bech, project manager cruises Visit Aalborg. A particular speciality of Aalborg is serving free hotdogs from a Danish hotdog stand at the pier.

Milford Haven is expecting nine calls next year with many cruise lines calling for the first time: Windstar Cruises (Wind Surf), Princess Cruises (Ocean Princess), Regent Seven Seas Cruises (Seven Seas Voyager), Saga and Holland America Line. 

This year the Welsh port was due to receive eight calls but severe weather conditions caused two to be cancelled.

The growth suits the port as Sue Blanchard-Williams, cruise and event coordinator Milford Haven Port Authority, said: “Until our infrastructure improves we can only slowly grow the business”.

Holland America Line’s Rotterdam is turning around in the city of the same name on September 8 during the world port days. These traditionally take  place on the 7th, 8th and 9th of September around the Maas River. This year the theme is music. 

Seven ships are visiting the River Mersey, UK, for the first time in 2012.

Three of these belong to Saga, Saga Pearl, Saga Sapphire and Quest for Adventure. The remaining four are Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess, AIDA Cruises’ AIDAcara, P&O Cruises’ Adonia and Phoenix Reisen’s Albatros. 

Holland America Line’s Prinsendam berthed alongside Scrabster for the first time this year and to date is the largest vessel to do so.

This year there were nine transit calls bringing 3,846 passengers to the port which is four hours’ steaming time from Kirkwall in Scotland. Next year there will be 13 calls and 4,099 passengers.

For five years now Hebridean Princess has been doing two or three turnarounds in Scrabster following being diverted from Invergordon due to bad weather. A summer easterly gale prevented the ship making the passage from Orkney to Invergordon.

In 1991 the Port of Cork welcomed 10 cruiseships carrying 9,552 passengers and crew to Cobh and by 2011 this has increased to 54 calls carrying 100,902 passengers and crew. One vessel to visit this year was The World (pictured).

This significant growth shows that the Port of Cork’s investment in a dedicated cruise terminal in Cobh has paid dividends. Cork is the only port in Ireland that can berth the larger ships alongside in a deepwater sheltered environment.

Holland America Line’s Ryndam and Kristina Cruises’ Kristina Katarina called Skagen for the first time this summer.

On August 12, Holland America Line’s 55,575gt Maasdam came alongside Falmouth, UK. She is the largest ship to have called the port so far.

On July 19 Cork accommodated three ships in one day for the first time in its history, carrying about 7,000 passengers and crew.