The port of Kiel starts the Cruise Season 2020
The port of Kiel starts the Cruise Season 2020 on 3rd August. The first ocean-going vessel is the “Mein Schiff 2” of TUI Cruises boarding passengers at the Ostseekai Terminal, the company said in its release. The ship will embark on a short cruise from Kiel to Oslo (technical stop) of which all 4 days are spent at sea.
During the past couple of weeks, handling concepts and hygienic measures have been developed in order to enable safe processes. For the Ostseekai it means that both the terminal buildings - Ostseekai 27 and 28 – are used for handling one ship at a time together. Baggage drop-off, health questionnaire, check-in, security check and boarding are physically separated. In doing so, every stage offers sufficient space to keep the minimum distance of 1.50 m at all times. The new terminal building Ostseekai 28 was completed in spring and now goes into operation.
Up to 1,000 passengers will check-in for the first sea cruise of the year before the vessel “Mein Schiff 1” will head for Norway at about 9.30 p.m. After this short journey, the ship will embark on four panoramic cruises of seven days to the Norwegian fjords which will start from the Ost-seekai Terminal on every Friday in August. In the second half of August, AIDA Cruises will also base one ship in Kiel. For the time being, the shipping company offers short cruises of 3 and 4 days with the vessel “AIDAblu”, starting from Kiel on Sundays and Thursdays. Originally, 198 cruise ship visits to Kiel had been registered for the Season 2020 and more than 900,000 passengers had been expected. The new handling concept now provides for one large cruise ship berthing at the Ostseekai Terminal at a time. The passenger turnaround processes involve both terminal buildings in order to keep the minimum distance provisions.
