Newsletter March 2007
01.03.2007
Columbus Cruise Center Bremerhaven looks forward to a new shipping company as a customer in 2008
The Columbus Cruise Center Bremerhaven (CCCB) will welcome the Italian-based shipping company MSC Cruises as a new customer in 2008. Mr. Veit Hürdler, the managing director of the CCCB, is very pleased with this decision. He assesses the latter as a remarkable achievement for the cruise industry’s progression in the entire region Bremerhaven and Bremen, not only for the location CCCB. With this request the CCCB´s continuous acquisition efforts are rewarded.
In 2008 the “MSC Armonia” will call Bremerhaven 12 times. The new building is 251m long and 700 crew will take care of a maximum of 2.163 passengers. Bremerhaven will be the homeport for 10- respectively 11-days itineraries to Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea. At the same time MSC Cruises will introduce an innovative passenger concept - that has been tried in the Baltic Sea already - to the North Sea: the CCCB will function as both a change and stop-over port. The passengers from the German Source Market will start and end their cruise in Bremerhaven whereby – and this is brand-new - the other international clientele, mainly originating from the Netherlands and Great Britain, is invited to participate in shore excursions.
The amount of stop-over passengers extracted of these calls will surely further increase the importance of Bremerhaven´s touristic infrastructure.
“Our modern and highly-productive terminal allows us to perform all tasks reliably and in a comfortable manner for all passengers”, Veit Hürdler comments.
The CCCB has been especially designed for high-volume change-over calls. The latest experiences in operations have proven that even the handling of 4 ships on one day with more than 5000 passengers per day plus additional hundreds of day-visitors is feasible.
Falk-Hartwig Rost, Managing Director of MSC Cruises in Germany, is looking forward to the cooperation with CCCB and to the Bremerhaven calls: “Germany is a major market for MSC Cruises. In Germany we record the highest increase at the moment as our ships and their itineraries are very well accepted especially by German guests. We therefore consider a German North Sea port to be of very high importance to us – having made very good experience with Kiel in the Baltic Sea already. And we are convinced to have made a good choice by calling Bremerhaven and gaining CCCB as a high-performance partner.”
Walkway Extension
Just in time for the beginning of the coming season on May 5, 2007 the walkway will be extended in a southward direction. The extension of 47m allows the CCCB to handle 3 big cruise vessels at the same time and to link those directly with the terminal building. With this new construction, possible shortages, which could arise from a constricted usage of the passenger bridges, can be avoided in the future.
Outlook Season 2007
The new season will be inaugurated by 2 vessels chartered by Phönix Reisen Bonn, the TS “Albatros” and the TS “Maxim Gorki”. They will berth at the Columbus Quay in an interval of just 30 minutes.
The Columbus Cruise Center anticipates 71 cruise vessels with a total of approx. 76.000 passgengers. On 3 of these departure days 4 cruise vessels and on 5 days 3 ships are handled at the same time. These days time and time again pose a special challenge to the Columbus Cruise Center Bremerhaven – coming back to mind that 400 tons of provisions and 9000 pieces of luggage are handled during these days. 4500 passengers start or end their cruise pass check-in procedures and security checks very smoothly. Up to 50 coaches come and go through the roofed bus terminal, providing the safe transfers for the arriving and departing guests.
Conventions
The “Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention”, the world’s biggest cruise fair, will take place from March 13 to 15, 2007 in Miami. The biggest German ports will present themselves in one joint booth called “Destination Germany” – for the first time. The Columbus Cruise Center appreciates this development towards more integrity among German cruise ports.
The CCCB will also be represented at the international “Seatrade Europe” in Hamburg from September 25 to 27, 2007.
Why not pay us a visit at our Stand No. 168. We would be pleased to welcome you!
New employee at the CCCB
Mrs. Stefanie Dorau joined the team in December 2006. Mrs. Dorau is born in Bochum in Northrhein-Westfalia. She finished her Bachelor course of studies “Cruise Industry Management”, which just has been initiated in 2003, successfully.
She adopts the tasks of the PFSO and is as responsible for the ships handling as the other quay supervisor, Mr. Wilfried Probst.
