The “Ventura” made its first stop for a year with May as the most intense month.
The “Ventura”, a Vigo classic, opened the cruise season yesterday, which will run until the end of October, with May as the peak month, according to the Port Authority's forecasts. The “Ventura” arrived from Southampton with mostly British passengers and departed for Lisbon, a common destination for ships calling at the port of Vigo. Its visit to Vigo produced the familiar scenes of buses and thousands of tourists strolling through the city center in the morning, scenes that will be repeated from now on. On Friday, March 25, it will be the turn of the “Braemar”, arriving from Seville bound for Bordeaux.
As this newspaper has already reported, Vigo will receive at least 140,000 passengers by August 31, indicating that the port will see similar figures to 2015. This will maintain its leading position in this traffic along the entire Atlantic-Cantabrian coast, from France to Porto.
May will be the key month for maritime tourism with 16 confirmed calls and some 40,000 passengers, although the star attraction will be the “Harmony of the Seas,” arriving on June 1 on its maiden voyage from Southampton to the Mediterranean. The “Harmony,” at 362 meters long, surpasses the gigantic “Oasis,” which measures 345 meters. It can carry around 6,000 passengers or even more. On June 1, it will share the dock with the 215-meter “Thomson Spirit,” making it the most important day for the cruise industry.
In April, six cruise ships will call, carrying approximately 14,000 passengers. On the 20th, the 349-meter-long “Celebrity Silhouette,” another giant of the sea, will arrive. This will be its first time calling at Vigo.
In May, the 16 scheduled port calls include some very important ships, such as the 347-meter “Ovation of the Seas” on the 6th, similar to the “Oasis” that was a major event last year. On May 1st, there will be another double call with the “MSC Opera” and the “Silves Explorer.” On the 18th, the 311-meter “Navigator of the Seas,” which was once the largest passenger ship, will return. On the 20th, there will be a double call with the “Costa Neo Romantica” and the “Queen Victoria,” two large ships with approximately 5,000 passengers on board.
