The Wind Surf cruise ship, operated by Wind Star Cruises, is scheduled to call at the Port of Almería on August 11. It will be the first cruise ship to dock in Almería since February 2020, just days before the pandemic was declared. Due to measures implemented to curb COVID-19, all scheduled cruise routes were canceled from mid-March of last year. The Wind Surf—a regular visitor to the Port of Almería—has a capacity for 300 passengers and 200 crew members. It is scheduled to arrive at the Levante Dock at 8:00 a.m. from Cartagena and depart at 10:00 p.m. for Málaga.
According to shipping companies' forecasts, eleven cruise ships traveling routes through the western Mediterranean have booked stops at the Port of Almería through December. In addition to the Wind Surf (which will visit Almería three times), the MS Hamburg, Golden Horizon, Vasco da Gama, Spirit of Discovery, SS Splendor, and the Marella Explorer 2, which will make three visits, will also call at the port.
For the president of the Port Authority of Almería, Jesús Caicedo, the resumption of cruise ship visits is "very good news, both for the Port, as well as for the city, the province and for all sectors related to tourism, since it represents a return to normality, so necessary for the reactivation of the economy.".
As Jesús Caicedo recalls, last year 19 of the 20 planned stops in Almería were cancelled, and only the Black Watch cruise ship, from the Fred Oldsen Cruises Line, arrived at the Port, visiting the city at the end of February with more than five hundred British tourists.
Both cruise ship stops and shore excursions will be conducted in accordance with the 'Health Measures for the Resumption of International Cruises,' established by the Ministry of Health on June 16. According to these measures, before boarding at the cruise's port of departure, as well as at ports of call and the final port of call, passengers and crew must present a series of documents and complete questionnaires certifying their vaccination status and the absence of COVID-19 symptoms. They will also be required to undergo a series of medical checks, including during the voyage.
Shipping companies, for their part, must, among other measures, have a procedure in place for the prevention and mitigation of health risks arising from COVID-19. This procedure must include insurance that covers all incidents (such as transfers, quarantines, and repatriations, among others) for any passenger or crew member who presents COVID-19 symptoms. They must also have a designated contact person, as well as capacity limits for both passengers and crew, and have designated areas for health checks and potential quarantines.
At the ports of departure, arrival and stopover of the cruises, a coordination committee will be established, coordinated by the Port Authority, which includes the Maritime Captaincy, the Andalusian Health Service, Foreign Health, shipping agents and the companies that participate in all the operations carried out by the cruise in the port and areas to be visited.
In addition, the Port Authority will send the procedure of each shipping company or cruise ship to the Health Service of the Autonomous Community and the port must have spaces and health resources to isolate any passenger or crew member who needs it, while they are referred to the place established by the procedure set by the shipping company.
Only cruise ships in transit dock at the port of Almería; none are beginning or ending their voyages. Therefore, crew and passengers will only need to fill out a questionnaire, and all the information will be collected in a digital application accessible to health authorities. Passengers disembarking to visit the city or take excursions will only do so in controlled groups and provided they do not present any symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
