The fourth edition of the Cruise Trade Show on 21 May 2022 in Le Havre marked the beginning of the 2022 season! Hard hit since the beginning of the pandemic, sea and river cruise operators are now picking up their activities again with a new season that is looking strong. This year the Seine Axis ports will be welcoming some 200 cruise ships, 130 calling at Havre, 51 at Honfleur and 14 at Rouen.
Optimism is the watchword for operators offering sea and river liveaboard cruises. This year, 242 sea cruise ships are in service out of a total global fleet of nearly 320. This is the highest level of activity recorded since the beginning of the global pandemic and its total shutdown of cruises in the spring of 2020. The new season also promises to be very dynamic for the Seine Axis ports.
In 2022, 130 cruise calls are scheduled for Le Havre. Three new sea cruise lines (Virgin Voyages, Ambassador Cruise Line and Mystic Cruises) are planning to call for the first time in Le Havre and fifteen cruise ships will be making inaugural calls at the port. Out of the 130 scheduled calls, 24 designate Porte Océane as “starting/terminal port”, one example being the prestigious Queen Mary II that will be setting sail in September for an ocean crossing to New York.
A new terminal on Le Havre’s Florida Point
The plan for a new cruise terminal due to be built on Florida Point in Le Havre testifies to regional actors’ determination to develop this port activity. The driver for the future infrastructure is a public interest grouping (GIP) notable members of which are the “Le Havre Seine Métropole” city and district federation and HAROPA PORT. The project has been sized to process some 600,000 passengers by 2030, compared with 400,000 currently. It represents investment of just under €90m in public works to be carried out over the next few years. The three quayside berths on Florida Pointwill be equipped with electricity connection points at the rate of one installation each year, starting in 2023. HAROPA PORT is devoting €20m to making these “zero fumes” calls possible.
51 cruise ships accommodated at Quay no. 3 in Honfleur
The first cruise ship of the season in Honfleur arrived at the port on Thursday, 14 April. The Hanseatic Spirit, operated by Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd line, made its inaugural call at the port. The traditional inaugural tompion was awarded on board. The Hanseatic Spirit entered service in August 2021. She is the most recent addition to the Hapag Llyod Cruises fleet. This expedition cruise ship can accommodate 230 passengers and 175 crew for luxury cruises. She is 138m long with a beam of 22m.
Seven other inaugural calls are expected at Honfleur: Le Dumont d’Urville, Silver Moon, Le Bellot, Sea Cloud Spirit, Ambience, World Navigator and Bolette. Worthy of especial note is the arrival on Saturday of the Bellot, the fifth vessel in the “Explorers” class operated by Ponant, a French company. The Boréal and the Dumont d’Urville, also operated by Ponant, will also be stopping over in Normandy. The Europa 2, a Hapag-Lloyd premium cruise ship, also called at Honfleur on 26 April last. The season’s largest ship will be the Ambience, 245m long with capacity for 1,400 passengers. This ship, operated by Ambassador Cruise Line, will be making three calls at Honfleur.
Four inaugural calls at Rouen
Also on Thursday 14 April, the Rouen Cruise Terminal welcomed the Ocean Nova, its first cruise ship of the season. Built in 1992, this former coastal express from Greenland was designed to cope with icebergs and pack ice. In 2006, she was converted for sea cruises. Her capacity was deliberately limited to 76 passengers. This small Ice Class B1 polar vessel has a 38-strong crew, is 72m long and has a beam of 11m. Three other inaugural calls are scheduled for Rouen: Silver Moon, Volendam and Azamara Pursuit.
Rouen’s Cruise Terminal is currently the site of a major, multiphase programme of works. The first stage involves the rerouting of water and electricity utilities. This will be followed, at the end of 2022, by extensive quay consolidation work to be completed in 2023. This will prepare the way for the installation of connection points for supplying electrical power to cruise ships at berth. The electrification work is expected to be completed in 2025.
Viking River Cruises begins operating four new Seine cruise vessels
The river cruise sector is also seeing a dynamic upturn on the Seine Axis. In Le Havre, booked port calls have virtually doubled, rising from 110 stopovers in 2019 to 219 this year. This represents around 7,500 passengers a year, with a customer base consisting essentially of German, British and American tourists.
The American line Viking Cruises has recently added four new river cruise vessels to its fleet, these having been specifically designed for Seine navigation. They are Viking Fjorgyn, Viking Kari, Viking Radgrid and Viking Skaga. Based in Grenelle port near the Paris regional management offices, the formal ship naming ceremony was conducted on 7 April in the presence of the vessels’ godmothers: Ghislaine Wood, Kari Garmann, Janie Deutscher and Muriel Wilson.
In Rouen, work has begun on the modernisation of the piers of Babin dock in the Saint Gervais basin to the north of the Cruise Terminal. This area of the port currently has two berths mainly used for wintering river cruise ships.
The main objectives of the work now under way is most notably to improve the piers and berthing/mooring conditions for increased capacity (from a maximum of 7 ships to 10). The aim is also to allow the piers to be used for barge convoys (carrying freight) outside the wintering periods.The new infrastructure will enable water and electricity to be supplied (a wintering version for river cruise vessels and possibly one supply point for barge convoys). The latter project should begin this summer for completion in 2023.
