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 ship will embark on a short cruise from Kiel to Oslo (technical stop) of which all 4 days are spent at sea.
Dr Dirk Claus, Managing Director at the PORT OF KIEL: “We are happy to get going. The shipping company, the port and the authorities have worked in close cooper-ation toward this new start.” 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.
Dirk Claus: “The second terminal building is a big advantage in the current situation. In Kiel we offer lots of space.”
The new terminal building Ostseekai 28 was completed in spring and now goes into operation.
In addition to spatial equalisation in the terminals there is a temporal component and the separation of embarking and disembarking guests. Passengers receive time slots in advance for their check-in. Inside the terminal building, cleaning and disinfection routines have been intensified, disinfectant dispensers have been set up and the seating has been adapted. Handrails, lift buttons and other contact surfaces are disinfected every 30 minutes. What’s also new is that wearing a mouth-nose-protection while inside the building is mandatory. Signposts and loudspeaker announcements inform about the current regulations. On the part of the port, the Port Operations Team has been enforced by additional staff and all employees have received special training. Furthermore, a medical consultation area has been set up which can also be used as quarantine area.
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.
Additional information about the Port of Kiel at CruiseMapper