The “MSC Fantasia” arrived at the Ostseekai from St Petersburg in Russia early on Saturday September 2nd for what is the 350th visit by an MSC cruise ship to the port of Kiel.

Marking the anniversary, the ship’s captain, Guiseppe Galano was welcomed to the Schleswig-Holstein state capital by Nicole Claus, who is the Cruise Shipping Director of the PORT OF KIEL. “With 350 visits to the port under its belt, MSC is the cruise shipping company which has been our most frequent caller to date”, Nicole Claus said, adding “the company and the port have been closely linked for many years and we would like to further expand that partnership.” Afterwards Captain Galano and Nicole Claus unveiled a bronze plaque on Kiel’s Cruise Ship Walk of Fame to commemorate the anniversary visit. The Walk of Fame honours shipping companies and events which are of special significance for Kiel as a cruise shipping location. MSC cruise ships have been calling at the port of Kiel regularly for twelve years. “Rhapsody” was the first.The ship called on the 4th of September 2005, before the shipping company elevated Kiel to base port status in 2006. Since then Kiel has been a constituent part of the company’s northern Europe route planning and has to date been visited by nine different MSC cruise ships.

The 138,000 GT “MSC Fantasia”, which is 333 m long, is the biggest ship to have Kiel as its base port this year. The cruise liner has already undertaken 18 cruises from Kiel this season. Three more were to follow up to the season finale on September 16th, when the ship heads for the Mediterranean. The northern Europe cruises, already undertaken and still to be undertaken by “MSC Fantasia”, involve not only the major cities of the Baltic on the route Kiel, Copenhagen, Stockholm,Tallinn/Helsinki, St Petersburg and Kiel, but also the Norwegian fiords on the route Kiel, Copenhagen, Geiranger, Flåm, Stavanger and Kiel. Nicole Claus said: “Because of its geographical location, Kiel is particularly attractive as the starting point for so-called butterfly cruises. The combination of Baltic and Norwegian routes is a very interesting option”, she added. Kiel is at one and the same time a cruise turnaround port and a tourist destination. International cruise ship passengers who board in Copenhagen can enjoy day excursions ashore from the port of Kiel into the surrounding region and to the Hanse city of Lübeck and the north German metropolis of Hamburg. To date 1.3 million passengers have embarked or disembarked from an MSC cruise ship in Kiel. In the coming year, MSC will return to Kiel at the end of April with the “MSC Preziosa”.

PORT OF KIEL