The 2018 cruise season starts at Warnemünde cruise port on 8 April with the arrival of the cruise liner Boudicca of the British shipping company Fred Olsen Cruise Lines. All told, 205 port calls by 43 cruise liners are expected next year, more than ever before. 180 times the vessels will berth in Warnemünde and 25 times at the overseas port. Nine vessels will be heading for the mouth of river Warnow for the first time:
Brilliance of the Seas, Britannia, Marella Discovery, MSC Orchestra, Norwegian Breakaway, Sapphire Princess, Seven Seas Navigator, Viking Sun and Zenith. There will be cruise ships calling at the port on river Warnow on 122 days of the year 2018.
Rostock-based shipping company AIDA Cruises will again operate two of its vessels from its Baltic home port of Warnemünde, AIDAdiva and AIDAmar. 43 out of a total of 53 port calls with turnaround of passengers have been notified by AIDA Cruises for 2018. Nine port calls with turnaround of passengers by the vessel Zenith are going to be carried out by the Spanish cruise shipping company Pullmantur at the overseas port and on one occasion the vessel Berlin, operated by FTI, will change its passengers in Warnemünde. Also the Italian shipping companies Costa and MSC Cruises as well as the US-based shipping companies Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess Cruises plan to change some of their passengers here during 57 port calls, with predominantly Italian and German passengers embarking or disembarking.
The sailing list for 2018 includes 39 port calls by very large passenger vessels with a length of more than 300 meters: Britannia and Regal Princess are each 330 meters long, Norwegian Breakaway is 324 meters and Celebrity Silhouette and Celebrity Eclipse are 319 and 317 meters long, respectively. Norwegian Breakaway is the largest vessel of the coming season with a gross register tonnage of 145,655. The Swiss-based shipping company Viking Ocean Cruises has included Warnemünde 24 times in the schedules of its four sister vessels Viking Sea, Viking Sky, Viking Star and Viking Sun.
In the coming year three port calls of the passenger vessel Albatros of Phoenix Reisen have been notified for December (2nd, 9th and 16th December) so that the 2018 cruise shipping season in Warnemünde will end unusually late.
