Pullmantur, the Spanish unit in Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RRCL) group, will operate seven turnaround calls at the German port of Rostock this year, the port said in a statement.
“Due to the excellent traffic connections of Rostock overseas port with a direct motorway link to the airport of Rostock-Laage it has been possible to win over the Spanish cruise shipping company Pullmantur Cruises for port calls with changes of passengers in Rostock,” the port said.
Monarch will call at berth 31/32 in port basin B of Rostock overseas port seven times in the course of this season in order to allow around 2,400 passengers to disembark in the morning and take new passengers on board in the afternoon“, explains Jens A. Scharner, managing director of Hafen-Entwicklungsgesellschaft Rostock mbH.
From 18 June to 10 September Pullmantur Cruises, which mainly carries Spanish passengers, will use the airport of Rostock-Laage as a hub for its charter flights on every other Saturday. On the days with changes of passengers a bus shuttle will be put in place for the cruise tourists between the airport and the overseas port.
The company has its headquarters in Madrid, has been a regular customer of the Warnemünde cruise port for years. To date the cruise liner Empress has been a guest at the mouth of river Warnow 46 times. This season the Empress (211 m, passenger capacity 2000) will be replaced by the larger cruise liner Monarch (269 m long, capacity of 2,700 passengers). The usual transit port calls in Warnemünde, offering a wide range of shore excursions, will turn into port calls with changes of passengers at Rostock overseas port, this year's base port of Pullmantur Cruises in the southern Baltic.
