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SkySea Cruises, the joint venture of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) and China’s biggest online travel agent Ctrip, will launch its maiden voyage from the new cruise homeport in Qingdao. Alan Lam reports.

The launch will be a major event for both the port of Qingdao and SkySea Cruises. On 29 May the port will debut its new cruise homeport by sending off SkySea’s cruise vessel, Celebrity Century, on her maiden six-day Qingdao-Nagasaki-Fukuoka-Qingdao voyage. RCCL's Celebrity Cruises unt sold the 1995 built vessel to Ctrip last year. It is likely that the ship will be renamed, but this has not happened yet.

Three new cruise berths are currently under construction and upgrading in Qingdao, including one capable of hosting mega ships. A new International Passenger Centre will also be open to facilitate cruise operation.

In October last year, the port of Qingdao shut down its bulk cargo operations in the old port area in an effort to support the construction of new cruise homeport. Qingdao’s main cruise terminal was completed in March 2013; it has an annual passenger capacity of 1.5 million.