The 2024 cruising season will be kicked off by the MS Borealis, scheduled to arrive at Hernesaari today, 26 April. Ninety-nine vessel calls have been booked in advance in Helsinki this season.
Ship occupancy rates are expected to be good, with 180,000 cruise ship passengers due to visit the city. While touring the Baltic, visitors will have the chance to get to know Finland’s capital and the sights, specific services and events. The factors that draw people to visit this region and the Nordic countries include their cleanliness, sustainable travel, political
stability and cooler climate.
Cruise ship passengers will be met at the quay by the real Santa Claus, welcoming visitors to Finland.
Another new development of the season is the water bus quay built by the Port of Helsinki at Hernesaari, intended for water bus entrepreneurs serving international cruise ship passengers.
This season, nine ships will be visiting Helsinki for the first time.
A total of 13 calls will also involve overnight stays in Helsinki.
The busiest cruising day of the summer looks to be 11 July, when three international cruise ships will be docked in Helsinki.
This year offers an unusually long cruising season, with the last call scheduled for 20 December.
“The normal cruising season ends in October, but after that, we have a call scheduled from a vessel specialising in winter cruises – the MS Le Commandant Charcot. It offers smaller groups of travellers wintery exoticism and a modern luxury polar cruise by touring northern cruising destinations. The vessel is also well equipped for navigating ice – its ice class is so high that it is practically an icebreaker,” explains Harbour MasterStaffan Teromaa.
“This will not be the first winter cruise in the Baltic, and it is a trend that we welcome. These kinds of cruises mean that vessel calls are more evenly spaced out and not concentrated just in the summer months,” emphasises Teromaa.
