Tag Archives: AIDAmar

AIDA Moves Restart Forward, Cruising from Italy In October

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AIDA Cruises will expand its range of cruises this fall with new voyages visiting the highlights of Italy, starting on Oct. 17, 2020.

Carnival’s German brand is thus moving up its restart from November to October.

The new seven-day itinerary departs from Civitavecchia near Rome and travels to Palermo and Catania in Sicily, Naples and La Spezia. In Rome, an overnight stay is planned. AIDA did not say what ship will be put into service first.

The voyages will be offered weekly until Nov. 28, 2020.

Bookings open Monday, Sept. 21.

AIDA had previously announced its fall and winter program for 2020 and 2021, sending the AIDAmar to the Canary Islands, starting Nov. 1, 2020, followed by the AIDAperla Nov. 7, taking over the program originally intended for the AIDAnova.

The AIDAmar will sail from Las Palmas, while the AIDAperla will use Tenerife in addition to Las Palmas for turnarounds.

AIDA also plans to launch service in the Western Mediterranean with the AIDAstella on Dec. 12, 2020, sailing seven-day cruises from Palma, Mallorca.

 

Aida Cruises aims to start sailing again in November

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AIDAmar | Built by MEYER WERFT

German cruise line Aida has extended the suspension of cruises until November when it plans to restart operations with a Canary Islands itinerary.

The Carnival Corporation brand has cancelled its previously announced cruises for September and October and updated its autumn-winter programme because of Covid-19 restrictions.

It said in a statement on Friday: “Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the conditions are currently not in place in Germany’s neighbouring European countries, especially in the north with Norway and Denmark or the Baltic states.

“For many distant destinations outside of Europe, the Federal Republic of Germany has issued a travel warning or the respective countries have prohibited calls of cruise ships until 2021.”

The first ship to begin sailing, Aidamar, will depart on November 1 for seven-day voyages around the Canary Islands, a destination popular with German cruisers.

Aidaperla will follow on November 7 and will take over itineraries originally planned for Aidanova (pictured).

Aidastella will start cruises in the western Mediterranean on December 12, launching from Majorca.

Aidaprima will offer cruises from Dubai from December 11 and from Abu Dhabi from December 15.

Felix Eichhorn, president of Aida Cruises, said: “Even though it is currently not possible for cruise ships to call at Norway, which is so important for our voyages to the north, we are confident that the first Aida ships from Germany will be able to travel to northern Europe again at the beginning of 2021.”

Aida Cruises is also cancelling autumn-winter cruises to destinations in the Caribbean, southern Africa, Indian Ocean and the Far East.

Copenhagen Set for New Terminal in 2020

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Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth in Copenhagen

Cruise ship calls continue to increase on an annual basis in Copenhagen as the Danish city has gone from 325 calls in 2017 to 346 in 2018, and expects 355 calls and 900,000 guests next year, according to Arnt Moller Pedersen, COO cruise and ferries.

The 2018 season kicked off in late March with the Astoria and will go to the end of October when the AIDAmar calls on Halloween. That is a full month longer than the 2017 season, with 2018 featuring nine new ships.

There are also nine off-season Christmas and New Years call, an all-time high.

Among the highlights, the biggest ship to call was the Norwegian Breakaway, while May 20 saw the port handle six ships, 24,000 cruise passengers and 8,000 crew in a single day, said Pedersen.

“We are building a new cruise terminal in Copenhagen with capacity for 5,000 guests and with a quay length of 370 meters and a water depth of 12 meters,” he said, noting it will be ready by April 2020. “The terminal building will have two floors, totalling 10,000 square meters and two gangway bridges.”

Overall more than 1.1 million cruise passengers are expected to visit Danish ports this year, with an economic impact of 200 million euro, according to a statement.

In addition to Copenhagen’s strong numbers, Aarhus will welcome 100,000 passengers for the first time; and business is also expected to double for the port of Skagen.

And in Visby, a new cruise quay opened earlier this year and was inaugurated by a call from the AIDAdiva in April.