Cruise season has begun: cruise lines are predicting a record year

According to the director of the Tourism and Culture Information Center Romena Savickienė, the French liner that entered the port city on Tuesday is special. He is said to have already visited 3 ports.

“The ship is exceptional. It really is a super luxury class ship, with 92 cabins and really quite high prices. As far as I could see, a 7-day cruise costs approximately 6 to 14 thousand euros per person,” she said.

140 tourists arrived on the first boat. Most of them are French. Some openly wonder whether to get off the ship at all when the weather is so bad.

“The weather is very cold, but we will go to the city, to the botanical garden,” said the man.

“I was in Vilnius several years ago, but in Klaipėda – for the first time. You know, I came from France. It’s cold there too. This is not a problem,” shared another tourist.

The first cruise ship called at Klaipėda port only for 6 hours, so the guides had to move quickly. It is true that the weather also interfered with them – some plans had to be adjusted. For example, cycling trips had to be abandoned.

“We take you to nature everywhere. We will take you to Raganau Kalnas in Juodkrantė, to the Palanga Amber Museum, and we will also go to the apiary in the Klaipėda region. We imagined that they would see bees, but I don’t know how it will be now,” said Monika Stirnaitė, director of “Klaipėdos Mėjos”.

Finding French-speaking guides was not easy either.

“It’s crazy hard. The number of French guides in Klaipėda is very limited. We have one guide even from Vilnius who came to us today. You know, it’s becoming difficult to find German ones. The easiest is with English because it is the most popular language. French is very difficult. Italian and Spanish are difficult because they are such rarer languages,” said M. Stirnaitė.

The first ship that arrived in Klaipėda this year is only 130 meters long, but there should be less than half of such small ships this year.

“The next ship that arrives in Klaipėda is the big MSC Poesia.” This is a ship that was introduced last year that holds over 2,500 passengers and there will be many more such ships. Probably the largest ship that will arrive in 2024, out of 53 ships that will visit Klaipėda, will be 296 meters”, said Algis Latakas, General Director of the Port.

It was the first visit of the French liner to the coast of Lithuania. For the first time this year, as many as 10 cruise ships will visit Klaipėda. A total of 53 cruise liners are expected to call, or 12 more than last year.

“About 65-70 thousand tourists should come, because the cruise lines emphasize that the Baltic cruises sell out very well this year. Cruise lines are predicting a record year, so we really hope that all the ships that are registered will arrive really full”, said R. Savickienė.

Cruise ships will visit Klaipėda until October. This year, it is expected to start the construction of a new cruise ship terminal next to Žiemaso port, so 2 new, modern, nearly kilometer-long quays for cruise ships should soon appear in Klaipėda.

Even more cruise ships have already expressed their desire to bring tourists to Klaipėda next year – as many as 63.

You can find the entire report on the LNK portal: