Hamburg to Roll out Third Cruise Ship Terminal
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Monday, June 8, 2015
To meet the cruise industry’s growing demand, Hamburg will open its third cruise terminal in Steinwerder, a former island separated by the Elbe River from downtown Hamburg, according to the port authority.
Hamburg is Germany’s leading port for luxury cruise ships. The expectation is the fact that ever bigger floating hotels are going to be making the Elbe River at the avenue for call.
The Hamburg Cruise Center Steinwerder is designed to handle up to 8,000 passengers at once. To ensure smooth passenger and baggage flow, the terminal will feature separate entry and exit areas, allowing for simultaneous boarding and disembarking of passengers.
Other cruise terminals are in operation at HafenCity Hamburg and Altona. With 590,000 passenger arrivals in 2014, Hamburg is now Germany's number one cruise port.
This year the terminals in Hamburg are expected to have 160 cruise ships dock and some 525,000 passengers processed in arrivals and departures. For the first time in 2015, Norwegian Cruise Line will send the new Norwegian Escape to Hamburg, where it will receive its final touches from Meyer werft.
In northern Europe Hamburg is ranked third after the ports of Southampton in Great Britain and Copenhagen in Denmark. Environmentalists though criticize the high air pollution caused by cruise liners when they are in ports.