1. Final Balance of the 2023-2024 Season

The 2023-2024 Cruise Season ended with a positive balance: 189 arrivals, 327,283 passengers in transit, 146,000 crew members, and 16.908 embarking passengers for a total of 490.146 customers at the terminal, all translating into an economic impact of almost $ 53 million USD.

The first cruise to arrive Oceania Cruises’s Insignia, and the last one was Japan Grace’s Pacific World. It’s a satisfying result, the product of “interinstitutional alliances that have allowed us to push Cartagena’s progress forward”, as pointed out by María Emilia Bonillas, coordinator of the Cartagena de Indias Cruise Terminal.

 

2. June Cruise Report

Only three cruises arrived in June: Silver Shadow (from Silversea Cruises, which stayed overnight), Crystal Serenity (Crystal Cruises) and Pacific World (Japan Grace). These cruises brought with them approximately 3,734 passengers and 1,797 crew members, for a total of 5,531 visitors.

 

3. Re-start of embarking operations

The most notable event of the season was the reestablishment of embarking operations with Royal Caribbean. From December the 17th, 2023 to April the 7th, 2024, Rhapsody of the Seas disembarked 14,028, embarked 16.908, and brought 22.059 passengers in transit. For reference, our last set of embarking operations had been carried out in 2020, and Royal Caribbean hadn’t carried out these procedures in our terminals since 2014.

 

4. Simultaneous arrivals

The other major trend of the season was the occurrence of multiple cruise arrivals at the same time, with a total of 55 such instances. The terminal served two cruises simultaneously 40 times, three cruises 11 times, four twice, and finally, up to five and six once each.

 

5. 2024-205 Season Forecast

The 2024-2025 season will start on September the 2nd 2024 and end on June the 20th 2025. The projected number of arrivals is 171, and the estimated number of visitors is 419,769. The first ship that’s expected to arrive is Majestic Cruise Lines’s Freewinds.

 

6. Touring Port  : the Bare-faced Ibis

Visiting our Cruise Terminal means living the most authentic experience possible with the over 700 rescued specimens of our habitat. Today, we present to you the Bare-faced Ibis (Phimosus infuscatus), which you can find as you stroll around Port Oasis.

This species sports black plumage and a bill that curves downwards. It primarily inhabits wet meadows, savannas and marshes in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil and other Latin-American countries. It’s noticeably less territorial and aggressive than other ibis species, to the point it will even share nesting areas.

 

7. Hand-crafted accessories in Casa Crucero

Our cruise terminal store, “Casa Cruceros”, sells iconic Colombian products. In it, visitors can find typical Colombia hand-crafts. They are made from fique, caña brava, tamo and other vegetable fibers and are articles of great cultural value, emblematic of Colombia’s coastal region and the product of traditions that have spanned thousands of years.

 

8. Cartagena cruise terminal nominated for international award

Cartagena’s Cruise Terminal has been nomitated for the category of Best Cruise Terminal in Latin America in the prestigious World Cruise Awards 2024. This nomination is proof of our high, international service standards, infrastructure and sustainability as a cruise terminal, all of which contribute to Cartagena’s development as a key destination for cruise tourism.

Information taken from:

https://www.eluniversal.com.co/cartagena/2024/07/14/terminal-de-cruceros-de-cartagena-es-nominada-a-premio-internacional/