Archive ( 17.05.05 )
ANOTHER CRUISE SHIP FOR ABERDEEN HARBOUR
The Polar Pioneer has become the latest to join the schedule of cruise ships to embark and disembark passengers at Aberdeen Harbour over a five-month season.
Due in port on 9 July, Polar Pioneer is a former ice-strengthened research ship, Polyarnyy Pioneer, which for many years operated off northern Russia before being refurbished in St Petersburg in 2000 to provide accommodation for 54 passengers.
With passengers embarking at Aberdeen, she will be on Aurora Expedition's inaugural Scottish wildlife cruise to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, ending at Oban.
The addition of the Polar Pioneer to an already announced schedule brought the number of cruise ship visits booked to 14, one more than the previous record. However, it has since been confirmed that the operator of the Andrea has now withdrawn the ship from UK cruises this year. She had been due to call at Aberdeen three times in July.
Aberdeen Harbour Board Operations Director and Harbour Master, Captain Colin Parker, said: "While call-offs are disappointing, the 11 visits now scheduled equal the second highest annual total since cruise ships were first noted separately in port statistics in 1983 and compare with seven last year."
The Harbour Board are members of the Cruise Europe and Cruise Scotland marketing organisations. The City Council recently announced a five-year programme which will also promote Aberdeen as a port-of-call.
Port facilities are best suited for small- to medium-sized specialist cruise vessels, including those for bird-watchers on coastal voyages and the programme includes a number of these.
The season begins on Friday (20 May) when the Grigoriy Mikheev will embark passengers, while the Polar Star will anchor in the bay and transfer passengers to-and-from the port by tenders.
The full list for 2005 is: Polar Star & Grigoriy Mikheev - 20 May; Island Sky - 30 May; Professor Molchanov - 31 May; Grigoriy Mikheev - 3 June; Explorer - 12 June; Polar Pioneer - 9 July; Clipper Adventurer - 15 July; Arion - 18 July; Bremen - 29 August; and Ocean Majesty - 5 September.
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