The Olympic and Paralympic Games, the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings by the Allies on the beaches of Normandy, not forgetting the Normandy Impressionist festival, will be highlights marking the tourist season along the Seine Axis. Alongside these events, the 2024 sea cruise season is already looking particularly busy. HAROPA PORT and its partners – GIP Le Havre Croisières, Honfleur Tourist Office and Rouen Tourist Office – are pulling out all the stops to process a record number of port calls. The port complex has commenced work to modernise and provide electrical power to all its cruise terminals. By 2026, zero-fumes calls will be a reality for the cruise ships welcomed by HAROPA PORT.
The 2024 HAROPA PORT sea cruise season began with an initial call at Le Havre by MSC Euribia on 4 January. This 331m-long, LNG-driven cruise vessel can accommodate 6,327 passengers. Since the beginning of January, the MSC Euribia has made ten more calls at Florida Point. It is worth noting that it will be setting out from Le Havre on Thursday 11 April on a tour that will take in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France (Brest and La Rochelle) and Spain. Its return, when it will also call at Le Havre, has been set for 22 April.
The Queen Mary 2 returns to Le Havre
In total, Le Havre’s cruise terminal will be welcoming 46 different cruise ships making 162 calls at the port, of which 29 are double calls and one triple. The majestic Queen Mary 2, the season’s biggest ship, is expected to arrive at Porte Océane on 1 June, and again on 18 October. Four inaugural calls have been announced for the Viking Saturn (12 April), the Coral Princess (26 June), the Mein Schiff 7 (5 October) and the Norwegian Encore (16 November). Le Havre is the port of embarkation for 53 cruises, 28 of which are operated by MSC Cruises. Compagnie Française de Croisières is proposing 18 voyages and Norwegian Cruise Line 3. The Princess Cruises, Cunard and Rivages du Monde (Quark) lines will be offering voyages for which Le Havre is the passengers’ port of embarkation.
With 31 port calls, MSC Croisières accounts for the largest number of cruises, followed by Aida Cruises (22), Norwegian Cruise Line (21) and Compagnie Française de Croisières and Princess Cruises (19). It is worth noting that Compagnie Française de Croisières – formed in September 2022 – is offering around fifteen trips to the British Isles and Northern Europe, all of which have their points of departure and arrival in Le Havre. Its cruise ship Renaissance, which entered service in June 2023, has nine decks and 629 cabins, giving it a capacity of around 1,100 passengers.
During the work to develop the future cruise centre on Florida Point, two cruise ships can be accommodated at the same time at Pierre-Callet and Joannes-Couvert docks. The port area dedicated to cruise activity has been modified along with traffic organisation for access to the site. Joannes-Couvert dock will shortly be equipped with a temporary infrastructure for X-ray inspection of hand baggage.
Nine inaugural calls at the port of Honfleur
Honfleur’s calendar shows 48 cruise calls, of which nine are inaugural (Viking Sky, 3 May, Viking Neptune, 6 May, World Navigator, 14 May, Viking Mars, 20 May, SH Vega, 23 May, Seven Seas Mariner, 6 July, Seven Seas Splendor, 10 August, Azamara Onward, 7 September, and Hanseatic Spirit, 13 October). Ceremonies for the award of “tampion” plaques (tapes de bouches *) will be held during their stay. May will be a very busy month on Seine docks 1 and 3, with twelve ships expected, amounting to a quarter of the total number for the year.
The Calvados town will also be happy to see the return of the Asuka II on 16 May. This Japanese cruise ship has not called at Honfleur since the 2011 season. It is a high-end vessel operated by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Line; it celebrated its 20 years of round-the-world voyages in May 2015 in Rouen.
The Seabourn Venture opens the season in Rouen
Rouen’s cruise terminal will be welcoming 12 cruise ships this year. The first to berth on the right bank will be the Seabourn Venture, expected to arrive today, Tuesday 9 April, for a two-day stopover. This high-end liner was designed for expeditionary, exploratory voyages. Operated by the American Seabourn Cruise Line, it was built in 2021 by CIMAR shipyard in San Giorgio di Nogaro near Venice in Italy. The Seabourn Venture is 172.32m long, has 132 suites and can accommodate 264 passengers. A ceremony will be held on board on Thursday 11 April for a tampion award to its master, Captain Sasha Skladnoi.
Seven inaugural cruise calls are expected in Rouen. In addition to the Seabourn Venture, Rouen’s completely overhauled and enlarged cruise terminal will be welcoming for the very first time the Silver Dawn (11 May), the Star Pride (27 May), the Azamara Onward (4 September), the Crystal Symphony (22 September), the Hanseatic Nature (28 September) and the Sirena (14 October).
Rouen’s cruise terminal reception building will be getting a comprehensive external and internal facelift. New exterior cladding and two canopies are to be installed on the building before the summer. This modernisation work will also include the outdoor public lighting and new perimeter fencing.
Shipping agencies Humann & Taconet, Sea Invest Shipping Agencies and Worms will be handling all port calls in 2024 across the three HAROPA PORT sites.
Quayside electrification is developing along the Seine Axis
HAROPA PORT is currently conducting major construction works on all of its docks dedicated to sea cruise activity. In Le Havre, redevelopment of Florida Point has just begun. Construction is ongoing for three new, larger and more comfortable terminals with a floor area of 15,000 sq. m. Project cost is €59m, with funding from GIP Le Havre Croisières, including €15m from Le Havre Seine Métropole urban district authority and €15m from the Normandy regional authority. The work will also cover quayside electrification at a cost of €32m. The electrical power provided will be 10MW per dock, which will enable 100 tonnes of CO2 and 2 tonnes of other emitted pollutants to be avoided during the time spent in port.
In Honfleur and Rouen, site modification works have been completed and some phases of the modernisation programme are currently ongoing. Studies and construction work are being undertaken on the electrical substations and connection systems for power supply to the ships. The two modernised docks complete with quayside power are planned to enter service by the end of 2026.