Valletta Cruise Port News

Carnival Corporation's luxury cruise brand Seabourn introduced its newest vessel with a naming ceremony for Seabourn Ovation in the harbor of Valletta, Malta.Seabourn Ovation is the fifth ultra-luxury vessel to join the Seabourn fleet over the past decade, and the second of two ships designed for the line by hospitality design icon Adam D. Tihany.Seabourn Ovation was delivered on April 27 during an official handover ceremony at the Fincantieri shipyard in Genoa, Italy. Following the delivery ceremony, Seabourn Ovation began her maiden season with an 11-day inaugural voyage departing May 5 from Venice, Italy, and culminating with its arrival in Barcelona…

Valletta Cruise Port welcomed Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Norwegian Star on Friday, October 14. The ship was greeted by the lively tunes of a Maltese village band courtesy of Valletta Cruise Port plc. In an address onboard the ship, Minister Michael Farrugia welcomed the return of Norwegian Cruise Line to Malta in 2017 with an itinerary of regular calls throughout the season. He thanked all the stakeholders involved in making this return a reality. He particularly thanked Norwegian Cruise Line’s Vice President International Marketing & Operations…

A total of 668,277 passenger movements were recorded on 306 cruise vessels calling Valletta in 2015, equating to an increase of 150,683 passengers, or a 29.1 percent increase on the previous year. The year’s record figures surpassed the port’s previous best of 608,786 passenger movements set in 2012. As per NSO statistics, which exclude embarking passengers, the 2015 landed passengers amounted to 600,156, up sharply from 471,554 in 2014. This also exceeds the previous record of 562,812 from 2012, by about 6 percent.

Global Ports Holding has signed a binding deal to acquire a 30.79 percent stake in Valetta Cruise Port Plc (VCP), which has operational rights of the Malta cruise port and its retail areas. The stakes transfer's completion will depend on the finalization of required legal and administrative approvals as well as future decisions by other partners of VCP about acquiring any more stakes. VCP won the operational rights of the Valetta Cruise Port in Malta, along with its accompanying buildings and lands measuring over 48,000 square meters, in an international tender in 2002 for the next 65 years, according to the statement. The company has also undertaken retail sales through Travel Shopping Ltd, with some 90 percent of stakes owned by it.

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has approved the first application received from Crystal Cruises, which is represented in Malta by Gollcher Group, for its Crystal Serenity which will call to Malta on June 5 and 6, 2015. Crystal’s onboard casinos on Crystal Serenity offer games including Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, 3 Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em and Mini-Baccarat (on request), as well as slot and video poker machines. “Valletta Cruise Port welcomes this first application, following our instigation to introduce this legislation.