Port access- From March through to December, the Getxo terminal will welcome cruise ships of lengths ranging from 104 to 340 metres
- Nine cruise ships will stay overnight, three will involve major boarding operations, and two or even three cruise ships will once again coincide on the same day
- The Bilbao Port Authority will promote Getxo/Bilbao/Bizkaia/Basque Country as a cruise destination at Seatrade Cruise Global, the sector’s largest and leading international trade fair, to be held in April in Miami
- In line with its commitment to sustainability, the Port Authority will begin the second phase of the electrification of the docks this year, which will include the cruise ship docks
The Port of Bilbao has started a new cruise season, with over 90 calls expected at the Getxo terminal, exceeding last year’s record figure of 81 cruise vessels. Likewise, over 150,000 passengers are expected on board the cruise ships, compared to the 137,477 cruise passengers in 2024.
If these forecasts are met, the results will once again provide an endorsement of the investment made and the work undertaken all these years by the Bilbao Port Authority, with the support of public organisations, tourist offices and tour operators, to make the Basque Country an attractive destination for shipping companies and cruise passengers alike. Such figures would not only strengthen the commitment to build exclusive infrastructure for this type of traffic in Getxo, away from the goods docks, but also act as recognition for the excellent work done by the numerous professionals who help provide this service (pilots, tugboats, moorers, shipping agents, port operations and commercial team, port police, security forces, etc.).
Cruise ships of between 104 and 340 metres in length
The Port of Bilbao can accommodate cruise ships of all sizes. In the course of the year, vessels will arrive with lengths ranging from 104 to 340 metres.
The season started 17 March, with the arrival of the Ambition, a 216-metre long Ambasador Cruise Line ship which docked at 08.45 from Lisbon and departed at 18.00 for Le Verdon, with 983 passengers and 499 crew members on board. If forecasts are met, the season will continue through to the end of December, with the Ambience, of the Ambassador cruise line, bringing the season to an end. May, with 19 cruise ships calling at Getxo, and August, with 15, will be the busiest months. Two cruise ships will coincide on the same day on ten occasions, and three such vessels will coincide on two days.
Eight cruise ships will call at the Port of Bilbao for the first time, nine will stay overnight, and three will involve major boarding/disembarkation operations in April, July and September. These three cruise ships are:
- MSC Poesia, owned and operated by MSC Cruises (April). Seven-day itinerary from Bilbao: Bilbao, Southampton, Le Havre, Rotterdam and Copenhagen.
- Europe 2, operated by Hapag Lloyd Cruises (July). Twelve-day itinerary from Bilbao: Bilbao, Gijón, A Coruña. Porto, Lisbon, Cadiz, Marbella, Ibiza and Barcelona.
- Oceania Vista (September). Eleven-day itinerary from Bilbao: Bilbao, Gijón, A Coruña, Porto, Lisbon, Tangiers, Almería, Cartagena, Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona.
Vessels of Royal Caribbean Group companies will visit the Port of Bilbao the most, on 26 occasions to be precise. Companies such as MSC with the cruise ships MSC Poesía and MSC Virtuosa, Carnival Cruise Line with the Carnival Miracle, and Disney with the cruise ship Disney Fantasy, will also return to Bilbao with several stopovers. Highlights of the season will include the arrival of emblematic cruise ships such as the Queen Anne, of the well-known company Cunard, and the Ritz-Carlton Ilma of the Ritz shipping company, as well as the six cruise ships that will call from the French shipping company Ponant and the Japanese cruise ship Asuka II, of Crystal Cruises.
The shipping companies have agents in Bilbao who will represent them in 2025, namely A. Pérez y Cía, Incargo, MSC, Noatum and Romeu.
Presence at the most important trade fairs in the world
In addition to meetings, contacts, visits and intense commercial activity, the Bilbao Port Authority will continue to participate, as it does year after year, in different trade fairs and events in the sector to promote Bilbao/Bizkaia/Basque Country as a tourist destination. In 2025, the Port Authority will take part in the two major trade fairs of the sector: from 7 to 10 April, at Seatrade Cruise Global (Miami Beach, Florida), which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary as the world’s leading cruise fair; and from 10 to 12 September, at Seatrade Europe (Hamburg).
Electrification of cruise ship docks
The Bilbao Port Authority is committed to economic, social and environmental sustainability. Within this context, the BilbOPS project for the electrification of the docks is of particular interest, with the deployment of OPS – Onshore Power Supply – technology for vessels to connect to the power grid when berthed, thereby reducing fuel consumption and gas emissions and minimising noise and vibration levels.
The OPS project includes the cruise ship docks and will be operational in 2027, with three power connection points to enable two cruise ships to be connected at the same time. The electricity will be supplied by an on-site PV solar plant, amongst other sources.
The electrification of the cruise ship docks forms part of the second phase of the OPS project, the contract for which has been put out to tender for 55.4 million euros and will be awarded shortly. This second phase will be part funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF Funds), whilst the remainder will be financed by the Port Authority itself. In addition, a loan of 80 million euros has been secured with the European Investment Bank (EIB), part of which will be used to finance this project. As previously mentioned, part of the power supply for the OPS project will be from renewable sources, such as PV solar panels.
A commitment that began 30 years ago
In 1997, only one cruise ship called at the Port of Bilbao. In February 2006, the first dock exclusively for this type of traffic was inaugurated in Getxo, separate from the commercial docks. Eight years later, in May 2014, the second dock came into service, and in March 2017, a further step was taken in the Port’s commitment to this sector with the opening of a state-of-the art cruise terminal on a par with the best in Europe. This development marked a quantitative and qualitative leap forward in the service provided in the Basque Country to shipping companies and cruise passengers themselves, and brought about improvements in boarding and disembarkation operations. In short, in the course of these 30 years of development, intense commercial work and improvements to service provision, the Port of Bilbao has gone from welcoming one solitary cruise ship to expecting ninety in 2025.
The total investment made by the Bilbao Port Authority since work began on the construction of the first dock in Getxo amounts to 36.4 million euros in infrastructure for cruise ships.
