Cruise news for The Port of Southampton

The Port of Southhampton can be a busy place when one ship is in town, but when six cruise ships are in town, watch out!

Crown Princess, Grand Princess, P&O Cruises Ventura, Fred. Olsen’s Balmoral, Celebrity Eclipse and Phoenix Reisen’s Artania put the port on high-alert.

During the course of the day the Port of Southampton will accommodate over 65,000 crew and passengers getting off and onboard the cruise ships. And once those passengers are sorted and the baggage and provisions are taken care of, the ships will begin the sail- away dance of the ships.

Summary of navigation events

Cruise ships enter into Southampton begin their journey into the Solent at 15-minute intervals.

Embarking just east of the Isle of Wight, each cruise ship is piloted by a highly experienced ABP Pilot through the Eastern Solent and Southampton Water to the ‘designated berth’.

The Southampton VTS team (based in an air traffic control like structure looking over Southampton Waters), advises each of the six ABP pilots when to head off from the pilot station in Gosport, on one of the two brightly coloured orange launches crewed by a Marine Officer and a Coxswain, and wait within the ‘Nab Tower boarding areas’.

2.5 hour pilot navigation from pilot entry to berth

The pilots embark on each of the cruise ships and join the ship’s Master to steer the cruise ship to its berth, which takes around 2.5 hours.

To keep up with CruiseSouthampton.com, an information website for cruise passengers and crew travelling from Southampton

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