In the early Friday morning, June 21, CMV Astor arrived at Lerwick Harbour (Mainland Shetland, Scotland) from Bremerhaven Germany, P&O UK's Oriana (future Piano Land) from Torshavn Faroes, and Holland America’s Zuiderdam from Reykjavik Iceland, all before 10 am, with Windstar's superyacht Star Breeze arriving at lunchtime from Alesund Norway.
Carrying a total of 4200 passengers onboard the 4 vessels, Star Breeze and Astor berthed at Holmsgarth 5 and Mair’s Pier East respectively, with Zuiderdam and Oriana at anchor. Astor departеd later for Akureyri, with the others heading for Scottish ports.
It was the 2nd time this season that Lerwick has attracted 4 in a day, with a quartet of small cruise ships in port a few weeks ago.
Recently, Shetland was named in travel authority Lonely Planet’s latest top 10 of European must-see destinations for 2019, the only United Kingdom location included.
The scheduled 11 maiden cruise port calls at Lerwick in 2019 include MSC Preziosa - the biggest of the year at 139,072 GT and capacity 3500+ passengers (booked for July 25) and Queen Victoria - the first Cunard liner to visit Lerwick (July 31). A record-breaking 106 cruise vessels are scheduled to visit this season.