On August 28, Alexandria Port (Egypt) received the World Navigator ship coming from Port Heraklion (Crete Greece), with a total of 178 passengers and crew onboard.
The Port announced that the efforts made by the Alexandria Port Authority had been successful in overcoming the COVID crisis’ effects and resuming the cruise ship calls for the first time since March last year, in order to join a limited number of ports that were witnessing the return of cruise ships.
Thereafter, on August 30, Alexandria received the ship Blue Sapphire (fka Saga Sapphire), coming from Port Antalya (Turkey) with 455 passengers and 197 crew. This was the first call of a total of 13 scheduled to come to Alexandria. The tourists visited sites both in Alexandria and Cairo as part of a 1-day shore excursion program before moving to Port Said to complete the route of the ship.
Port Alexandria implemented precautionary measures equal to its counterpart from the European ports to face the crisis, following the membership of the Port in the Post-COVID Committee of Experts formed by the MedCruise Association.
Within the coming of the autumn cruise season, it is expected the frequency of cruise ship calls and tourists’ numbers to rise. Alexandria Port Authority is following the guidelines in the Port Management plans for the COVID crisis, according to Emsa (European Maritime Security Agency), which MedCruise recommends as the major reference for cruise port resuming plans.
The calls are the beginning of a chain of scheduled visits that are expected to arrive in the ports of Egypt, especially Alexandria, for different itineraries, to be announced in the coming period.