Singapore

Port Singapore has 2 cruise terminals, in addition to passenger ferry terminals and drydock facilities for marine vessel refurbishments and repairs. The Port is ranked world’s 2nd biggest containership cargo port (following Shanghai). In 2013, here were handled 32,24 million TEUs (containers) - slightly behind Shanghai's 33,62 million.

Singapore City is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia, with total area 719 km2 (278 ml2) and population over 5,7 million. Identified as a tax haven, Singapore is a global finance, commerce and transhipment hub. The country is ranked top city for international meetings (UIA), a city with "best investment potential" (BERI), the most "technology-ready" nation (WEF), the 2nd-most competitive country (after China), the 4th-largest financial center (after NYC, London City, Hong Kong), the 11th-largest foreign exchange market, the 7th-largest oil refining center (ExxonMobil Singapore), and the 2nd-largest container port (after Shanghai).

Singapore Port (locode SGSIN) features an excellent infrastructure, modern cruise facilities, and a strategic location. It is known as the gateway to Southeast Asia and is a major homeport for exotic itineraries to multiple Asian countries with convenient short-break roundtrips. Seaports and islands in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are among the regularly visited destinations.

The Port's largest container terminal (COSCO-PSA / CPT) is operated by a joint venture between COSCO SHIPPING Ports (CSP) and PSA Singapore (part of PSA International Corporation). As of 2019, CPT has 5 mega-boxship berths (all automated), with annual capacity 5 million TEUs. COSCO-PSA was established in 2003. On May 13, 2019, was inaugurated Magenta Singapore Terminal - joint venture of ONE (Ocean Network Express) and PSA Singapore. The new Pasir Panjang Terminal has 4 mega-berths and combined annual capacity 4 million TEUs. The longterm ONE-PSA partnership was officially announced in December 2018.

When completed, the new Tuas Terminal (container port) will add 21 million TEUs capacity to port's current 32,3 million TEUs. This is a 3-party joint venture company (Penta-Ocean Construction, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and Boskalis International). The project was started in 2018 and is to be built in 4 phases on 387 hectares of reclaimed land with 8,6 km wharf (constructed with 227 on-site fabricated caissons). By 2040, all Port Singapore container shipping operations will be consolidated at Tuas Terminal, which will have projected annual max TEU capacity 65 million.

Singapore cruise port

In 2017, the port handled 421 ship calls and around 1,38 million cruise passengers - an increase (over 2016) of 3% and 17% respectively.

On May 3, 2013, Carnival Corporation opened its Singapore office. With Costa Victoria and Costa Atlantica (2680-passenger), Carnival's local subsidiary company "Costa Asia" doubled its regional capacity. In 2013, Costa had a total of 125 Asian cruises with total traffic over 220,000 passengers. Costa Cruises was industry's first company to establish year-round shipping operations in Asia. On the occasion of its inaugural port call (that coincided with Carnival Asia's regional office opening), on the Atlantica ship were hosted formal reception and gala dinner events. Carnival's office houses "Carnival Asia" (managing Corporation's Asian shipping operations and market expansion). The special events on the Atlantica were attended by 300+ VIP guests, among which government officials, local dignitaries and celebrities, travel industry representatives. In May-June 2013, Atlantica sailed on 3-4-day Singapore roundtrips to Thailand and Malaysia.

On August 26, 2015, the RCI ship Legend of the Seas arrived to be once again home-ported in Singapore. The ship previously sailed on year-round roundtrip itineraries out of Port Singapore in the period 2008-2013. (statistics) in 2015, the cruise port handled a total of 385 ship calls and served over 1 million passengers. In 2015, the number of Singapore citizens departing by sea was nearly 1,754 million, which accounted for 19,2% of all outbound travelers. The increase in port calls (2013-2016 period) was over 35%, The cruise port had a combined annual growth 10,6%.

In 2016, after 10 years of absence, P&O Australia homeported a vessel in Singapore. Pacific Eden (now CMV Vasco de Gama) arrived on July 30. and operated a total of 5 roundtrips to ports in Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand. The ship was based at SCC HarbourFront Terminal.

On March 20, 2016, the AIDA Cruises newest ship AIDAprima docked in Singapore (Sembawang Shipyard) during her relocation itinerary from Nagasaki to Hamburg. In June 2016, during the Ovation of the Seas maiden port call, RCI representatives announced the ship will be homeported for its 2017 season in Singapore. Adding the large-sized Ovation to Voyager of the Seas (May 2017) and Mariner of the Seas (October 2017) increases the line’s passenger capacity in Southeast Asia by 30% over 2016. Ovation added around 42,000 passengers to the cruise port's volumes. The ship operated on 3- to 5-night roundtrips to Penang (Malaysia), Phuket and Laem Chabang (Bangkok) Thailand.

In January 2017, Dream Cruises announced that their newest ship Genting Dream (151,300 GT tons) will be homeported in Singapore in 2018. Between early December 2017 and late March 2018, the ship operated on a series of 5-night roundtrips (Sunday departures) combined with 2-night weekend mini-cruises to destinations in Strait of Malacca and Java Sea. Passengers also had the choice to combine Strait of Malacca and Java Sea voyages into a 12-night B2B cruise, with the option of spending the weekend either onboard or in a Singapore hotel. Between April and October 2018, the ship's schedule had destinations in South China Sea and Java Sea.

In July 2017, at Clifford Pier was celebrated the "Royal Caribbean Cruises Asia" company's 10th anniversary. The special ceremony was attended by over 150 VIP guests representing Asian media, government officials, RCCL travel partners. The first RCI ship homeported in Asia was Rhapsody of the Seas (2007). For season 2017-2018, RCI had scheduled its longest ship deployment in Singapore - a total of 72 roundtrip itineraries.

On January 22, 2018, at the cruise port ROyal Caribbean welcomed the company's 1 millionth passenger embarking in Singapore. The 52-yo Singaporean boarded Mariner of the Seas. At the ship's gangway, he was welcomed and cheered by RCI crew and staff. To celebrate the occasion, he was taken to the Viking Crown Lounge, where was greeted by Captain Claus Andersen. He was also presented with prize package worth of over USD 2400.

On March 5, 2018, CLIA and STB signed a 3-year partnership aimed at boosting the industry in Singapore and Southeast Asia. The project included conducting professional travel agent training in priority Asian markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, India) for improving sales skills and overall destination knowledge. The partnership leveraged CLIA's training capabilities and STB's travel agency networks.

In 2019, RCI has company's ever biggest Asian season, with 3 liners (Voyager, Quantum, Spectrum) and total 78 itineraries leaving roundtrip from Singapore. The deployment also served the planned drydocks in Singapore of Voyager OTS and Quantum OTS. Singapore as port destination is among the most attractive to Chinese travellers due to the offered numerous short-breaks (around 80% of all voyages are 3-4-night itineraries) and affordable pre- and post-cruise hotel packages.

In late-September 2017, the company FueLNG (Keppel-Shell joint venture) completed its first commercial LNG bunkering in Port Singapore. The truck-to-ship LNG ("liquefied natural gas") bunker transfer was for the vessel Floating Liquefaction. The LNG bunkering operation was carried out in the period July 22 - September 23 (2017). LNG as ship fuel completely removes SOx and soot particles and reduces NOx (85%) and CP2 emissions (20%). Asia’s first ship-to-containership LNG bunkering (in Port Singapore) was conducted on March 24, 2021. The 2020-built boxship CMA CGM Scandola (IMO 9859129, capacity 15,000 TEU-containers) was fuelled by FueLNG Bellina (Singapore’s first LNG bunkering ship) with a total of 7100 m3 of LNG.

In June 2018, a shore-to-ship drone delivery service was introduced in Port Singapore via partnership between Airbus and Wilhelmsen Ships Service. Deliveries are made to anchored ships and include mainly essential spare parts, documentation, consumables, medical supplies, water testing kits, cash. The system is based on Skyways (Airbus unmanned drones) and a pier-based command center. Delivery range is up to 3 km (2 ml) from the shoreline. A second station is positioned in Marina South, extending delivery coverage to anchored vessels.

In 2019, Princess Cruises homeported here two liners - Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess.

Sembcorp Marine Shipyard Singapore

Singapore has one of the most booked cruise ship repair and refurbishment yards. The facility is owned and operated by Sembcorp Marine. Among shipyard's regular customers are Carnival Corporation (P&O Australia, Carnival, Holland America, Princess), RCCL (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines), Star Clippers, also the Asian brand companies Star Cruises (Genting), Dream Cruises (Genting), Jalesh-Zen Cruises (India).

Drydock projects are handled at Sembcorp Marine's shipyards "Tuas Boulevard" and "Admiralty". Both facilities have large and deepwater drydocks with capacities to serve world's largest passenger liners. In the period 2008-2018, Sembcorp Marine was contracted for 102 cruise ship drydocking projects, averaging 10 vessels per year. In 2018 were completed 10 drydocks, in 2017 - 16, in 2016 - 9.

Provided by Sembcorp Marine services include shiprepairs, refurbishments, retrofitting, life-extension and specialized projects. Other major projects are vessel conversions and upgrades of offshore platforms, gas carriers, cruise ships, ferries, mega-yachts, oil tankers, containerships, cargo carriers. Shiprepair services include afloat and emergency repairs, underwater repairs, hull cleaning, engine maintenance and repairs, electrical-instrumentation-mechanical repairs, pipe and steelworks, tank cleaning, waste disposal, equipment and specialists providers, staging works, towage.

In May 2019, Sembcorp Marine completed the construction of SSCV Sleipnir - world's biggest/strongest semi-submersible crane vessel. It features two revolving cranes (with combined lifting capacity 20,000 tons / 10K tons each), lifting height 175 m (574 ft), reinforced deck area sized 220x102 m (722x335 ft) and 400 berths (personnel). This is also world's first dual-fuel SSCV (semi-submersible crane vessel) which engines are fueled by both MGO (marine gasoil) and LNG (liquefied natural gas). The SSCV was designed for assembly works at offshore platforms (oil-gas-wind turbines) and also vessel decommissioning projects. It was built at Sembcorp's Tuas Boulevard Yard for Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) - 1948-founded company, subsidiary of Heerema International Group Services SA. SSCV Sleipnir's construction involved 3700 workers (single-shift).

Fly-cruises from Singapore

On August 17, 2015, RCI-Royal Caribbean International signed with STB (Singapore Tourism Board, under Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry) and CAG (Changi Airport Group, Singapore airport operations and management) a multi-million dollar marketing campaign to promote cruise vacations on Singapore-homeported ships. The campaign targeted RCI's overseas customers with Singapore fly-cruise deals from USA, Australia and Europe. Campaign's period was 2015-2018, with estimated over 170,000 international passengers flying to Singapore on RCI fly-cruises. The projected Asian market growth was over 50% as the series of marketing campaigns also targeted Asian passengers (flying from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea).

• For the period 2015-2018, RCI also increased its Singapore roundtrips to over 40 per year. To attract more fly-cruise passengers, many itineraries were longer (7- to 15-days). In April 2016, Tiger Airways was included in Marina Bay terminal's fly-cruise program, with flights from Changi Airport. Cruise terminal's other airline partners are Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Qantas, Silk Air, Singapore Airlines.
• On March 6, 2017, Royal Caribbean signed a marketing partnership to increase RCI flight-and-cruise deals to Singapore. The market was estimated at over USD 26 million annually. The partnership was between RCCL, Changi Airport and Singapore Tourism Board. It promoted itineraries out of Singapore on the RCi ships Ovation OTS and Voyager OTS. For the period March-June 2017, the number of flight-cruise tourists to Singapore was around 45,000. On March 6, Ovation OTS docked at Marina Bay Terminal for the very first time.
• In November 2019, RCI signed a 5-year partnership deal (until 2024) with STB and CAG for promoting fly-cruises to Singapore on the homeported here Quantum OTS, with expected ~623,000 international tourists spending ~USD 430+ million on flight+cruise packages. This is ~60% growth in comparison to the previous tripartite partnership (2015-2018) here was homeported Mariner OTS.

In October 2018, Costa Cruises signed a separate tripartite agreement with STB and CAG. The Costa-Singapore deal was for 2019-2022 and targeting over 100,000 international tourists.

Singapore's Changi Airport is connected with direct flights to 320+ cities worldwide. Operating around 6700 flights weekly, the airport is among Asia's major fly-cruise travel hubs. In 2019, Changi Airport launched an intermodal luggage transfer service (from the airport directly to the ship) for fly-cruisers arriving in Singapore and boarding here cruise ships and ferries. This service benefits mainly tourists arriving from China, India and Southeast Asia.

In April 2020 was signed a USD 10 million partnership between EMA (Energy Market Authority) and Keppel O&M (Offshore & Marine) for developing (and completion by 2023) a floating Energy Storage System. The project is based on Keppel’s "Floating Living Lab" (7,5 MW lithium-ion battery power storage) with daily capacity to power 600+ 4-room apartments.

Cruise itineraries to and from Singapore

Follows a list of destinations visited by cruise ships leaving out of Singapore

• World Cruises - around the world voyages starting in Europe or Australia often visit Singapore and also offer world cruise segments with departures from Singapore (to Europe, China, India, Dubai, etc).
• Mini Cruises (to Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia) are generally booked as short-breaks (or shopping vacations). Most mini cruise deals from Singapore (with regularly scheduled departures) are offered by local Asian companies.
• The list of visited Southeast Asia mainland and island destinations includes Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia. Luxury ships may also visit the Philippines.
• On westbound World Cruise segments from Singapore, the itineraries visit ports in India, Sri Lanka, UAE, Oman, Jordan, Egypt (with Suez Canal transition), Mediterranean ports (in Greece, Italy, Spain, France, etc).
• Repositioning cruises - Asia to Australia, Australia to Asia, Asia to Europe are all via Suez Canal.
• Repositioning – cruise itineraries to Australia from Singapore usually end in Fremantle-Perth, Brisbane or Sydney. These are seasonally offered deals on ship relocation routes and often include stops in Indonesia. Most Australia-Asia voyages are on P&O and Princess ships.
• Among the cruise lines operating to and from Singapore are Resorts World Cruises, Costa Asia, Carnival Asia (P&O Australia, Princess), Royal Caribbean Asia, Celebrity, Holland America, NCL-Norwegian, TUI.

"Project Orient Limited" (POL) plans to build two ocean cruise liners for a regular passenger shipping service between Europe/UK and Australia (Southampton - Sydney). The scheduled itinerary will be 26 days in one direction (Southampton to Sydney, and the reverse Sydney to Southampton). The included ports of call are Fremantle (at the 20-day mark), also Dubai, Mumbai (India) and Singapore. Each of the STX France-built ships will be 200,000 GT tons and with capacity 1600 pax. The expected cruise pricing starts from around GBP 2900 per person (one-way).

Cruises to Nowhere from Singapore

In early-October 2020, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) started developing new health and safety protocols to allow cruises to nowhere - itineraries leaving roundtrip from Singapore and with no call ports along the route.

The new proposal came after Singapore Airlines announced in September that they would offer 3-hour "flights to nowhere" (sightseeing roundtrips) from Singapore's Changi Airport. However, Singapore Airlines later canceled the program due to active criticism from local environmental campaigners.

STB hired DNV-GL (Hovic Norway-based risk management company and accredited registrar and classification society) to create a compliance and certification scheme to help passenger shipping companies who want to restart voyages out of Port Singapore as the country was still in lockdown due to the Coronavirus crisis.

STB's Regional Director of the Americas (Rachel Loh) advised that the companies (ship operators and shipowners) would need to pass an audit for certification to return to cruising plus the ships would be allowed to accommodate only 1/2 of their max passenger capacity for the first 3 months of operation.

There is no official date for when "Singapore cruises to nowhere" will commence but all operators homeporting in Singapore were eager to restart operations after voluntarily ceasing voyages since March 2020.

Singapore cruise terminal

Singapore tours, shore excursions, hotels

City Tours and Shore Excursions

Marina Bay Sands: the second integrated resort in Singapore. Take the sampan ride or try the unique restaurants (with top celebrity chefs like Justin Quek and Wolfgang Puck).

Double helix bridge at Marina Bay: famous architectural wonder, not just a bridge. This favorite photo spot is located next to the Marina Bay floating platform and the Youth Olympic Park. It is breathtaking in the night with its various moods of lighting.

Universal Studios Singapore: the first themed park in Singapore. Enjoy trilling entertainment time – walk along the Hollywood Boulevard, meet the famous Shrek or visit Jurassic Park.

Night Safari: thrilling experience. It has won eight times the Singapore Tourism Board’s Best Visitor Attraction Experience.

St James Power Station: the best place to have a party, choose between nine place or visit all.

Singapore Flyer: the largest observation wheel in the world. The height of Singapore Flyer in 165 m and its building cost is S$240 million. You will enjoy stunning views of the Marina Bay, the Padang, the Raffles Place, Empress Place and the Singapore River.

Marina Barrage: located at the city heart, a reservoir with fresh water and the favorite area for water sports enthusiasts. Great place for picnic, it is not unusual to see just married couples to take photos.

Art galleries: located in Tanjong Pagar Distripark, right to the docks.