Stockholm (Sweden)

Stockholm is a major Baltic Sea cruise port and Sweden's capital city. The city covers a total area of approx 190 km2 (73 mi2) and has a population of around 935,000 (metro around 2,3 million). Port Stockholm is located on the meeting point of Salt Bay and Lake Malaren (the country's 3rd-largest freshwater lake - after Vanern and Vattern). The city (established in 1252) is spread across 14 islands and also on mainland Sweden (at the mouth of Lake Malaren).

Stockholm is Sweden's political, economic and cultural center. The region alone accounts for over 1/3 of the country's GDP and is one of Europe's top 10 regions by GDP per capita. In Stockholm are some of the top-ranked European universities, such as Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute, Royal Institute of Technology. The city is also famous for hosting the annual Nobel Prize award ceremonies. One of its most prized museums - Vasa Museum (on Djurgarden Island) is Scandinavia's most visited museum. Stockholm metro (inaugurated in 1950) is famous for its stations' decorations and has been named "world's longest art gallery". The national football arena of Sweden is in the town of Solna (north of the city). The national indoor arena (Ericsson Globe) is in the city's southern part.

Here are the seat of Sweden's government, most Gov agencies, the country's Parliament, also the official residencies of Sweden's Prime Minister and monarch (Stockholm Palace is his official residence). Drottningholm Palace (UNESCO Site) in the outskirts serves as a private residence of the Swedish Royal House of Bernadotte. The best-known tourist attractions are in Gamla Stan (Old Town).

As cruise port, Stockholm in 2019 reported its record season with handled 281 ship calls (out of 287 booked), 74 turnarounds (roundtrips), and handled ~650,000 cruise tourists. To each visiting vessel is dedicated a pier coordinator responsible for all dockside logistics.

Port Stockholm

(locode SESTO) Ports of Stockholm authority also manages Port Kapellskar, Port Vartahamnen, and the new Port Norvik (completed in May 2020). The new cargo port has the capacity to handle the largest vessels (RoRo and boxships).

Port's cruising season is in the summer (late-April through early-October). As a call port, it is included in most Baltic Sea (Scandinavia and Russia) itineraries. Stockholm is served by regularly scheduled ferries to Turku and Helsinki in Finland (commonly called "Finlandsfarjan"), also to Tallinn (Estonia),Riga (Latvia ), and to St Petersburg (Russia).

Stockholm islands are served by ferry ships run by Waxholms Angfartygs AB (aka Waxholmsbolaget) - a shipping company owned by Stockholm County Council. Waxholms Angfartygs owns all 25 vessels and is mostly tax-funded. Its services cover the entire maritime region from Arholma island (northeast) to Oja Island (south). Ferry services are year-round and used by approx 11 million passengers annually.

In February 2019, Tallink Grupp (TALLINK-SILJA LINE) started using shoreside power to provide electricity for two cruiseferries (Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony) operating the route Helsinki-Stockholm. Tallink's other Stockholm-homeported RoPax vessels were also scheduled to be fitted with the equipment for shore-power connections and gradually rolled out in 2020 and 2021.

In 2016, the cruise port had 230 ship visits (including 57 turnarounds) and handled ~490 000 passengers. Many passengers spend overnight (extra day and night) in the city, which benefits the local tourism industry even further. Statistics showed that cruise tourists spend around USD 58 million on city tours, hotels, restaurants, and shopping.

In 2017, the port handled 263 cruise ship calls (including 73 turnarounds) and ~600,000 cruise tourists (22% increase over 2016). The season started on April 30. During season 2017, in Stockholm were homeported 73 vessels (for roundtrip cruise departures/turnaround operations). On homeported liners, passengers often spend an extra day/night in the city, which further benefits the local tourism industry. Cruise passenger spending in Stockholm is estimated at around EUR 62 million. Maiden port calls were done by Norwegian Getaway (port's largest ship so far), MSC Fantasia and Saga Sapphire. 2017 was also reported as a record year for port's freight shipping volumes (both RoRo ships and container ships) - a total of 9,6 million tons of cargo (7% increase over 2016's 9,01 million tons). The flow of TEU-containers between Sweden and different continents (primarily Asia) is also increasing. The number of TEUs handled by Port Stockholm increased 11% (over 2016) up to 60,000 TEUs.

In season 2018 the port handled 268 cruise ship calls (including 67 turnarounds) and ~623,000 passengers (out of Sweden's total 1,07 million), plus a maiden call at Port Kapellskar. For comparison, statistical data shows for 2014 - 264 calls (42 turnarounds, 467,000 pax) and for 2015 - 247 calls (53 turnarounds, 530,000 pax). Ferry passengers were 11+ million (out of Sweden's total ~16 million). Also increased RoRo (ferry freight) and TEU-container volumes - respectively, 7,2 million tons (+7%) and 57400 TEUs. 2018 was also a record year as port revenue - SEK 866 million (USD 95 million / EUR 83 million), the majority (30%) being from leased properties (approx 200,000 m2 and 350 tenants).

According to a GP Wild-conducted survey, for 2018 port's annual economic contribution for the Stockholm region was EUR 176 million (port fees, ship services, cruise tourist spending on food, hotels, tours, shopping, transportation, etc), with 1100 supported jobs. The seaport was visited by 623,000 cruise passengers (plus 240,000 crew) who collectively spent EUR 57 million ashore (on food, tours, hotels, shopping, etc). In addition, the cruise companies spent EUR 25 million in-port (on harbor-pilotage-fairway dues). The survey showed that most cruise tourists were from Germany, UK and the USA. On average, day passengers spent EUR 72 pp, turnaround/roundtrip passengers - EUR 256 pp, crew - EUR 48 pp.

Port Stockholm provides to vessels all standard terminal facilities and services, among which is wastewater pumping (sewage water from onboard showers, WCs, galley). Sewage offloading is included in port fees and such facilities are available at all berths.

During 2019-Q1, the Port's container volumes increased by ~1/4 (over 2018-Q1) by handling more and larger boxships. Since May 2020, Stockholm Norvik Port has replaced the CTF (Frihamnen's container terminal). The new terminal is managed by Hutchison Ports (Hong Kong-based global container terminal company, as of 2020 managing 52 seaports in 27 countries). The new terminal also has a RoRo (rolling cargo) section managed by Ports of Stockholm.

• In April 2020, at Port Norvik was installed and became operational two new (China-made) Super-Post-Panamax container cranes (gantry cranes). This allows for handling the Baltic Sea's largest vessels. Each crane has a height of 81 m (266 ft) and a lifting capacity of 65 tons.
• The first boxship (2012-built SCA Tunadal) docked at the new Stockholm Norvik Port on May 27, 2020.

For season 2020 (April 17 through October 19), the cruise port had scheduled 288 ship calls (booked berthings), including 13x for first-time visiting vessels. Maiden port calls were booked for Sky Princess and Island Princess, Le Bellot and Le Jacques Cartier (Ponant), Marella Discovery, Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Jade (NCL), Mein Schiff (TUI), Veendam (Holand America), MSC Splendida, Azamara Pursuit, World Voyager (Mystic Cruises), Evrima (Ritz-Carlton). Note: The 3 linked ships are newbuilds (2020-launched).

Following the Coronavirus crisis, for season 2022 the cruise port had scheduled a total of 230 ship calls (booked berthings) with the largest visiting vessel being Norwegian Getaway, most calls by AIDAdiva, and most homeporting calls by the company Viking OCEAN. The Port eventually handled 205 ship calls and ~247000 passengers, including 18x maiden ship visits, 87x overnight stays, 10x 2-night stays, 5x 3-night stays.

Stockholm Frihamnen's new cruise dock "Quay F655" was officially opened on May 20th and inaugurated on June 21st, 2022. The facility occupies the site of the former container terminal (in 2020 relocated to Stockholm Norvik) and features a 330 m / 1083 ft) long dock/berth surrounded by a spacious land area specifically designed to serve more efficiently the turnaround/homeport cruise passenger traffic (checking in and checking out/debarking and embarking tourists) from buses and taxis. The Cruise Port Frihamnen project also included adding shore-power connections (in 2023), which allows the berthed ship to turn off its main engines and instead to use city-grid power for the onboard hotel operations and services.

In August 2022 was announced the plan to invest in cruise ship shoreside power facilities at the downtown-located Stadsgarden Quay (berths 167 and 160). Port Stockholm estimated that at least 45% of the cruise ship calls will use the shore-power facilities. For this project, in November 2021 was contracted PSW Group AS for the design, delivery and installation of both high-voltage shore power systems. The facilities were scheduled to be operational by August 2023 (Quay S167 /power output 8MVA) and by July 2024 (Quay S160 /power output 16MVA). Of the total investment (SEK 120M / EUR 10,6M), ~40% was covered by subsidies from the EU and Naturvardsverket (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency).

In September 2022 was announced a planned investment (Jan 2023) in a hydrogen fuelling station for vehicles at Port Norvik.

In June 2023 started regularly scheduled passenger shipping operations the world's first self-driving ferryboat.

• The autonomous technology was developed at Trondheim's NTNU/Norwegian University of Science and Technology as part of NTNU's Autoferry project (successfully trialed in 2022).
• MF Estelle is a catamaran-type vessel with dimensions 12x5 m (39x16 ft) and max capacity 25 passengers plus 6 bicycles. The autonomous ferry operates Stockholm's downtown route between Riddarfjarden Bay (Lake Malaren) and Sodermalm (island district). The boat is fitted with a 188-kWh battery pack (charged by 7,7-kW solar panels mounted on its roof) and is driven by an electric motor.
• The ship's operating system utilizes radar, LiDAR-based detect and avoid system (generally used on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), infrared and machine vision cameras, ultrasonic sensors (for docking maneuvers) and GPS (for positioning).

MF Estelle (built by Torghatten ASA/Bronnoysund, operated by Zeabuz/Trondheim) is now navigating autonomously between Stockholm City's islands without any human assistance.

For 2024 (April-October), Ports of Stockholm had scheduled a total of 121 cruise ship calls. Maiden/first-time berthings were booked by TUI (Mein Schiff 7) and Cunard UK (Queen Anne).

Stockholm cruise terminal

Stockholm tours, shore excursions, hotels

City Tours and Shore Excursions

Gamla Stan: Stockholm was founded here in 1252. Gamla Stan and Riddarholmen island, located in adjacent, are a living museum with cafes, restaurants, bars, attractions, shops, and amazing sights. The streets are narrow and cobblestoned. The buildings are in different gold shades. If you go there in the winter you will get a “storybook” feeling. You can visit attractions like the Nobel Museum, the Stockholm Cathedral, and the Royal Palace with its Royal Armory.

Royal Palace: King of Sweden's official residence.

Royal national city park: take a walk in the forest surrounding the city. You can meet hares, deer, moose and foxes. There are rare bird species, insects and beautiful butterflies. Don’t miss the Ekoparken.

Stromma boat sightseeing: take voyage under Stockholm’s bridges. It will take you from an hour to two hours and a half to take a different look at the city. You can combine a boat tour with an open bus tour.

National Museum of Sweden: on display are collections of arts, paintings, sculptures, graphics, drawings and handicrafts. You will find works of Rubens, Rembrandt, Renoir, Degas, Goya and local artist like Bruno Liljefors, Hanna Pauli, Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn.

Stockholm city hall: the designer of the romanticism style building is Ragnar Östberg. It was inaugurated in 1923 on Midsummer Eve.

Fotografiska: contemporary photography place, one of the world’s largest. Annually there are about 4 large and 20 small exhibitions.