Introduction
It’s another day so it’s time for another cruise ship arrival. Today’s caller is the 85,000 GRT, ‘Costa Mediterranea’, operated by Costa Crociere. Built in Helsinki, Finland, she entered service in 2003 and reportedly cost €400 million to build.
She is 292 metres in length and has a beam of 32 metres and has capacity for 2,100 passengers. Costa is a part of the massive Carnival family and as a consequence some of their ships share a common design with those of their parent company. The ‘Costa Mediterranea’ is a member of the ‘Spirit Class’, she may look familiar as her near sister the ‘Carnival Legend’ operated a series of cruises from Dover last year for Carnival Cruises and her sister vessel the ‘Costa Atlantica’ has also called here at the Port of Dover in the past.
The Costa Mediterranea departed Savona, Italy on the 21st May calling at Marseille, Cadiz, Lisbon, Vigo and Le Havre. She departed Le Havre yesterday evening and after a leisurely cruise up the channel overnight she arrived at the Dover pilot station at around 06:20 this morning.
Once the Port of Dover pilot was aboard she entered via the Eastern entrance at 06:45 with the port tug ‘DHB Doughty‘ on standby. The weather this morning was a far cry from my last cruise ship arrival the other week which offered lots of glorious sunshine. This morning was very overcast following overnight mist (ironically as I type up this article it’s now clear blue skies and bright sunshine, I suppose you can’t win them all).
Upon departing Dover this evening the ‘Costa Mediterranea’ is heading to Amsterdam and then Hamburg, where she will be based for the summer operating cruises to the Norwegian Fjords.
All the best
Ray
The Costa Mediterranea passes through the Eastern entrance
Wide angle shot of the harbour
The Costa Mediterranea heads up in to the bay ready to commence her turn
The Costa Mediterranea heads up in to the bay ready to commence her turn
The Costa Mediterranea turns in the bay
The Costa Mediterranea turning with the DHB Doughty on standby to assist
For a modern cruise ship the Costa Mediterranea doesn’t actually look to bad from the stern
The Costa Mediterranea coming astern
A bit of an arty shot from me but the light was really unusual this morning
The Costa Mediterranea approaches the end of the Prince of Wales pier
The Costa Mediterranea coming astern to Cruise Terminal Two
The DHB Doughty watches on
As does the pilot vessel ‘Dovorian‘
Old and new (unfortunately I didn’t catch the name of this rather attractive vessel, its ‘Roly’ something, registered in Grimsby)
The Rodin departs
The Pride of Kent goes astern to berth 8
The Port of Dover dredger ‘David Church‘ heads out to carry out dredging operations in the bay
The Berlioz arrives from Calais
All secure alongside Cruise Terminal Two
All photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 550D.
All Photographs on this page are the © Ray Goodfellow (Dover Ferry Photos) 2014, All rights reserved.
I would like to remind you that the photos on this page may not be used without prior permission. If you require high-resolution non watermarked copies of any of my photos for your own private collection or for publication please free to get in contact to discuss your requirements.
