Cruises to leave from Norfolk weekly, year-round starting next week
This cruise season will be unlike any other at Nauticus as it sets sail on a new schedule of weekly cruises year-round.
Norfolk's business community looks at those passengers and sees an opportunity. It is making a joint effort to draw them out for experiences in the area before and after voyages. This takes the form of expanded discount packages involving local restaurants and hotels and promotions for business districts like Selden Market and Waterside in downtown Norfolk.
Weekly cruises will begin Feb. 11 with the Carnival Sunshine and run through December, instead of being from early spring to early fall and being more sporadic. Each week, there will be more than 3,000 passengers disembarking from the previous week's cruise and 3,000-plus more passengers embarking for another weeklong cruise, according to Stephen Kirkland, executive director of Nauticus.
Cruise passengers spend an estimated $125 per person in the area before and after their voyages, according to Rehn West Saunders, director of development and marketing for Nauticus. That means an estimated $375,000 per ship and $19 million annually in economic impact from the new weekly schedule. Nauticus is expecting an estimated 300,000 cruise passengers this year, Saunders said.
'Our primary opportunity here is continuing to position Norfolk as an incredible pre- and post-destination,' Kirkland said in a presentation to the Norfolk City Council last month. 'Savvy travelers know if I get there the day before I can spend some time in the port and I can make sure that I'm ready for my cruise – that's our opportunity.'
Along with the new schedule, cruise passengers leaving from Norfolk this year can now book cruises to Canada and Bermuda, Saunders said.
To help promote local businesses, Visit Norfolk created a webpage with a full list of the discount packages being offered to cruise passengers. The page launched in September 2024 and quickly became the most viewed page on their site, according to Sarah Hughes, director of marketing for Visit Norfolk.
The discounts include a free night at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel near the Norfolk Airport along with parking for the length of the cruise and transportation to and from the cruise terminal, 20% off a meal at select restaurants at Hilton Norfolk The Main, 15% off meals at restaurants at Waterside, and promotions with the city's various museums and other attractions.
The year-round cruise schedule for Norfolk has been in the works since the announcement of Nauticus's relationship with Carnival in 2023, but the disruption to cruise traffic caused by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore put many of these ideas on the fast track, according to Saunders.
'What we really saw last spring with the Baltimore bridge collapse when both Carnival and Royal Caribbean were redirected to Norfolk … The community really stepped up and saw that there were going to be a lot of cruise passengers coming here, people were being bused down from Baltimore, and we were just able to come together and quickly come up with packages and deals and things for these passengers to do and I feel like that was what spurred (the year-round schedule) because (local businesses) were able to see a return,' Saunders said.
Later this month, Nauticus will host more than 100 travel agents for a site visit to help promote Norfolk as a cruise destination across the country.
Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com
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