Isle of Portland Port (England UK) recorded an unprecedented level of cruise activity during 2025, setting two operational benchmarks after a late-notice arrival on December 19th.
The port hosted 64 cruise ship calls throughout 2025 — the highest number in its recorded history — and, with the visit of Saga’s ship Spirit of Discovery, achieved calls in every month from January through December for the first time. Spirit of Discovery had initially been the first vessel to call at Portland in January 2025, before diverting to the port at the end of the year due to severe weather while en route from Portsmouth to the Canary Islands on a Christmas cruise carrying nearly 1,000 passengers.
Across these 64 calls, close to 100,000 passengers embarked or disembarked at Portland Port from ships representing around 20 different companies, contributing an estimated GBP 10 million to the local economy through passenger and crew expenditure in retail, catering, transport and shore excursions.
The port’s 2025 schedule listed repeat calls by established vessels such as AIDA’s AIDAsol, which visited 8 times, and multiple deployments by Silversea’s Silver Spirit, Silver Dawn and Silver Shadow for a total of 6 calls.
A number of ships visited Portland for the first time during the year, including Ocean Albatros, AIDAluna, Le Boreal, Carnival Miracle, MS Europa 2, Ambition, Seven Seas Grandeur, Norwegian Jewel and Viking Vela.
Companies with scheduled calls during the season included Saga, Princess, Ponant, Seabourn, CCL-Carnival, TUI, Hapag-Lloyd, Fred Olsen, Ambassador, Phoenix and HAL-Holland America.
Portland’s cruise team maintained efforts to promote the port and surrounding region to cruise operators and tour professionals, organising familiarisation visits for representatives of Fred Olsen, Silversea, Princess and Windstar, and hosting a multi-day shore excursion event that included presentations on the port’s cruise operations and visits to regional attractions such as historic estates and heritage sites. A delegation from the port also participated in the annual Cruise into Winter industry event in London, where the commercial general manager — who also serves as chair of Cruise Britain — delivered a keynote address emphasising the role of strategic engagement in sustaining cruise growth.
Key to Portland’s capacity to accommodate a growing variety of cruise tonnage was the commissioning of a GBP 26 million deepwater berth in 2023, a development that enabled the port to handle vessels up to 350 metres in length on adjacent berths. This infrastructure enhancement supported the port’s ability to receive larger ships and a broader mix of scheduled and unscheduled calls throughout 2025.