June 10, St. Petersburg

In the Western part of the Vasilyevskiy Island the second phase of the start-up complex II of the Passenger Port “Marine Façade” construction project has been accepted for operation.

The operation of the new ferry terminal has been checked by the multi-authority committee that included representatives of the following regulatory agencies: Federal Agency for the Development of the State Border of the Russian Federation, Federal Border Guards Service of the Russian Federation, the Federal Customs Service, Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, the Russian Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Health Control Service. The procedure has also been attended by representatives of FSUE Rosmorport and Terra Nova Company.

The new facility has been checked for accordance with the design solutions, existing construction norms & regulations, project technical specifications and other norms and regulations, as well as for the quality of works in the ferry terminal.

The committee checking procedure has resulted in signing of the acceptance certificate.

As the cruise season continues in St. Petersburg, the Passenger Port of St. Petersburg “Marine Façade” is busy receiving cruise ships. On June 4^th the Port for the first time had 5 cruise ships docked in the Port on the same day. Over 5 000 cruise tourists arrived to St. Petersburg onboard MS “Princess Daphne” and MS “Athena” operated by «World Cruise Agency», MS «Celebrity Constellation», «Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises», MS «Eurodam» and MS «Costa Magica», «Carnival Corporation». On June 3, the Port welcomed 9 461 passengers on board of four large cruise ships.  Next year when the Port is completed with 7 berths in total, its passenger handling capacity will increase to up to 12 thousand passengers a day.

St. Petersburg is traditionally a very popular destination for cruise tourists from all over the world who want to wander along the Neva and Fontanka, enjoy the splendor of the city of Peter the Great and visit world famous Hermitage and Mariyinsky Theater.  This is once again demonstrated by the stunning number of tours taken on June 3^rd.   Nearly 10 000 tours were taken that day and it means that in less than a day almost every cruise tourist visited the city.

May 14, 2010 Environmental workshop dedicated to the problems of influence of large investment projects on the ecology of the Gulf of Finland took place onboard of the on the of largest cruise ships «Celebrity Eclipse» berthed at the Passenger Port of St. Petersburg "Marine Facade". The Passenger Port of St. Petersburg "Marine Facade" became the initiator of the event.

The meeting brought together representatives of the scientific community, city enforcement agencies, the Administration, as well as the media. The speakers of the workshop were: Berezin I.K. ("The Committee on Natural Resources, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety") with a report on "The activities of the Monitoring Committee for the environment of the area and in St. Petersburg with the use of airmobile means"; Alekhov M.A. («Passenger Port of St. Petersburg "Marine Facade"») with a report: "Environmental issues of the Passenger Port of Saint-Petersburg operation", and an environmental officer of «Celebrity Eclipse» Andrew Mott with the report "Environmental aspects of the operation of modern cruise ships". The Round Table participants were: Yakovlev Y.E. ("Rosprirodnadzor"), Yatmanov G.R. (OOO "Audit Company "Conto"), Benkovsky V.N. (OOO "Equator"), Spiridonov M.A. (All-Russian Geological Research Institute), Rybalko A.E. (FGU NPP "Sevmorgeo"), etc. The event also included a tour around the premium-class modern cruise ship «Celebrity Eclipse» and inspection of port infrastructure of the new Passenger Port of St. Petersburg "Marine Facade".

On May 14, 2010 MS "Celebrity Eclipse" one of the most advanced and latest ships called at the Passenger Port of St. Petersburg Marine Façade. This modern cruise ship worth 750 mln USD operated by  "Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises" made its first sailing in April 2010.

The ship is one of the largest premium class cruise liners (length overall – 317 m, beam – 36,8 m, draught – 8,9 m). The pax capacity of the ship is 2 866 passengers. The highly qualified and trained crew of 1248 persons is onboard to make sure the ship’s guests enjoy their cruise to the fullest.