“We emphasize first time calls,” said Ana Lourenço, cruise manager for the Port of Lisbon.

And of those, the port is expecting quite a few with maiden visits scheduled from the Viking Sky, Freedom of the Seas, TUI Discovery 2, Columbus, Silver Muse, Variety Voyager, Caribbean Princess, Ocena Diamond, Viking Sun and the new MSC Meraviglia.

A new cruise terminal will be inaugurated this summer, a new state-of-the-art building located downtown in the city center as port officials have their eyes on building Lisbon into a major homeport.

“Lisbon is affected by cruise seasonality,” noted Lourenço. “In our case, the cruise season is most busy in April and September. Still, we have room to growth all year around, even during this two peak months. In addition, one of the main strategic goals is to increase the turnaround segment and establish Lisbon as a big national and international homeport hub, which will induce growth and eventually reduce seasonality effects.”