A renovated runway at Værnes, the international airport in Trondheim, will be open in time for the 2018 cruise season. This will lead to the re-introduction of Pullmantur using Trondheim as a turnaround port.

“We are expecting 79 calls for 2018 with 130,000 passengers, which will be an all-time high,” said Maria Kühnl, cruise coordinator.

“Among them will be 10 off-season calls and five overnight stays. This is very exciting for us.”

She continued: “Trondheim is the ideal port to start or end a cruise in Norway. We are located in the heart of Norway from which you can either go south or north. We can accommodate thousands of visitors and have proven that we can handle big turnover operations”

The Mein Schiff 6 will be among first-timer callers this season, and the port is keen on building both winter and over-night stays.

The port has plans to add new bollards to its cruise quay to handle larger ships, and plans are in the works to extend the parking area for shore excursion busses.

“We have one call almost every day in June and July, but we can accommodate several ships at the same time,” Kühnl said. “We have girls in traditional costume handing out free maps at every call and sometimes even locally produced chocolate as well as local musicians. There is also an information pavilion at the cruise pier. We are working hard on improving our shore excursions offers and to make the cruise passengers’ day as special as possible, with or without a shore excursion.”