Costa Crociere is using Bremerhaven for partial turnarounds this year, as traffic is up 50 percent at the German port for 2017.

There are also 11 transit calls from the Costa Magica.

Next year, traffic is up some 53 percent with the port expecting over 230,000 passengers and more transit calls.

“Due to the fact that Bremerhaven is a very traditional turnaround port we are very happy about these heavily increasing numbers of transit guests,” said a spokesperson.

“It is the first time that Costa will do turnarounds in Bremerhaven. Bremerhaven is a new port for their German passengers in their port portfolio.”

There was a special welcome ceremony for Costa’s first call on May 30. Other major customers for the port include Transocean, Phoenix Reisen and TUI, who all use Bremerhaven as a key homeport in their deployments to Northern Europe.

New for 2017 is a second large parking garage, with passengers now able to pre-book parking spaces online prior to their cruise.