Standing waiting for a taxi in the centre of Chania yesterday (19th August) we were pinned to the wall by a long file of tourists led by a lady holding aloft a paddle with a number on it, clearly identifying them as passengers on a cruise ship. The party stopped, filling the pavement by the taxi rank, their guide having apparently found something of consuming interest in the courtyard of what was formerly the 1st Gymnasium of Chania, but is now the Chania Scholeio Defteris Efkairias or Second Chance School, established to give those over the age of 18 the chance to acquire the high-school diploma which they had previously missed. Perhaps the guide considered this educational experiment interesting enough in itself, although the courtyard also contains one of Chania’s many war memorials.
As the tourists appeared for the most part fairly young and were dressed predominantly in white, we like to think that they were from the Club Med 2, the impressive 5-masted schooner owned by the Club Med company which was moored off the Venetian harbour, silhouetted picturesquely against the blue water beyond Chania’s historic skyline. In reality, however they could have equally well been from one of three other cruise chips which were moored at Souda for the day.
The cruise ships moored at Souda on 19th August included (top), the 345 m Sun Princess, operated by Princess Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, and the third ship to sail for the cruise line under this name; and the 278 m Resilient Lady, operated by Virgin Voyages. Photos: ERT News.
The local ERT News listed these as: the 345 m Sun Princess with 4,610 passengers, the 278 m Resilient Lady with 2,580 passengers, and the 238 m Crystal Symphony with 435 passengers. The Club Med 2 was carrying 283 passengers, so a potential total of nearly 8,000 passengers could have been let loose on the streets of Chania yesterday. This was not a record, however, which was set on 7th July, when three cruise ships carrying a total of 10,000 passengers docked at Souda.
The Club Med 2
The Club Med 2, billed as “one of the largest sailing cruise ships in the world”, is a five-masted computer-controlled staysail schooner owned and operated by the well-known French tour operator, Club Med SA. It combines the power of seven computer-operated sails with more traditional diesel-electric power, having four diesel generators that power two electric motors. (Wikipedia).
It has a total length of 194 m, eight decks and a sail area of 2,400 sq m, and can accommodate 386 passengers and 214 crew. Cruising at 10-15 knots it operates in the Mediterranean during the summer and the Caribbean during the winter, its size enabling it to reach anchorages which larger cruise ships cannot reach. This would include the Venetian harbour at Chania, where passengers can be ferried ashore, while the biggest ships are restricted for logistical reasons to the port of Souda.
The Club Med 2 was built between 1992 and 1996 by Société nouvelle des ateliers et chantiers du Havre at Le Havre in France. A sister ship, the Club Med 1, was launched at the same shipyard in 1989 and was sold in 1998 to Windstar Cruises, with whom it sails under the name Wind Surf.
The future of cruising at Chania
The ships anchored off the Venetian harbour add a human face to the presence of the cruise ships otherwise represented only by the behemoths which moor at Souda, and if it means that passengers visit the city in more manageable numbers, it is to be welcomed. Insofar as cruise passengers are generally bussed into the city centre they do not contribute as much to the city’s chronic traffic congestion as visitors arriving in their own cars. However they certainly fill the city’s pavements, and with a major increase in cruise ship arrivals scheduled for this year, their numbers can be expected to continue rising for the foreseeable future. According to a report on the Heraklion-based travel website Argophilia:
“Statistics for the first half of 2025 are impressive. Looking back, there were 53 cruise ship arrivals and 109,643 passengers in the same period last year. This year, Souda and Chania together hosted 72 arrivals, carrying a total of 152,739 visitors. That represents a 35.8% increase in ship arrivals and a 39.3% rise in passenger numbers. According to Dimitris Virirakis, president of the Chania Port Authority, these increases set the tone for what’s expected to be a record year for Chania cruises. With scheduled and unscheduled visits still on the horizon, every sign points to new all-time highs in both ship stops and cruise guests throughout 2025.”
(www.argophilia.com)