Dover Marks Summer Season Launch With 4 Maiden Ship Calls
The summer cruise season at England’s Port of Dover is off to a lively start, with Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Miracle departing on her first sailing from the seasonal homeport on May 18, 2025.
The Spirit-class ship with a capacity for 2,100 guests was joined by two other cruise ships, Windstar Cruises’ 312-guest Star Pride and Ponant’s 184-guest Le Laperouse, also making their maiden visits to the port.
A fourth ship, Ponant’s 184-guest Le Bellot, made her inaugural call to Dover earlier in May 2025.
Carnival Miracle, recently refreshed during a planned dry dock, is sailing a series of 9- and 12-night voyages to the British Isles, Scandinavia, the Baltics, and Northern Europe.
Her current cruise from Dover, a 12-night “Iceland & British Isles” sailing, calls at Belfast, Northern Ireland; Seydisfjordur, Akureyri, Grundarfjordur, and Reykjavik, Iceland; Heimaey, Westman Islands; and Kirkwall, Scotland.
“We are thrilled to launch our 2025 season with Carnival and their guests, and to see another member of their fleet begin her set of nine turnaround calls this year,” said Peter Wright, head of cruise at the Port of Dover.
“We also had the pleasure of welcoming both Star Pride and Le Laperouse for their debut calls yesterday. It was wonderful seeing these two unique ships moored alongside each other in front of the White Cliffs and making use of our wide-ranging facilities catering for different ship sizes and styles,” added Wright.
The Port of Dover typically welcomes about 200,000 cruise guests each year, and also is a major ferry operator, accommodating about 11 million travelers, and busy cargo port, handling about £144 billion in goods ($193 billion USD) annually.
While the 2025 season is Carnival Miracle’s first at the UK port, Carnival Cruise Line is no stranger to Dover. In 2023, Carnival Legend was based there for the season, but for summer 2025, the line is deploying that ship to Alaska and Mexico, operating from a seasonal homeport in San Francisco.
Read Also: 15 Mistakes to Avoid on a Carnival Cruise
Carnival Miracle offers voyages to multiple regions from Dover. Her Northern Europe sailings include the 12-night “Scandinavia & Baltic” cruise, for instance, featuring calls to ports in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Holland, and Germany.
Port of Dover Expands Berths to Welcome Larger Ships
The Port of Dover operates two cruise terminals and one port-of-call berth. Located about 75 miles southeast of London, cruise guests can travel to the port by train from the capital city in just over an hour.
In April 2025, the port completed work on a £6 million ($8 million USD) upgrade to its mooring facilities, expanding the berths to accommodate ships up to 350 meters — or 1,148 feet long.
The greater length will enable the port to welcome some of the industry’s largest ships, although it falls slightly short of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class ships, which reach 1,186 feet. For comparison, Carnival Miracle is 965 feet long.
The port also recently opened its new Outer Marina and Wellington Dock, offering 385 berths for recreational boaters.
The Port of Dover anticipated welcoming up to 250,000 cruise arrivals in 2024 but has not yet released final numbers.
Overall, cruise ports across the UK enjoyed a robust 2024, receiving a record 2,500-plus ship calls in total, and embarking a record 1.6 million guests.
Cruise Britain, a marketing and trade group, reported that the region showed year-over-year growth, from 2023 to 2024, at 9.9%.