AIDAsol - Here this morning, gone tonight!

The AIDAsol is no stranger to Fremantle. She was here at pretty much the same time last year. And she returned this morning around 6 am once again flashing her big smile.

AIDAsol is an attractive, quite large cruise ship. Mind you, on the popular ship tracking app Marine Traffic she’s now described as an ‘Accommodation vessel’.

She also has a number of sister ships, being the AIDAdiva, AIDAbella, AIDAluna, AIDAblu, AIDAmar and AIDAstella.

AIDAsol was delivered in March 2010, and christened on 9 April 2011.

Here’s some of her vital statistics on this visit to Freo –
Number of passengers: 1968
Passengers disembarking into Fremantle: 12
Passengers embarking from Fremantle: 30
Number of crew: 628.

She’s here just for the day, in from Adelaide and departing for Port Louis, Mauritius at 5 pm this afternoon.

While some 1076 passengers will investigate the Perth metro area on pre-booked tours while she’s in Port, that leaves nearly 900 passengers, and no doubt a few crew, to explore Fremantle on their own for the day.

When cruise ships arrive in Port, City of Fremantle runs a free shuttle bus service from the Fremantle Passenger Terminal into Walyalup Koort from 8 am until 4 pm, bringing passengers into the city centre and returning them to the ship at the end of the day.

Cruise ship passengers are also invited to attend a special cultural welcome in Walyalup Koort where the entertainment includes didgeridoo music, a smoking ceremony and a dance performance. It commences at 10.30 this morning. Everyone is welcome, not just ‘Accommodation vessel’ people!

Here’s a gallery of pics of AIDAsol arriving this morning.