Philippines' First Dedicated Cruise Terminal Begins Operations

Operations have begun at the upgraded Ilocos Cruise Port near the northern tip of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. Over the holidays, Royal Caribbean's Spectrum of the Seas made her maiden call at the terminal as part of a weeklong Japan-Philippines-Hong Kong itinerary. The Spectrum of the Seas - the largest cruise ship operating in Asia - will make several return calls at the port this year.

"It is the first call to the first dedicated cruise facility in the Philippines," said Guillaume Lucci, senior advisor for operator Bloomberry Cruise Terminals. 

The World, the largest privately-owned residential cruise ship, made her maiden call at Ilocos Cruise Port earlier this week before traveling on to Hong Kong. The upgraded terminal will be formally inaugurated later this month. 

The Ilocos terminal is one of two projects operated by Bloombery Cruise Terminals, a division of Philippine resorts operator Bloomberry. The company is also building a new $300 million cruise terminal and resort complex in Manila, dubbed the Solaire Cruise Center. According to the company, it will be the world's first integrated resort with its own attached cruise port. The adjacent Solaire Resort & Casino is an existing five-star resort / shopping / casino complex in Manila's "Entertainment City," the regional equivalent to Las Vegas. It won the "Best Regional Asian Integrated Resort" award at the G2E Asia Awards in Macau last year. 

"The structure of the [cruise] itinerary shows how important it is to have a good network of cruise facilities across the country, something we are working very hard to realize,” said Lucci.