Souda: Two cruise ships with 979 passengers

Two luxury cruise ships arrived at the port of Souda, in Chania, on Wednesday 16 September 2026, according to a report by cretaone.gr. They are the Evrima, a vessel of the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, which carried 278 passengers, and the Silver Nova, of Silversea, with 701 passengers. The two arrivals, which took place on the same day, brought a total of 979 passengers to the island. According to the same report, the passengers had the opportunity to disembark in the city of Chania and visit destinations in western Crete while the ships were docked at the port.

The port of Souda has for years been the main gateway for cruise ships in western Crete, thanks to its natural depth, which allows large vessels to dock, and its proximity to the city of Chania. The importance of this infrastructure for the cruise industry had also been highlighted earlier, when the tender for the Adrias pier in Souda was linked to wider plans to strengthen the area’s cruise infrastructure. Today’s arrivals confirm the continuing interest of major international cruise companies in this particular destination, though the cretaone.gr report does not mention any new details on the progress of that project or any connection to today’s traffic.

For the local economy of Chania, the simultaneous arrival of two ships with almost a thousand passengers means increased activity for shops, restaurants, taxis and travel agencies in the area, especially in this final stretch of this year’s tourist season. Visitors who chose to tour the city of Chania had the chance to see the Venetian harbour, the historic centre and the points of interest of the old town, while others headed to destinations in western Crete outside the urban fabric. Such arrivals are an indicative example of how cruise tourism is directly linked to the area’s local businesses, which benefit from the presence of visitors even for just a few hours.

The cretaone.gr report does not include information on the nationality of the passengers, any revenue generated by the visit, or an overall assessment of this year’s cruise season at the port of Souda. It is also unclear, based on the available report, whether new arrivals of large ships are planned in the coming days or whether this was an isolated event of the period. The development of reception infrastructure, as well as the progress of projects such as the Adrias pier, is expected to play a decisive role in whether the port of Souda will in future be able to host more and larger cruise ships simultaneously.