Number of cruises from Phila. port to pick up in '08

Philadelphia is seeing fewer cruise ships this year compared with 2006, but port officials announced yesterday that one of the mainstays of the service here, Norwegian Cruise Line, is bulking up its schedule in 2008.

Norwegian and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines are operating 20 cruises between them this year, with all of the sailings clustered in the spring, late summer, or fall. Other cruises lines have not announced their 2008 schedules.

Port officials said Norwegian would return to Philadelphia in August 2008, with the Norwegian Majesty, a 1,462-passenger ship that would make five seven-day round-trips to Bermuda, followed by five seven-day voyages to Canada and New England.

Norwegian operated five cruises to Bermuda, using the 1,100-passenger Norwegian Crown, last month and the first week of this month. Its last of the season is under way this week.

In 2006, a record 36 cruises and close to 130,000 passengers used the Philadelphia Cruise Terminal, at the Navy Yard at the foot of Broad Street, according to the Port of Philadelphia and Camden, the Delaware River Port Authority division that operates the terminal.

Last year, Royal Caribbean based one of its ships, Empress of the Seas, here for the entire season, which accounts for the larger number of passengers and departures. This year, the ship will make 14 trips to Bermuda and back, between July 28 and the end of October.

Gabby McNamara, a spokeswoman for the cruise terminal, said that cruises leaving Philadelphia last year sold well, but that Royal Caribbean did not base a ship here for 2007 because of a change in strategy by it and other cruise lines.

"They have cut back their schedule this year," she said, "because they're sending more ships to Europe."