Terminal facilities
Most cruise vessels berth at the Swedish Quay. Smaller, more luxurious vessels dock at the Maritime Station.
- Swedisch Quay:
Two large cruise ships (longer than 200 m) can bert simultatneously at quay 702, of the combined freight & passenger terminal of C.RO Ports just left of the entrance of the Pierre Vandamme sealock. Access to the ship is made possible via several gangways.
- Maritime Station:
The Maritime Station is located at the Leopold II harbour mole (quay 103) and offers 1 berthing space to ships of less 200 m.
- CHZ Terminal (occasionally)
In busy times large cruise ships may be allocated a berth at the former container terminal CHZ (quay 205) in the outer port.
Passengers leaving the ship can either
- board an excursion bus for which they have bought tickets from the cruise line.
- get on the free port shuttle, which will bring them safely to outside the port area.These passengers organize their own excursion by using public transport (tram and train) or taxis.
- Take a taxi at the exit of the terminal.
In accordance with the 'International Ship and Port Facility Security Code' (ISPS), strong security regulations apply on the locations where cruise ships are welcomed, For this reason visitors are not allowed entry to the terminal or the ship, unless there is a preliminary notification via the ship's agency. Prior to boarding the ship, passengers, crew and visitors will have their hand luggage inspected with X-ray devices and they also need to go through metal detection gates.
Passengers on board a ship, coming from a Non-Schengen port (e.g. British ports) may be subjected to a border inspection.
Cruise building: ABC-Tower
The ABC-tower, an abbreviation of 'Artes-Bruges-Cruise', is a multi-purpose building with 8 storeys. The construction company Artes-Depret is the principal and for this project they work closely together with the port authority of Zeebrugge, which will occupy some floors of this office tower.
Construction started in the summer of 2016 and the building became operational in the summer of 2018.
The bottom two floors have a cruise and reception function: check-in, luggage handling, waiting rooms, luggage and passenger scanning, border inspection, shopping, tourist information, art and the organisation of events. The adjacent parking serves to smoothly distribute the passenger flows over excursion busses and taxis. The middle floors constitute the headquarters of Artes Depret. The top floor houses a restaurant with a panoramic view of the port and a new visitor centre for the port of Zeebrugge.
The port authority of Zeebrugge is currently constructing a cruise terminal building in anticipation of the growing cruise tourism. This new iconic infrastructure will offer arriving tourists a sample of the main tourist attraction of our region. At the moment Zeebrugge is primarily a day call port. In the future Zeebrugge has the ambition to become a departure and arrival port in order to also stimulate pre-stays in Bruges and its surroundings. The construction of the ABC-tower also fits in with an urbanisation project to give the old harbour zone a face-lift.