Most visitors to Mallorca arrive by plane, as we all know. However, between January and September of this year, more than 800,000 visitors arrived on board cruise liners. That’s quite a large number. Apparently, for 2009, already 500 bookings have so far been received by the Port Authorities of Palma from cruise liners wishing to pass through Palma next year. With an average number of passengers of perhaps 1,500 per cruise liner, there does not seem to be a drop in numbers in the foreseeable future.

Some cruise companies have made Palma de Mallorca their hub, such as German AIDA Cruises. The vessel shown here is AIDAdiva, a luxury cruise ship owned by this company and launched only one year ago. The vessel has a gross tonnage of 68,500 GRT (the QE 2 tips in at 70,327 GRT) and offers 1,025 cabins, providing accommodation for 2,050 passengers whose every wish is seen to by a crew of 646. Ten Day Mediterranean cruises start from Palma and sail onwards to Malta, Tunisia, Sicily, Rome, Corsica and Cannes, before returning to the Badia de Palma.

The photo was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The date: November 7th, 2008. The time was 17:16:22.