Luxury cruise ship docks in Ramsgate

The Silver Cloud photo Mark Stanford

The Silver Cloud cruise ship has docked in Ramsgate.

Silver Cloud is a small cruise ship operated by Silversea Cruises, a privately owned luxury cruise line. She entered service in 1994 as Silversea’s first ship. Her sister ship is the Silver Wind, launched in 1995.

Th 514ft ship has nine decks and can carry 296 passengers and 222 crew.

Photo Mark Stanford

In summer, Silver Cloud generally sails on European itineraries (both the North Sea and the Mediterranean). In winter, she cruises in the Caribbean and South America.

The scheduled stop saw passengers brought from the craft to shore in small boats where they were met by a Thanet council greeting team which included Ramsgate’s Ralp Hoult. Buses were provided for a tour of local places of historical interest.

The ship is due to depart for Tower Bridge this evening.

22 Comments

  1. Nice to see the port being used again. I do miss my visits to the continent from this port, get it together Thanet Council for heavens sake.

  2. Will this be a regular thing for Ramsgate if not the council should be talking to the owners

  3. Fantastic news that Ramsgate port has attracted a cruise ship , lets have some more and some ferries please !

  4. Do we know why it docked in Ramsgate? I like the idea but is there any suggestion that this could be a regular event? We have had so many promises about airports and new ferries that I am growing weary of getting my hopes up only to have them dashed yet again because nobody really had any firm plans all along.

  5. If the council has acted more professionally there would be regular ferries sailing from Ramsgate!

    • That’s not true, any more than it’s true that Manston failed because of TDC.
      Car traffic was almost non existent, and the only freight was stuff destined for northern Europe. Everything else went by Dover-calais or Eurotunnel.
      Even Folksestone port has closed.

      • We used transeuropaferries many times , most lorries were for eastern europe , car traffic was not so busy but many 7am sailings to Ostend had 30 to 50 cars plus freight, return sailings from Ostend were busy with freight.Perhaps when you took the car Tony it was quieter.

  6. They had coaches laid on, taking them straight to Canterbury. No money coming into Ramsgate.

  7. Good Lord, it’s a small ship with people that had to be ferried to shore and didn’t stay in Ramsgate – are you all mad?

  8. I was BORN IN RAMSGATE AND NOW LIVE ABROAD. YOU ARE RIGHT JOHN JEFFREY,
    WHAT A SAD STATE RAMSGATE TOWN CENTRE IS IN.
    MY VISIT WAS MAINLY TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHICH IS THE ONLY PLACE WHICH DOESNT APPEAR TO HAVE CHANGED,BUT WHEN I WENT INTO TOWN I COULDNT BELIEVE THE STATE OF THINGS PARTIULARLY HIGH STREET AND KING STREET SO SAD.WHEN ON EARTH ARE THEY GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE DUKE OF KENT PUB ITS BEEN CLOSED LIKE THAT FOR YEARS.KING STREET ITSELF IS IN A SORRY STATE
    I FOUND IT ALL VERY SAD AND DEPRESSING.

    • STOP SHOUTING, MAYBE IF YOU HAD NOT HAVE LEFT AND BLOODY DONE SOMETHING IT WOULLD BE…
      I AM SAD BECAUSE ALL YOU OLD CODGERS BUGGERED OFF AND want to JUST BLOODY MOAN and BITCH and be sanctimonious, it was better in my day, vote against and not for anything.
      STAY AWAY

  9. I was in ramsgate for the weekend and loved watching this ship come in from my hotel window(comfort inn)then walked down to the harbour for a closer view.wished I was on board.Then watched her sail away in the evening.lovely to watch.

  10. Ramsgate has so many things going for it but the council can’t or won’t invest in the town speculate to accumulated as the saying go’s why run the town into the ground then spend on regeneration and have to spend on campaigns trying to bring people back steady investment keep it alive start dy cleaning up

  11. She won’t be back! The council made such a balls up of this one that the company have said they are very unlikely to return to Ramsgate. Among other things the port neglected to provide proper fenders on the berth so the vessel recived a bit of damage.

Comments are closed.