Photo: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, 2011.
The port of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast of Spain is the most important cruise shipping hub of the Mediterranean and the second most important in the world after Miami. In 2010, it handled around 2.35 million passengers with the months between April and October being the busiest (summer peak season). The cruise ship depicted on this photo is the MSC Splendida, that entered service in 2009 with a capacity of 3,900 passengers and a crew of 1,300. The cruise ship in the back is being refueled by a port-based tanker.