The University of Otago held two graduation ceremonies on Saturday, one for medical laboratory science, dentistry and physiotherapy graduates and another for medicine and pharmacy.
Coral Princess berthed at 7.20am on Saturday and did not leave until 6pm, releasing a huge influx of tourists into the city. It has a maximum capacity of 2000 passengers.
Along with the crowd of proud parents and busy tourists, hundreds were at Queen’s Gardens for the GeoGames Alice in Wonderland event.
Craft Bar and Kitchen owner John McDonald said about 200 customers arrived within about five minutes near noon, which put a huge amount of pressure on staff.
Like most hospitality venues, it was struggling for workers.
That pressure was combined with the time restraints of the graduation ceremonies, as customers could not wait for too long.
Almost everybody was respectful and patient, but staff were "never going to please everybody".
"We all do our absolute best."
Graduation had parents celebrating with their children all throughout the day, which meant not all the staff could be rostered on at one time to help handle the rush.
It was great to have big events to bring some life to the city, but it became a struggle when they coincided.
Venue owners liked and needed events like that, but having it all happen at once could create issues for staff, he said.
Brew Bar, Jizo and Nova co-owner Mark Fraser said graduation gave venues "the best of everything" with busy lunches and dinners and young people out at night.
Business had been quiet in Dunedin lately, which might have been due to students finishing exams and more people working from home.
The industry needed lots of trade during the warm months so it could survive the colder seasons when people went out less.
It was great to see the busy turnout on Saturday.
Graduation generated a lot of business at all hours of the day, which was the "ideal scenario".
"That’s the way this season needs to be," Mr Fraser said.
Speight’s Ale House owner Mark Scully said the industry was already quite busy at the moment serving lots of work Christmas parties, which also added to the customer numbers.
Motel Association Otago president Pete Firns said before Covid-19 graduations would have been booked out months in advance.
His motel, 538 Great King Motel, was booked out for last weekend, but there were still some spaces available for the upcoming ceremonies.
The industry moved "a bit slower" than it used to, but graduations provided multiple periods with strong bookings.
The cruise ships had no bearing on accommodation, he said.
On Wednesday, two graduation ceremonies will be held. The first for arts, music, theology and art-science mixed degrees, will be followed by a later ceremony for science graduands.
On the same day three cruise ships, Le Soleal, Seabourn Odyssey and Westerdam, are scheduled to berth in Dunedin.
Saturday will see the final two graduations for the year, one for commerce, law commerce-combined degrees, and one ceremony for applied science, physical education, surveying, biomedical sciences, health sciences, education and teaching.
