Visitors illustrate growth in cruise liner size

It was interesting to see Pacific Dawn and Dawn Princess in port together last Thursday, then Diamond Princess a day later. These three cruise liners illustrate the growth in size of vessels that have represented Princess Cruises locally for just over 11 years.

Pacific Dawn at 70,285gt is the oldest, and has now made five visits under this name since February 25, 2010. This vessel is perhaps best-remembered here for its 19 calls from November 30, 2000, to September 28, 2007, as Regal Princess.

Built to carry 1900 passengers in 798 cabins, the 244.96m long vessel was delivered from Fincantieris Monfalcone yard in July, 1991. The ship went into service under the Italian flag, but was later transferred to the Liberian, British and Bermudan registers before going back to the British flag when transferred to the present operator, P&O Cruises Australia, in October, 2007.

Dawn Princess also came from the Monfalcone shipyard and was handed over in April, 1997. A larger 77,441gt, 261.31m vessel, it was designed to carry 2342 passengers in 1011 cabins. The ship has called at Port Chalmers on 24 occasions since October 22, 2008.

Diamond Princess and sister ship Sapphire Princess, at 115,875gt, are the largest ships to call here. Last week's 290m-long visitor was built with 1338 cabins that provided 2670 berths, but additional accommodation is also available in these cabins.

The ship has been calling here since January 26, 2006, the latest call being its 29th. It was also its last call on the Australia-New Zealand circuit this season, and from Australia it will be heading for Asian ports. It was unfortunate and disappointing for passengers, that last Saturday's visit to Fiordland had to be cancelled because of weather conditions.

After leaving here it headed for Hobart, via the east coast and Cook Strait. It is booked to return here on December 23.

Diamond Princess is the second ship to be launched under that name from the Mitsubishi yard at Nagasaki. The first was well on its way towards completion in 2002 when fire swept through the ship, causing damage to about 70% of its structure.

First thoughts were to scrap the vessel, but then the decision was made to rebuild it. And as the vessel would be much later in entering, the owners decided to swap the names around.

So the first Diamond Princess became Sapphire Princess and was not completed until May, 2004. The one that has just been here and delivered three months earlier, was originally ear-marked to carry the name Sapphire Princess.

Princess names have now been linked to cruise ships visiting Port Chalmers since the arrival of Pacific Princess on February 10, 1991. Compared to those above-mentioned vessels, this was one of the smallest vessels in the fleet, long before P&O and its present affiliates became part of the Carnival group.

The vessel was built at Emden in 1971 as Sea Venture for Oslo owners. Acquired in 1975, it was renamed, registered at London and operated by P&O Lines.

There were other cruise ships around at the time but since then the industry has just kept on developing with larger ships constantly entering service to meet the demands of the market. As for the 20,636gt, 168.74m long Pacific Princess, it provided 610 berths in 324 cabins.

To date, 13 Princess-named vessels have made 196 calls to the lower harbour.

And, new to the scene is Seabourn Odyssey, here for the first time tomorrow. This 32,346gt vessel caters for the top end of the market and carries 450 passengers and a crew of 335.

Built at a cost of $US290 million, it was the first of three sister ships ordered by the Seabourn Cruise Line (also part of the Carnival group) from the T.Mariotti SpA shipyard at Genoa. Registered at Nassau, the 19-knot vessel was completed on June 18, 2009.

Seabourn Sojourn, the second of the trio was delivered in 2010, and was here on January 30, 2011.

The third ship Seabourn Quest entered service last year.

These are the largest ships to be operated by Seabourn. Other members of the fleet to have visited this harbour include the 9961gt Seabourn Legend, January 3, 1998, and the 9975gt Seabourn Spirit, three visits between 2004 and 2006. Built in 1992 and 1989 respectively, these ships only carried 212 passengers.

 

Add a Comment