The latter ship, which previously called here in its as-built guise as Crown Odyssey, has had an interesting history.
It was ordered from the Jos. L. Meyer shipyard at Papenburg, whose origins date as far back as 1795 when Joseph Lambert Meyer first built wooden vessels there.
Since 1987, all shipbuilding activity at the yard has been carried out in an undercover facility.
And Crown Odyssey would have been among the first vessels to be built in it.
Ordered by the Royal Cruise Line, it was launched on November 1, 1987, and entered service on June 7, 1988.
The Royal Cruise Line was later taken over by the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), which in turn was acquired in 2000 by Star Cruises, a subsidiary of the Malaysian-based Genting group.
Crown Odyssey was renamed Norwegian Crown in 1996.
Four years later it reverted to its original name.
It called here on February 22, 2001, and again on February 11, 2002.
The ship was then owned by Crown Odyssey Ltd and operated by another subsidiary, Orient Lines.
The following year the name was changed again to Norwegian Crown and the ship was running again for NCL.
It sold the ship to the Fred Olsen Cruise Line in 2006 but chartered it back until 2007.
The new owners took delivery of the ship in November 2007, and named it Balmoral after the Scottish home of the Royal Family.
It was then sent to the Blohm & Voss yard at Hamburg to be refitted and also lengthened.
As built, the 22.5-knot, twin screw vessel had a gross tonnage of 34,242, an overall length of 187.71m and berths for 1240 passengers in 526 cabins.
The new section inserted into the hull provides an extra 186 berths for passengers, and 53 more crew. There are now 710 cabins and suites, giving a standard occupancy of 1350, plus a crew of 510.
Balmoral, now a vessel of 43,537gt and with an overall length of 217.91m, is the largest of the four Bahamas-registered units that have joined the Fred Olsen cruise-ship fleet since 1996.
Oldest is the 28,613gt Black Watch (1972) and a visitor here on February 26, 2008.
The cruise line based at Ipswich is part of the Norwegian-based Fred Olsen group, established in 1848, by three brothers at the small town of Hvitsten on Oslofjord.
Balmoral commenced its inaugural cruise on February 13, 2008.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic next year, Miles Morgan Travel has chartered the ship to follow the route of this ill-fated White Star liner.
It intends to stop over the point where Titanic lies on the seabed.
Silver Spirit, the new flagship and at 36,009gt the largest vessel in the Silverseas Cruise Line fleet, is on its inaugural 119-day round-the-world cruise.
It left from Los Angeles on January 19 and will end at Southampton on May 19.
In the course of this voyage it will visit 60 destinations in 25 countries.
Like Seabourn Sojourn here last month, Silver Spirit has a six-star rating.
Described as an evolution in ultra-luxury cruising, the ship has one of the highest space to passenger accommodation ratios in its eight passenger decks.
It carries 540 passengers in 270 ocean view suites and a crew of 376.
The Nassau-registered vessel was ordered from Italy's state-owned Fincantieri Ancona yard on May 31, 2007.
Laid down on June 27, 2007, it was launched on February 27, 2009, and delivered on December 10 that year.
A 207m-long, twin-screw, diesel-electric vessel, it has a maximum speed of 20.3 knots and a service speed of 17.5 knots.
Silverseas Cruises first called here on March 12, 1997, with the 1995-built, 16.927gt, 296-berth Silver Wind.
Sister ship Silver Cloud, built a year earlier, followed in February 1999.
The larger 28,258gt, 388-berth sisters Silver Shadow (built 2000), and Silver Whisper (2001) have been visiting Port Chalmers since December 2001, and January 2008, respectively.
Between them, they have made 30 visits.
