And the city will continue to be busy for much of this week with visits by the Sun Princess, arriving this morning, Noordam and Sea Princess, expected tomorrow morning, Maasdam, which will arrive on Wednesday morning, Norwegian Jewel arriving on Thursday morning, before Seabourn Encore ties up on Friday.
Ovation of the Seas, the largest cruise ship to visit New Zealand, flooded the city with up to 4000 passengers on Saturday.
Dunedin i-SITE manager Louise van de Vlierd was delighted with "the buzz" it brought to the city, and believed the week ahead would be one of the busiest of the cruise ship season.
"It’s fantastic, it really is.
"Cash registers are ringing hot and everybody is smiling. I haven’t struck anyone that’s not smiling yet.
"We’ve got some more busy weeks coming up in February, too."
Both were large ships, and rescheduling made the day easier for passengers and tourism providers, she said.
"It enhances the experience for people on both ships when we don’t have two very large ones in together.
"You can only physically deal with so many people — we’ve only got so much product.
"When you get 7000 passengers in town at the same time, they don’t get their first choice of activities.
"There are still some things they can do, but it might not be their second choice or even their third.
"It just means passengers have a much greater variety of activities to choose from and they have a much better experience if they don’t arrive in Dunedin at the same time."
She said Saturday was great for Ovation passengers because most of them got to do what they wanted to do.
The city was gaining a reputation among cruise ship companies for being flexible and very accommodating to passengers’ needs.
"We’ve been getting really good feedback from tourists.
"I was talking to someone involved with the Ovation of the Seas, and they were saying they’ve only heard good things from the passengers about their experiences on Christmas Day, which is fantastic to hear."
