Five Princess Cruises ships will visit the Australian port between November 2016 and May 2017
By
Rebecca Gibson |
Princess Cruises has helped the Port of Melbourne, Australia to kick off its biggest summer cruise season to date, calling with three ships over several days.
Sun Princess called at Melbourne on 11 November, Emerald Princess made her inaugural call in the city on 13 November, and Golden Princess arrived on 14 November to begin her second season of cruises from the port.
Princess Cruises will make 23 calls to Melbourne between November 2016 and May 2017, accounting for more than 25% of the city's total scheduled cruise ship visits this summer. This is expected to inject close to AUS$20 million into the state economy via passenger and crew spending, provedoring and port charges.
The 2,600-guest Golden Princess will sail 15 cruises from Melbourne between November and April, marking the ninth year that the cruise line has based a ship in Victoria over the summer. Meanwhile, the 3,082-guest Emerald Princess will visit Melbourne twice more as part of her inaugural five-month season of cruises from Sydney. Dawn Princess and Sea Princess will also make calls at the port.
“Emerald Princess is a beautiful ship that is turning heads as she cruises around Australia and we can't wait to see Golden Princess return home to Melbourne for another big summer of cruising,” said Stuart Allison, Princess Cruises’ vice president of Australia & New Zealand. “As the biggest cruise operator in Melbourne, Princess' ships will carry more than 50,000 holidaymakers to and from the city as our guests enjoy cruises to New Zealand, the South Pacific and Tasmania.”
Emerald Princess' debut in Australia takes Princess Cruises' Australasian capacity to a record 11,800 berths across five ships during the 2016-2017 cruise season. Now that five of its 18 ships are cruising in Australasia, the region is Princess Cruises’ second biggest market outside of the US.