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Adam Goldstein seeks solution to Sydney’s ‘full house’

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Adam Goldstein, right, with Adam Armstrong, like many wants a solution to Sydney's cruise ship infrastructure
Royal Caribbean Cruises’ president and ceo, Adam Goldstein, is in Australia to find a solution to the lack of cruise ship berths in  Sydney.

Goldstein, who came to Sydney on Saturday evening via Shanghai, Indonesia and Cruiseco’s annual conference in Adelaide, leaves again March 1 for New York. Meantime, he is here for talks with the New South Wales and Federal governments about Sydney’s lack of infrastructure for cruise ships.

‘I have been coming here for many years and with my colleagues I have been saying ‘the day is coming when there will be no room at the inn,’ he told Seatrade Cruise News.

‘That day has arrived.

‘This is what we had hoped to avoid. This is what we have. The restraints are no longer theoretical. They are very real, they are here and now. There is no way we can bring new ships here right now because there is nowhere to park them.’

Goldstein was speaking after Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Sydney on Saturday, with QM2 berthing at the Overseas Passenger Terminal and Queen Elizabeth dropping anchor at Athol Buoy in Sydney Harbour because she was too big to go under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

‘We’re saying let’s look around the area -- inside and outside Sydney Harbour -- and come up with a solution,’ Goldstein said. ‘The first steps to a solution have to be a proper dialogue.’

He said there are many ways Royal Caribbean could contribute towards a solution and he did not rule out investment.

‘We are open-minded at this point,’ he said.

Adam Armstrong, md RCL Cruises Australia and New Zealand, said Brisbane is currently suffering a lack of facilities, like Sydney.

Armstrong said Legend of the Seas is one of the few ships in the Royal Caribbean International fleet that can berth at Portside Hamilton. 
However, after two consecutive seasons in Brisbane, Legend is being deployed to Europe and the company doesn’t have another ship available that can negotiate the relatively shallow depth of the Brisbane River and get under the Gateway Bridge.

A mega cruise ship terminal that has been proposed by RCI and Carnival Australia for the mouth of the Brisbane River is under investigation.