Wellington to get first cruise ship in New Zealand’s 2015-16 wave season

As previously reported, Diamond Princess kicked off Australia’s wave season when she arrived in Sydney last Tuesday.

The 115,875gt ship was scheduled to sail into Fiordland today, but altered its route due to forcasted bad weather, giving Wellington the honour of welcoming the season’s first ship.

There will be another 33 cruise ship visits, making a combined total of 701 calls to 16 ports around New Zealand, until Pacific Pearl sails out on June 23, 2016.

During this time, 267,800 passengers wil arrive in New Zealand, a huge 33% more than in the 2014-15 cruise season.

Cruise New Zealand gm Raewyn Tan said ships new to New Zealand will be Explorer of the Seas, Golden Princess, Azamara Quest, Coral Discoverer, Costa Luminosa, Le Soleal and Noordam.

‘The growth of passenger arrivals in 2015-16 is calculated to support 10,354 jobs and inject NZ$543m in value added to New Zealand, up from 8,365 jobs and NZ$436m in 2014-15,’ Tan said.