GIVE US A CRUISE UPGRADE
City sets eyes on bigger ship to call port home
PORTS North will start talks to lure a Grand Class cruise liner to be based in Cairns.
With the departure of the smaller Pacific Eden this year, the port authority has its eyes on P&O’s replacement, the 290m long Golden Princess. The 2600passenger ship is due to start service in Australia in 2020 and should be able to dock at Cairns after dredging in 2019.
THE sale of the first cruise ship ever to be based in Cairns has dredged up an opportunity for the city to become home port for an even larger, more luxurious passenger vessel.
P&O Cruises has found a mystery buyer for Pacific Eden, the 219m-long ship that has delivered and collected 15,000 passengers over 11 visits since calling Cairns home in 2016.
The sale will be finalised in April next year and allow P&O to add the grand-class Golden Princess to its fleet.
In the meantime, Ports North has secured Pacific Aria to be home-ported in 2019 as a replacement to its identical twin sister ship Pacific Eden.
Competition will be fierce for the lucrative home-porting contract for the Golden Princess, a 290m ship catering for 2600 guests and 1100 crew. Port of Brisbane and Carnival Australia, which owns P&O, are engaged in a joint venture to build a $158 million cruise ship terminal at the mouth of the Brisbane River which may be chosen as a home base.
If Cairns is to entice the Golden Princess and other toptier vessels, the State Government must not delay with its $120 million dredging plan for Trinity Inlet and associated works to strengthen the wharf.
A Ports North spokeswoman suggested Cairns would participate in any bid to provide ongoing maintenance, restocking and refuelling work for the opulent cruise liner.
“The channel development will allow grand-class vessels, such as the Golden Princess, to come into the port,” she said. “Potential in home-porting of these larger vessels will be discussed with cruise companies to understand requirements.”
Dredging is set to be completed in September next year – five months after Pacific Eden has changed hands.
Ports North would not discuss the local effect of the Brisbane Cruise Liner Terminal development or a ACCC draft ruling which found the plan in its current form could “limit or prevent competition”.
In a statement, Carnival Australia said it was too early to speculate on future Golden Princess home-port plans since “we are still only at a very early stage of itinerary planning”.
P&O’s website says Cairns’ future viability as a home port was being assessed. “Cruising from Cairns has helped us to pioneer new destinations across PNG and the Solomon Islands,” it said. “Although we are in the process of reviewing its viability as a homeport in 2019 and beyond, we remain committed to Cairns, and continue to grow transit calls there which have tripled in the past five years.”