Cruise industry 10 years on!

[youngcruiser1995]

Tuesday the 26th of November marks the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the Star Princess in Sydney in 2003. This was one of the largest ships to be based in sydney, despite its short season here. The ship was met by hundreds of thousands of sydney siders and left with fireworks. It meant that sydney was no longer the stop over for the qe2 or oriana but it was a destination to base ships. The Star princess is a super liner and dwarfed anything that had ever been based in sydney. It was the of a big decade in cruise ships based in australia. Now we have the sister diamond princess and the huge voyager of the seas based in sydney. In reflecting on this decade it would be great to see how the next decade pans out.

[Kinkacruiser]

That certainly would have been an event, as it was a bit before our cruising days began. Thanks for letting us know.

[gaechann]

I remember being down at the Opera House one time some years ago when there was a large cruise ship leaving the Harbour. The festivities complete with amazing fireworks was just fantastic!

 

Now there's just a few people interested enough to watch the sailaways from the shore as they've become a dime a dozen now with all the cruiseships visiting here down under!

 

That being said, when we sailed out on 24 October on-board Radiance there were crowds of people at the Opera House. I thought they were there to see us off but saw on the news later that Princess Mary had been at the Opera House for it's birthday celebrations! :)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

I was on board for that cruise.

Heres a pic from that day.

The crowd at the terminal had come down in the afternoon just to look at the ship..

Regal Princess, now Pacifc Dawn had paved the way with cruises between Au/NZ, but Star was the first of the big ones that targeted the local market.

 

[SPacificbound]

And a beautiful port it is! :)

[MicCanberra]

And a beautiful port it is! :)

 

Certainly is. Recently on a cruise the Captain, and several officers were asked what they considered the best most beautiful ports around the world.

Sydney, Venice and Auckland (not always in that order) were the three most common answers.:D