Cruise ship Emerald to bring biggest crowd

There could be this many people in Gisborne on Sunday.

THE biggest cruise ship passenger complement to come ashore for the day in Gisborne will be tendered to the port tomorrow from the Emerald Princess after the ship anchors in Poverty Bay. This is the largest cruise ship to call here since the visits started. This will be her first visit to Gisborne.

Emerald Princess carries up to 3672 passengers and at 290 metres in length weighs in at an impressive 113,561 gross tonnes — heavier than the Golden Princess.

“It is not only the biggest ship but it also has the largest passenger numbers of any ship we have seen so far,” said cruise co-ordinator Lana Davy from Heart of Gisborne. “We will not get an accurate gauge of how many of them will come ashore until tomorrow, but certainly we expect close to the 3000-mark.”

The biggest cruise ships to call here previously have landed about 2000 passengers.

“We have put on extra shuttle buses to get them from the port to the city and another City Hopper bus to tour them round the city,” Ms Davy said.

Steam train Wa165 will operate two trips to Muriwai tomorrow.

“We expect both trips to be fully booked by tomorrow, which is amazing for us and it is great for the city,” said Gisborne Vintage Rail Society spokeswoman Dale Smith.

Ms Davy said cruise organisers here were confident they would be able to cater well for the extra numbers coming ashore tomorrow.

“I think that now we have done 2000 lots of times, we will handle the extra 1000 or so passengers well.”

She said Heart of Gisborne hoped to see a full complement of shops open in the CBD tomorrow.

“We hope as many retailers as possible will open their doors to embrace the visitors to our city.”

An Eastland Port spokesman said weather and sea conditions look good for tomorrow’s visit.

“Everything looks fine at this stage.”

The MetService forecasts the day to start out sunny, with cloud developing and a southerly change to start late in the day.

The 18-deck “Grand” class Emerald Princess was launched in 2006 after being built at a cost of $500 million at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy. She was refurbished in 2015.

The ship is scheduled to arrive in Poverty Bay at about 10am tomorrow from Tauranga.