The luxury superliner Sun Princess, described as a floating resort of fun, will make its maiden visit to Tauranga on Friday, docking at the Mt Maunganui wharf at 6.30am for nearly 12 hours.
The 77,000-tonne, 261m cruise ship, operated by Carnival Australia, will be carrying 2850 passengers andcrew.
The Sun Princess will also call on January 28, February 19 and March 4, in Tauranga's busiest cruise ship season that includes 39 visits from 10 liners.
Carnival Australia is basing the Sun Princess and its sister ship Dawn Princess in Australasia for the first time, with 12 cruises around New Zealand next season.
The new schedule is expected to inject at least $35 million into the national economy through passenger and crew spending and port fees.
Tauranga is one of the six port calls on the schedule.
When it was launched in 1995 Sun Princess was the largest cruise ship in the world. It has now been surpassed by other Princess ships, but it has retained its luxury touch.
It has two theatres, a glass-walled health centre with five spas overlooking the ocean, four swimming pools, an open-air sports deck, a computerised golf centre, casino, wine and caviar bar, seven lounges, and eight restaurants and cafes offering 24-hour dining.
It has 975 cabins, more than 400 of them with private balconies.
