Largest cruise ship based in Australia arrives at her new Australian home port
The biggest and most innovative cruise ship to be based in Australia, Royal Caribbean International's Voyager of the Seas, has arrived at Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal - the first ever call at her new 'home port'.
Today over 3,000 passengers – around a third whom are from the USA and Europe – will disembark at the end of her maiden Australian voyage – an 18-night Australia and New Zealand cruise from Fremantle.
Last night at 7pm, spectators witnessed a spectacular sight as two beautiful cruise ships, Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Millennium and her 'big sister' Royal Caribbean International's Voyager of the Seas passed one another in Sydney Harbour accompanied by a water cannon tug-boat.
As the result of the visit of the two ships, the Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal will experience the busiest 24-hour period in its 52-year history with over 11,500 people to be processed through the facility. There were 4,300 guests embarking and disembarking Celebrity Millennium on Thursday 22 November, and another 7,200 guests will embark and disembark Voyager of the Seas on Friday 23 November.
Australia's historic first megaliner weighs in at 137,000 GRT, is 311 metres long, is 38 metres wide and has 15 passenger decks. At almost double the size of any ship currently based in Australia, she hosts up to 3,800 guests and 1,200 crew – more than the population of NSW towns like Bega and Bellingen.
To give you an idea of her size, if Voyager of the Seas was stood up vertically then she would be two metres taller than the Centrepoint Tower and with 1,557 staterooms, Voyager of the Seas has twice as many bedrooms as Australia's largest hotel (the Sheraton Four Points Darling Harbour).
Voyager of the Seas is big enough to have her own street on board which runs the length of a football field and is lined with shops, restaurants and bars; an ice skating rink; 1,350-seat La Scala Theater; a restaurant which seats 2,000 guests; a 9-metre rock climbing wall soaring 61 metres above sea level; three swimming pools and six whirlpools; a nine-hole mini-golf course; a golf simulator for perfecting that swing and full-size basketball court.
Voyager of the Seas will remain in Sydney over the weekend, sailing on a one-night cruise on Friday 23 November, then departing again for her next cruise on Sunday afternoon. Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises are owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited.
* Helicopter images captured by Eugene Tan from Aquabumps.
*On the ground images taken from Sydney Harbour Bridge taken by Simon Bullard.
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