One of the biggest cruise ships ever scheduled to dock in Geelong has cancelled its visit, planning to instead stay overnight at Portarlington.
The loss of Norwegian Jewel and its 2000-plus passengers leaves Geelong with four scheduled cruise visits this summer, down from a high of nine in 2014.
The vessel was now “too big” for Geelong, a spokesperson told the Indy.
Norwegian Jewel can accommodate a maximum 2376 passengers but the other visiting ships this summer have capacities ranging from 490 to 694.
Seaborn Encore is due in port for eight hours this Friday with a maximum 604 passengers.
The 294-metre-long Norweigan Jewel was previously scheduled to dock in Geelong for nine hours on 23 January.
The vessel would now anchor off Portarlington’s safe harbour before tendering passengers ashore, the harbour’s spokesman said.
“Our understanding is that the ship will spend the night anchored off Portarlington then travel to Melbourne the next day,” the spokesman said.
“Around 30 per cent of passengers have pre-booked tours, so there will be buses waiting to take them to various Bellarine locations and beyond. There is potential for the other passengers to visit Portarlington and surrounds.”
Geelong and the Bellarine Tourism boss Roger Grant said Geelong’s cruise ship mooring area was too shallow for Norwegian Jewel.
Port authorities were responsible for informing cruise lines of access limits but luckily the depth issue was identified early enough to keep the vessel within the Geelong region, Mr Grant said.
He believed that Norwegian Jewel was possibly the largest cruise ship to ever attempt a Geelong visit.
“Yes, we lost the vessel coming into Geelong but there are still plenty people on it who will come into Geelong via coach and as part of touring programs,” he said.
“It’s not that uncommon with cruises that there are changes to the schedule. I’m pleased that as result of this change our region still benefits and they’re still staying.”
The physical limitations of Geelong’s channel widths and depths would always be a challenge for large ships, Mr Grant said, so local tourism authorities were concentrating on smaller cruise liners carrying “big-spenders”.
He nominated a lack of waterfront docking facilities as an ongoing issue, with visiting ships forced to anchor in the bay and ferry passengers ashore on tenders.
The system was ill-suited to elderly and infirm passengers, who comprised much of the market for cruise ships, Mr Grant said.
Geelong and the Bellarine Tourism was working with Cunningham Pier owner The Costa Group on plans to install inflatable docking facilities, he revealed.
The Costa Group has previously suggested that four of the “dolphins” would cost $2 million.
The floating moorings were initially suggested as an alternative to a new Yarra St Pier.
Former mayor Darryn Lyons promoted the $36 million pier proposal, saying in 2014 that it could attract 24 cruises a year.
A business plan for the pier indicated it would be worth 430 jobs and $61 million annually, he said.
But the proposal failed to gain support from local MPs, who instead favoured putting money into a redevelopment of Royal Geelong Yacht Club.
The other cruise ship visits for Geelong this summer are Regatta, which docked on 16 December with a maximum capacity of 694 passengers, Seven Seas Navigator on 17 February with 490, and Seaborn Encore again on 20 February.
