Three cruise ships dock in Tauranga harbour

A Caledonian Sky cruise ship in the port last December. Photo / File

The cruise ship season is in full swing with three ships docking at the Tauranga port today.

Between 5am and 10am today, the three ships cruised into the local shores with plans to leave between 4pm and 7pm this evening.

With more than 200,000 tonnage between them, the Majestic Princess, the Caledonian Sky and Noordam have brought floods of guests to the city.

The next two cruise ships will arrive on Sunday morning for the day.

Cruise ship activity brings significant benefits to the Bay of Plenty including the $90.3m boost the economy received during the 2018-2019 season, said a statement from Tourism Bay of Plenty.

"Last season Tauranga had the second-largest total spending by port in New Zealand," the statement said.

This season the region will welcome approximately 306,461 passengers and crew from 112 ships including 25 double ship days, one triple ship day, and four overnight stays.

Mount Main Street spokesman Grant Aislabie said having the cruise ships in the port was "wonderful, absolutely wonderful".