Giant of the sea visits port

The Voyager of the Seas is the length of three rugby fields and as high as a field is wide.

The first of the season's giant cruise liners is scheduled to arrive at Napier Port tomorrow morning and the piloting crew are good and ready to bring the nautical monster in.

At 312m-long and with a gross weight of 138,194 tonnes, the Voyager of the Seas was the largest liner in the world when it was launched back in 1999 and is still the biggest ship to be tied up here.

And while that record had been surpassed, it is still a spectacular and eye-catching giant which the port's pilot team are now familiar with.

"It's been coming in here for about the last three years so we are familiar with the vessel," senior pilot Trevor Morrison said.

The procedure was basically the same as that used for all cruise ships - except on a slightly bigger scale.

Before the liner made its first visit to Napier three seasons ago, the pilots flew to Brisbane to meet the ship's master and go through the procedures and run through any limitations. They went through piloting and docking the liner using a practice simulator.

"We've done it a few times now," Mr Morrison said, adding they pretty well had it down to a fine art "more or less".

As the liner was too big to turn inside the port basin it had to be turned out in the stream and reversed to its berth at number two wharf.

Mr Morrison said the liner was well equipped with multiple pivoting thrusters which possessed more power than could be exerted by the accompanying tugs.

Two pilots would be aboard the Voyager of the Seas for the entry while two tugs would come in with it but would only move into action "if required". The only factor that could come into play was the weather.

The liner arrives from Wellington at 7am and will depart for Tauranga at 2.30pm.

It can carry 3114 passengers and has 1176 crew and will make a second call to Napier on January 14.

Its Royal Caribbean Line sister ship Explorer of the Seas is scheduled to call on January 11 and 22.

Since 2012 the Voyager of the Seas has voyaged between Australia and New Zealand for the Southern Hemisphere summer, then moves to Shanghai to carry out Asian itineraries during the Northern Hemisphere summer.