Royal Caribbean’s 138,194 tonne voyager-class cruise ship Explorer of the Seas bidding Sydney adieu in April, closing the curtain on the end of the summer cruise season for Australia.
Royal Caribbean and sister brands Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises, carried in excess of 250,000 guests during the season from October 2015 to April 2016, a growth in passengers of 27 per cent year-on-year and injecting over $140 million in passenger expenditure into the Australian economy.
Two Royal Caribbean ships braced their presences in the county in the 2015/2016 cruise season: Explorer of the Seas to Sydney and Legend of the Seas to Brisbane.
Explorer of the Seas made a histrionic entrance in Sydney for her maiden season, reuniting with Voyager of the Seas as history was made on Sydney Harbour. Collectively, the ships carried 10,000 passengers and crew and injected almost $1.6 million into the Sydney economy in passenger spend in one single day.
History was made on Sydney Harbour
With Radiance of the Seas and Legend of the Seas, calling Brisbane home for their inaugural season down under, the four locally-based ships in the Royal Caribbean International fleet sailed 72 itineraries, making 371 port calls in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and Asia.
Long live the legend!
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “With our three brands and their six locally based ships in Australia, this was our biggest and most varied season to date. The substantial growth demonstrates the success of our strategy in delivering the newest, most feature-packed and the most technologically advanced ships to our doorstep,” said Adam Armstrong, managing director, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd Australasia. [/pullquote]
