PHILLIP Island’s summer cruise ship season started on morning Sunday, September 29 with the Princess Cruises line ship, the Diamond Princess, which dropped anchor at its usual mooring place off the Rhyll Inlet, on the north-east side of the island, at about 8am.
But oh dear, what a difference a day makes!
Where Saturday had been a gloriously sunny day of 23 degrees and the main street of Cowes, and the rest of Phillip Island absolutely groaning with traffic and activity, the cold weather and rain had returned, the streets cleared and the long weekend punters hit the road back to Melbourne early.
It was altogether a rather dreary scene.
The British-registered Diamond Princess, with a guest capacity 2670 passengers and 1100 crew was only in for the day, time enough to go and visit the penguins, then off again by 11pm but it will return again on October 20, November 10 and December 1 this year, with several other smaller ships to follow through to February 11 when an island favourite the Seabourn Quest sails in to complete a busy season.
Hopefully they get to see Phillip Island at its best.
The Diamond Princess owned and operated by Princess Cruises is the biggest ship to come here over the summer. She began operation in March 2004 and primarily cruises in Asia during the northern hemisphere summer and Australia during the southern hemisphere summer.
She is a subclassed Grand-class ship, which is also known as a Gem-class ship. Diamond Princess and her sister ship, the Sapphire Princess, are the widest subclass of Grand-class ships, as they have a 37.5-metre (123ft) beam, while all other Grand-class ships have a beam of 36 metres (118ft 1in).
Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess were both built in Nagasaki, Japan, by Mitsubishi Industries.
