Grand Princess entering Dublin Port - 18.04.2012

Amalgam

Just amazed at the size of this ship. Lumbered into view in the last hour. Taken above Dun Laoghaire using a Panasonic DMC-TZ10. Apologies for the quality, max zoom and quite dreary outside. Photos taken at 07:29am.





The two small tug like ships to the left seemed to be water/water arc spraying.

The ship is visible at: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

(browse to Dublin)

Bummer1234

How long is it in town for?

Cookie_Monster

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1539

that's been in a few times over the last couple of years now.

zagmund

I saw it this morning on the cycle into work across the East Link and thought to myself that it must be Summer, what with the cruise ships starting to arrive.

Then I was thinking - who in their right mind takes a cruise to Dublin in the middle of freezing cold April ? Does anyone know if it's stopping off on a positioning run, or whether this is really the start of the Summer cruises ?

z

coylemj

zagmund wrote: »

Then I was thinking - who in their right mind takes a cruise to Dublin in the middle of freezing cold April ? Does anyone know if it's stopping off on a positioning run, or whether this is really the start of the Summer cruises ?

The passengers knew in advance when they booked the cruise that (1) it's spring in the northern hemisphere and (2) they knew they were stopping off in Dublin.

Anyway if they had arrived a couple of weeks ago they would have encountered 20+ temperatures so it's the luck of the draw.

Bridgecam showing the Aviva Stadium...

http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/ap/grand_bridgecam.html

Dublin Port website showing cruise liners visiting the port in 2012...

http://www.dublinport.ie/information-centre/cruise-liners/

ProudDUB

It was just featured on the one o'clock news on RTE. Said it was the first cruise ship to arrive this "summer" so it got the traditional welcome of the tug boat spraying water dealio. Looked very impressive on the telly box. They showed passengers, getting off and being welcomed by people in leprecaun out fits.

coylemj

ProudDUB wrote: »

... so it got the traditional welcome of the tug boat spraying water dealio.

I was on a bigger cruise ship in 2010 which stopped in Oslo, Copenhagen and other scandinavian ports, ne'er a tug boat in sight when we arrived or left so don't really see why Dublin port feels the need to do this.

ProudDUB wrote: »

They showed passengers, getting off and being welcomed by people in leprecaun out fits.

I hope they're not a bunch of chancers who'll happily pose for snaps with the passengers and then aggressively demand a fee like the the lads in the centurion outfits who hang around the Colliseum in Rome.

LXFlyer

coylemj wrote: »

I was on a bigger cruise ship in 2010 which stopped in Oslo, Copenhagen and other scandinavian ports, ne'er a tug boat in sight when we arrived or left so don't really see why Dublin port feels the need to do this.

It's just traditional for the first cruise ship of the season.

A nice tradition.

ProudDUB

Yep, they said on the news that the boat got the special treatment coz it was the first cruise ship of the season. I was down at the Georges Dock LUAS stop earlier. Looking eastwards towards the port, the thing took up the whole left to right street view. 'Twas massive !

No worries about the leprecauns. They were just waving to the passengers as they got off. As were the lovely girls in their Riverdance outfits. Cringe !