Liners create wave of prosperity in Liverpool
Jun 12 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post
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Liverpool yesterday welcomed a giant of the sea. Peter Elson reports
A NEW era dawned for Liverpool when Grand Princess, the biggest cruise liner ever to visit the Mersey, docked at the city’s new landing stage without a hitch.
Tied up at the new £17m Liverpool Cruise Terminal by 6.30am yesterday, the minutely-planned berthing of the 109,000- tonne Grand Princess proves that Liverpool can at last bring the biggest mega-liners safely into the city centre.
Passengers get an unsurpassed experience of arrival at the port with the ship’s bow practically prodding the Royal Liver Building, which a century after construction still provides a breath-taking symbol for the city.
City centre retailers will feast on a potential cash bonanza. On each of her four day-long visits this summer, Grand Princess will disgorge 2,600 passengers and 1,100 crew members.
This year alone, Liverpool Cruise Terminal will welcome almost 18,300 cruise passengers who are predicted to spend £1.28m.
A further 14 cruise ships will call at the terminal in 2009, bringing in some 23,500 passengers and an additional one million gross tonnage of shipping to the river. The estimated tourism spend by the terminal’s fifth year is £2.94m.
Previously, visiting cruise liners had to anchor mid-river and be tendered by Mersey Ferries, an arrangement which cruise lines increasingly resisted, causing calls to dwindle to almost nil.
Cllr Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool City Council, said: “For the first time in more than 40 years, the Mersey is once again a major cruise port.
“The emotional side of regaining that status – and seeing vessels like The Grand Princess and HMS Ark Royal – will be a huge boost to the city's image and confi-dence.We're aiming now to build on Liverpool's appeal as a ‘must-see’ destin-ation and the reaction so far bodes extremely well for future growth.''
Stuart Wood, Liverpool senior pilot, described the ease of bringing Grand Princess into Liverpool, in spite of being a mammoth 17 decks high and 922ft long. “It was a piece of cake sailing her in from the Mersey Bar. There was never a moment’s worry,” he told the Liverpool Daily Post, while on the ship’s bridge. “It’s not the ship’s size and length, but her ability to cope with wind and the ship’s draft, but her centre of gravity is quite high.
“The Mersey can get a bit of a wiggle on it, but this is an extremely powerful ship with 94,000 brake horsepower, plus all the latest bow and stern thrusters to make her go in any direction.”
BOB SWIFT, former senior pilot and now berthing manager, said: “Grand Princess has fitted like a glove onto the new cruise liner stage, and gone on just as easily.”
Grand Princess cost $450m to build and she was the world’s biggest cruise liner on coming into service for P&O’s Princess Cruises 12 years ago. Aimed at the family market, the ship boasts three theatres, 24-hour dining, shops, a big casino, a wedding chapel with a worldwide web-cam link and distinctive Skywalkers nightclub, cantilevered like a giant handlebar 150ft above the stern.
The cruise liner is on a 12-night round Britain cruise from Southampton, carry-ing 1,500 US passengers and 1,100 British. The crew comprise 35 nationalities and the 12 senior officers are British, Italian and Croatian. Capt Nicholas Carlton, master of Grand Princess, whose home is near Perth, Western Australia, said: “It went really smoothly coming in here.
“It was far easier docking here than in Dublin, our previous call, which is quite tight as you’ve got to pivot round, whereas here there’s far more space.
“At first, Grand Princess seemed very big, but like everything you get used to it and now seems regular sized. It’s like driving a bus instead of a car – but we’ve got very good brakes.
“The sight of the Liver Buildings from the ship is fantastic. There’s no other city port like this. My father sailed on a great old Mersey liner, Aquitania.
“I got the ship-bug as a boy when we sailed on the troopship Oxfordshire, another lovely Liverpool ship owned by Bibby Line.”
For three months, Capt Carlton, 54, is accompanied by his wife Raquel and their four-year-old son, James, whose toys sit in a corner of the vast bridge. He started his career 37 years ago and served on P&O’s famous flagship Canberra. His first command was Pacific Princess, made famous by the TV series Love Boat.
Grand Princess left Liverpool at 7pm last night, marking a highly successful first visit to the city.
The final cruise ships booked to arrive at the terminal, which opened last September, are Cunard Line’s QE2 on October 3 – on her farewell Round Britain cruise – and Fred Olsen Cruise Line’s Balmoral on October 12.
The Royal Navy is berthing 12 ships at the new landing stage in 2008, with visits already from flagship HMS Ark Royal and HMS Bulwark. The Navy’s largest warship, HMS Ocean, is also scheduled.
Tourists bring their dollars
IN FIVE years, almost £3m of tourism spend in Liverpool is expected to be attributable to visitors arriving through the cruise liner terminal.
Last night, the Liverpool One and Metquarter shopping centres said they had seen an increase in trade thanks to the arrival of the Grand Princess, but exact figures were unavailable.
Joanne Jennings, chief executive of Liverpool One, said: “It’s fantastic to look down from the streets of Liverpool and see such a ship of this scale in Liverpool.
“We have been delighted to welcome our American guests to the streets of Liverpool One, and wish them happy shopping.
“This is another testament to the international recognition that the city continues to enjoy.”
Jennina O’Neill, of the Metquarter, said: “It was great to see so many passengers from the Grand Princess coming to visit the Metquarter.”
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