| Royal Caribbean supports Port Botany

RCL is urging the industry to
give up on Garden Island and
switch its focus to Port Botany.
JUST like some of the first sailors to visit
Australia two centuries ago, cruise passengers
may soon be bound for Botany Bay.
RCL’s general manager Gavin Smith told
Cruise Weekly that the company’s preference
for a new cruise base in Sydney, out of all the
options suggested in last week’s Hawke Review
(CW, 03 Apr), is the Port Botany Container
Terminal.
“In our submission to the Hawke Review we
said that a second berth east of the Harbour
Bridge is essential for the continued growth of
the Australian cruise industry and that a
creative solution to this requirement has to
involve sharing either naval or container
shipping facilities,” Smith said.
“We also acknowledged that any sharing of
Garden Island should not adversely impact on
the Navy’s maritime operational requirements
and we are therefore unsurprised that the
Hawke Review considers that this would be the
case.”
Smith indicated that it was time to give up on
Garden Island.
“As the Hawke Review has now closed off the
option of Garden Island as a solution to Sydney
and Australia’s cruise terminal capacity issue,
RCL encourages all concerned to now focus on
the use of the latent capacity created by the
Port Botany Container Terminal expansion for
large cruise ship turnarounds,” he said.
According to Smith, the use of Port Botany as
a cruise port would be similar to the
company’s experience in several of the world’s
largest cruise ports including Fort Lauderdale,
Miami, Southampton, Civitavecchia and
Barcelona.
“Port Botany would offer fast and efficient
processing of our guests and stores with better
transport access than can be provided in the
congested Garden Island or Circular Quay
areas, with convenient access to the nearby
airport,” he said.
The company’s immediate concern, however,
is to continue working with all stakeholders for
the preparation of Sydney’s OPT for the
imminent arrival of the Voyager of the Seas
and Celebrity Solstice megaliners.