Cruise shipping returns to Station Pier

​The Coral Princess berthed at Station Pier on Thursday 15 September - the first international cruise ship to call at Melbourne since March 2020.

The ship was welcomed by the Victorian Minister for Tourism, The Hon. Steve Dimopoulos, executives from Ports Victoria, Carnival Australia (the owner of Princess Lines), and the City of Melbourne.

Ports Victoria CEO, Brendan Webb, said, “We are delighted to welcome cruise ships back to Station Pier. We have been working towards their return for many months – preparing the pier and liaising closely with the cruise industry and Victorian and Australian government departments.”

Bookings for ship visits built steadily and are now back at pre-COVID levels for the 2022-23 season. The Coral Princess is the first of 112 cruise ship visits scheduled to call at Station Pier this season. In addition, one ship will call at Webb Dock West in the port of Melbourne.

The next scheduled cruise ship calls at Melbourne will deliver passengers for the Melbourne Cup with two arriving on 31 October and one on 1 November.

From then on, the pace of visits will quicken reaching a peak in January and February 2023.

In 2019, Victoria’s cruise industry contributed $353 million to the state’s economy, bringing in more than 300,000 visitors to the state.

Read the Minister for Tourism’s media release about the return of cruise shipping (PDF)

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The Coral Princess​ ​berthed at Station Pier