Sea Princess was due to berth at Port Chalmers tomorrow but its journey around New Zealand has been hampered by bad weather.
Dunedin City Council business development adviser Sophie Barker said the ship's scheduled day at Port Chalmers had been cancelled.
''We shall all have to look forward to the Sun Princess, on October 25, as our first ship,'' she said.
The first scheduled cruise-ship visit to Dunedin last year was also cancelled.
About 90 people involved in the cruise season attended ''pre-brief'' sessions at Port Otago yesterday.
One of the key speakers, Cruise New Zealand executive officer Raewyn Tan, could not attend because her flight to Dunedin was cancelled due to strong winds in the North Island.
Instead, Cruise New Zealand deputy chairman Kevin O'Sullivan, of Southland, delivered a presentation about what retailers and tourism operators could expect from the coming cruise season and how they could best accommodate passengers and their various needs.
He said the number of ship visits and passengers was expected to remain relatively static this season, although there would be slightly fewer Australian visitors and more from the United States, which meant more money was likely to be spent in the Dunedin area.
Overall, about 140,000 passengers would visit, about 54% of them Australians.
New regulations established by Port Otago for tour operators were also outlined yesterday.
