The Ovation of the Seas finally arrived in Port Chalmers yesterday morning after the city missed out on hosting it twice last month.
The ship’s last two visits were scheduled for November 17 and 27 and were cancelled due to high winds and a medical emergency respectively.
The ship has capacity for about 4000 passengers and 1300 crew.
Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said he was pleased to see the 348m-long ship coming down the coast and arriving safely.
"It’s quite a big vessel and it’s got a lot of effectively sail area so it’s quite susceptible to effectively windage and so the times for bringing it in are quite tight."
Mr Winders said many of the 4000 passengers got off the ship and went into town to enjoy Dunedin’s hospitality.
"Typically a third of the passengers will come off on managed tours and a third will be effectively Kiwis and Aussies that will get off the vessel and arrange their own day in, out and about in our fine city."
The ship was scheduled to stay overnight and leave at 5pm today.
Mr Winders said more than 120 cruise ships came into Dunedin and only a couple stayed overnight at Port Chalmers.
"It’s an experience that allows the crew passengers to come into town and hopefully go and dine at some of our nice restaurants and have a bit of a night out."
He said so far there had been a few cancellations this season because of "unsettled spring-like conditions" in the last month.
However, many passengers from the vessels that made it in to port went into town. A lot of visits over Christmas and into January and February were expected.
