‘The Grand Princess’ a cruise liner, which berthed on the south side of the Liffey in Ringsend recently is 290 metres long, the equivalent in length of three football pitches. It is capable of carrying 3,000 passengers and over 1,000 crew members. The 450 million-dollar vessel, which was built in Italy in 1998, offers the latest in cruise luxury.

The liner is owned by Princess Cruises and is part of the Carnival Corporation, one of the largest vacation companies in the world. Their cruise liners sail to all seven continents and call at nearly 260 ports around the world, carrying more than 800,000 passengers each year to more worldwide destinations than any other major line.

Dublin Port company is committed to promoting Dublin as Ireland’s leading cruise liner destination, It has seen the numbers of cruise liner passengers calling at Dublin increasing steadily over the past few years and will welcome almost 40,000 passengers to Dublin Port in 2004 a 100% increase on 2000. Visiting cruise liners make a major contribution to the economy each year.

In April this year Dublin Port announced an agreement with Princess Cruises, to bring 10 giant liners with an estimated 26,400 passengers and 14,100 crew members to Dublin in 2005, worth an estimated €23 million to the local economy. Mr Enda Connellan, Chief Executive, Dublin Port said “We are now reaping the rewards of our work to welcome the Grand Princess which will contribute €3 million to Dublin’s economy during its one-day visit. It will also enable us to continue our work of promoting Ireland and Dublin as an attractive cruise liner destination.”