At 137,000-tonnes, Voyager of the Seas is three-and-a-half times larger than Titanic, can carry up to 3800 passengers and is staffed by about 1200 crew. The ship is too big to fit under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Voyager of the Seas will take a two-night ‘sampler’ cruise and then it will embark on a 14-day cruise taking in Pacific Islands and New Zealand before returning to Sydney.
The ship has an ice-skating rink, a 1350-seat theatre, a casino, cinema, mini-golf course and rock-climbing wall, along with shops, restaurants and swimming pools.
Voyager of the Seas is based in China during the northern summer and travelled to Sydney via Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Darwin and Brisbane.
According to latest figures, the Australian cruising market is booming and this year's season, which began last month and will last until April, will be a record breaker with 588 ship visits from 38 ships. Last season, close to 700,000 trips were taken by Australians with the figure estimated to reach one million by the 2016-17 season.
According to Adam Armstrong, Royal Caribbean's commercial director for Asia-Pacific, Australia’s current infrastructure is not up to coping with the needs of modern megaliners.
"We really need to be catering for more of these big ships," Mr Armstrong said.
"Rather than them being an anomaly, making one call every two weeks as it is with this ship, we want the facilities in Sydney to be capable of taking big ships every day of the week, every year. So there is a bit of catch-up to be done."
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