Abu Dhabi’s attempts at becoming a cruise destination of note have received another boost when the 755-passenger Ocean Princess docked at Mina Zayed Port on the 12th May. It is the first time a Princess Cruises ship brings a visit to the emirate.

The luxurious Ocean Princess is currently on a voyage around the world. She is the first of two Princess Cruises ships that will visit Abu Dhabi within a matter of weeks.

The General Commercial Manager of the Rais Hassan Group, George Varghese, said: “This arrival is the result of three years of negotiations with senior Princess Cruises management, though the move to include Abu Dhabi on the company's round-the-world itineraries gained compelling momentum in the last 12 months.”

Varghese said that Princess Cruises was simply “testing the waters” with the small but luxurious Ocean Princess and that bigger things were literally on the way. He then announced that the company’s much larger Dawn Princess, with a passenger capacity of 2,272 will dock at Abu Dhabi on the 16th June as part of its own round-the-world voyage.

He added that the arrival of the Dawn Princess and Ocean Princess clearly showed an increase in demand from international cruise operators. Traditionally the majority of cruise ships visit Abu Dhabi during the winter months, but he was sure that the emirate would eventually become a year-round cruise destination.

The owner of Princess Cruises is of course Carnival Cruises – a company that operates more than 100 cruise ships under a variety of brands, including Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises.