Royal Princess marooned in Auckland as Cyclone Tam strikes North Island

• New Zealand’s North Island is currently being battered by the heavy winds of Cyclone Tam.
• Due to this, Royal Princess won’t be able to leave the Port of Auckland today as scheduled.
• The ship also had to cancel a port call in Pago Pago due to the delay.

Princess’ ship Royal Princess was scheduled to leave Auckland today, but will spend Easter Friday morning in port as Cyclone Tam batters the North Island of New Zealand.

The ship is instead scheduled to leave on Friday April 18, assuming that conditions somewhat improve.

Furthermore, the cruise ship has had to cancel a port call to Pago Pago, due to the cyclone-induced delays.

Princess Cruises shared in a statement: “Due to the tropical storm affecting Auckland and New Zealand’s North Island, Royal Princess has not been able to depart Auckland as scheduled today and will remain in port.

“Weather conditions are expected to improve by tomorrow, and we anticipate our departure to be tomorrow afternoon on 18 April once the system has passed. Princess will continue to monitor the forecasts and discuss with the local port authorities and will provide additional updates to our guests as details are known.

“As a result of this delay, regretfully, Princess will no longer call to Pago Pago, American Samoa on Saturday, 19 April as part of our repositional voyage to North America.”

How is Cyclone Tam affecting New Zealand?

Cyclone Tam is currently circling the North Island of New Zealand, bringing 150km/h winds and heavy rain to match.

While it started off classified as a category one cyclone, it has now been reclassified to an ex-tropical cyclone.

Nearly 25,000 properties across the north of New Zealand have lost power and multiple electricity outages extended to Auckland, where Royal Princess is docked.

The winds are the strongest winds to hit Auckland since 2017, but positively, today is expected to be the worst of the weather.

At this moment, it appears likely that Royal Princess will be able to proceed with her itinerary from tomorrow onwards.