The first cruise ship of the season, the Sea Princess, originally expected in Tauranga's port this weekend has cancelled its voyage due to technical issues.

About 2000 passengers booked on the ship's Sydney, Brisbane, New Zealand cruise are affected by the cancellation, with the Sea Princess now expected to arrive in Tauranga on October 18.

The Sea Princess.

The Sea Princess is currently in dry dock at Garden Island in Sydney, awaiting repairs. It was a difficulty in obtaining parts for the repairs that resulted in the voyage being cancelled.

SunLive understands Brisbane passengers were about fly to Sydney to embark on the cruise when they were informed of the cancellation at Brisbane Airport yesterday.

The ship's parent company, Carnival Australia, reports all guests will receive a full refund of their cruise fare, air costs, taxes, fees and port expenses, and they will receive a cruise credit equal to the cruise fare paid for the cancelled voyage.

The Sea Princess' cancellation is the latest in a series of problems to strike the ship. In August the Sea Princess missed stops at Broome and Bali on a northern Australia tour because of a technical problem with one of the ship's four engines.

Earlier this month Sea Princess passengers were struck down by the highly infectious norovirus during a cruise from Fremantle WA, to Singapore and Indonesia.

On September 14 the Sea Princess cruise to Brisbane was cancelled on the day it was due to set sail, again due to technical problems.

On September 26 new Sea Princess passengers were told the ship will not leave from Brisbane as planned, but from Sydney, and Auckland will not be included in New Zealand trip.

On September 29 the New Zealand cruise was cancelled.

While the company's cruise maps show the ship en-route from Brisbane to Auckland, the Sea Princess webcam shows the ship is still in dock at Sydney.

The Sea Princess is now expected to dock at Tauranga on October 18, at 4.45am and depart at 6.40pm.

The next cruise ship scheduled after the Sea Princess is the Dawn Princess on October 25.