More than 4000 tourists disembarked at Mount Maunganui for a day in the Bay today from cruise ships Diamond Princess and Golden Princess.

The ships are similar size and both carry about 2600 passengers and 1100 crew. They are both 290m long but the diamond princess is a metre and a half wider and cost an extra $50 million to build at $500 million.

More than 4000 passengers have disembarked off two cruise ships today. Photos: Chris Callinan.

The Italian built Golden Princess at number two berth is the one with the ‘spoiler' across the stern. This is the Golden Princess's first season sailing cruises from Melbourne for the southern summer months, and brings the number of Australian based Princess ships to five.

Starting this year Golden Princess begins northern summer round trip cruises from China our of Tianjin, joining the Sapphire Princess, which will based out of Shanghai year-round.

The Diamond Princess is also at the Mount today. The ship was originally named Sapphire Princess, but a fire during construction changed things around.

Construction was delayed when fire swept through the original decks of Diamond Princess – now sailing as Sapphire Princess, according to Wikipedia. Because completion was set back for some time, the sister ship, also under construction, was changed to Diamond Princess.

The name swap helped keep the delivery date of Diamond Princess on time. She was the first Princess Cruise ship to be built in a Japanese shipyard.

Next season Diamond Princess is scheduled to begin roundtrip sailings in the northern winter months from Singapore replacing the Sapphire Princess. The Australia/New Zealand voyages from Sydney will be replaced by the Emerald Princess.

The Golden Princess is scheduled to depart for Gisborne at 6.15pm, the Diamond Princess is scheduled to depart for Auckland at 6.30pm.