arxcards

During covid, they scrapped 6 ships. That allowed Royal Caribbean to take their mantle of the biggest cruise fleet. The rebranding of Costa ships and P&O Australia is as much about hubris and regaining their mantle.

Correct. Scale is everything. I am taking a shot at the way this is being spun. CLIA say it is booming here, yet we are losing ships which suggests that isn't true but just an isolated stat to spin. Similarly, the US is apparently booming, yet none of the cruise lines are turning a profit. Specific to, Carnival, they are taking in Costa ships, yet they have only partly replaced the capacity of the 6 ships they scrapped during covid. Booming? The industry is just talking themselves up.

If your itinerary is unaffected, it would be business as usual and nothing to communicate. Yes, they could have sent a blanket email to everyone in their contact list, but I presume they are going to be run off their feet just responding to passengers who have had their cruises cancelled. In early 2025 P&O Cruises Australia brand will be sunset and its operations integrated into sister line, Carnival Cruise Line. As a result, the following itineraries are affected. Pacific Explorer – discontinued operations from 2nd March 2025 Pacific Adventure: Itineraries cancelled: V515, V516, V517, V518 Operated by Carnival Cruise Line after April 2025 Pacific Encounter: Itineraries cancelled: I512, I513, I514 Operated by Carnival Cruise Line after April 2025 If you are booked on one of these itineraries you will be contacted by Guest Services in the coming days with refund details. We apologise that this change has been necessary. If you are booked on any other P&O Cruises Australia itinerary your cruise is unaffected by this announcement and we look forward to welcoming you onboard soon. No Carnival Cruise Line itineraries are impacted by this announcement. Notice of Cruise Cancellations and Changes to Operating Brand | P&O Cruises Australia (pocruises.com.au)

I am just speculating, or maybe just reading this a bit different, but I think that is unlikely. They could have taken Splendor away this winter if that were the case and wouldn't need to dissolve P&O to achieve that. As is current with the announcement, we are losing a ship with the retirement of Pacific Explorer. They would have kept her longer, but there was no point spending excess dollars on her for converting to Carnival Explorer livery. In time, I believe they will keep the Brisbane ship here full-time, with summer in Brisbane and the off season in Freo, Auckland & Melbourne. That still reduces the P&O/Carnival fleet from 3 x P&O + 1.5 Carnival to a fleet of 4.x Carnival. They dumped a shock news release on Tuesday. They will now be looking to buoy the market by drip feeding pieces of positive news,

Pinched from the Carnival discussion of this topic, which was pinched from elsewhere. Not an official render:

As it reads, it just means that any cruise you do on Carnival will count to their loyalty program, which is somewhat of a new concept for 100% P&O cruisers. Keep hoping, there is quite a bit of conjecture about past cruises counting. They haven't said yes, they haven't said no. There is no way they that past cruises can count to double-dipping on both Princess and Carnival. If they took Princess points away to do this for Carnival, there will be a lot of unhappy cruisers out there to. This has been all the talk overnight. Looking at JH's Q&A session, everyone talking about yesterday's news is asking about VIFP credits for past P&O cruises.

Wasn't there a CLIA article a couple of months back saying how much cruising was booming here too.

Explorer's younger sister (the former Oceana) has been laid up awaiting a buyer for some time. Apparently in better shape, nobody has snapped her up - perhaps the price is too high. There are also two of Royal's Vision class ships that have been on the market for a while. I would agree that Aliaga is not a done deal, but I can't see a future for Explorer either. Despite the irony, I can't even see Explorer being reunited with Zoltina at Margaritaville.

I hope so. I thought there was a lot of unresolved stuff waiting for someone to spend the time on it. That will make it tougher for Chris to ply his craft down here - no Cunard or P&O history lectures.

Same - O on the platinum bit. If they take them out of Princess CC, I will still hold my status there, but I would imagine their will be plenty of others hoping their past P&O stays on their CC status.

There is currently no Carnival VIFP credits from P&O cruises.

Send them a pair of crocs and a baseball cap and they will be Carnival ready 🤣

Ooh! Great question. That has been the flagship token since 2007. Every dollar matters, so Carnival might have a P&O garage sail (sic). I also wonder about the mountain of P&O archives that has been stored away.

Nice rendering. I love the Grand class too and looking forward to Crown Princess coming down to base in Sydney. Between Crown & Diamond, we will have 67 nights to enjoy those ships next year. Both of P&Os ships have itineraries running well into 2026. They may chop and change, but I suspect they will get through 2025 in their current homeports. It is the newest of the Sun class ships (Oceana) that is up for sale, with the other sisters in having much lesser roles. I haven't heard of any afterlife for Pac Explorer, so I suspect she will be bound for Aliaga. As for hand-me-downs, I know of plenty down here that would be more than happy to see a whale tail mounted on Coral Princess.

Initially, it is about saving from not having two similar brands competing with other in the year-round market. Both are trying to outdo each other with advertising & marketing. Both have Australian offices to run and two distinctly different interactive web sites, customer support, social media presences. It is hard to call 3 ships a fleet, and that is a lot of hassle to go through to have less than 10,000 passengers at sea at any given time. Increased fares for sure, especiall for the 6 months of the year that they are the only brand in town. Carnival Corp share price was up by 6% yesterday, so this appears to be investor driven.

There is a filter button where you can tag the relevant ship. Cruise Finder | P&O Cruises Australia (pocruises.com.au) She is off to Auckland tomorrow, then has only a handful of cruises from Melbourne, Adelaide & Freo. PS: I don't think Carnival makes todays P&O look good. Some things are better on Carnival, some things are better on Carnival (IMHO).

It might just mean keeping them a couple of years longer if there is no secondary market.

The casinos operate at sea, where there are no federal or state regulations to follow. I can't see how a lawsuit could be filed.

I reckon you will get one after the dust has settled, the former Star Princess. Pacific Adventure (Golden) has had the exhaust cowl modified so that it can transit under the Sydney harbour bridge to access the 2nd cruise terminal at White Bay. Over the summer. the main terminal at Circular Quay is 100% booked, and that reduced height gives them a key benefit of accessing the under-utilized terminal. As with the former Golden & Star Princess', P&O Australia has been fed cast-off ships going way back. Prior to the 3 current ships, Statendam, Ryndam, Crown Princess, Regal Princess, Arcadia, Tropicale, Jubilee. I wonder what they are going to do with their leftover ships now. Wouldn't it be somewhat of an insult to be sending tired 20-year-old Princess/HAL ships to be rebranded as Carnival?

For those interested, it looks like these are the final P&O operated cruises. There could be something else tacked-on at the end, but these are the final dates as far as available cruises go: Pacific Encounter - 8th March, 7 nights to the Islands. Current blackout dates are from 15th March till 5th April, for makeover and/or modified itineraries. 1st Carnival operated cruise 5th April 2025 Pacific Adventure - 6th march, 4 night Tangalooma. Current blackout dates 10th March till 29th March. 1st Carnival cruise looks like 29th March, but it isn't tagged as such on P&O's site. The first Carnival cruise referenced is the following one on 7th April. As the one on 29th March isn't tagged as Carnival, it is possible that it could yet be modified.

P&O Australia had no loyalty plan. The nights/cruises on P&O Australia counted to Princess Captains circle because they were joined at the hip because of Sitmar - something that would give you some extra reading credits. - Even as late as 2006, Pacific Princess spent 6 months cruising for Princess, 6 months with P&O Australia. - Sea Princess swapped roles with P&O UK Oceana from time to time. - Princess ships had a P&O logo painted on them - In generic terms, Princess was the American adaption of P&O UK. The decision to absorb P&O Australia into Carnival could also mean taking on some of their legacy. They need to wave a carrot, as a lot of P&O AU cruisers loathe Carnival, and todays decision has reinforced that. Whether they grandfather P&O Australia cruise history into VIFP instead of Princess CC, it should make little difference to y'all. After all, it is just 3 ships from the cruising backwater and hardly worth a 2nd thought. It is important to Carnival that they don't leave too much space for Royal to fill a void.

At this stage, I have only heard that she is exiting the P&O fleet or she is being retired. I am not aware of a future owner but if there isn't one, she will sail from Freo to Singapore to destock, then direct to Aliaga for scrapping.

I was thinking this afternoon, wondering if the bed bugs turned the tables to make P&O Australia invisible. I think much of the response on the ship was about mitigating compensation, when it should have been focused on fixing the problem. Some of us don't expect refunds or credits, and would rather that they just make it right.

Ours is the same for P&O, Princess, Cunard, HAL - but we have different numbers for Carnival. They should have known who we were, as Carnival was the last of the 5 that we cruised on.

I agree. There was also no control over the announcement. No spokesperson from Carnival Australia, P&O Australia or even from head office. Hence, nobody to spin their proposed "good news" and answer questions, which was left to those few special influencers that are lamenting the loss of their free P&O cruises. The void of info led to much of the detail being misreported, so it would seem that they didn't expect this to be the lead story on our 6pm TV news. With that P&O Australia influence leaving, does our market remain significant enough for Carnival/Princess to retain our $AU onboard currency?