The latest statistics about Australian cruise passengers - report released today

[CruiseCriticAUeditor]

Read it here: https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/4052/

[GUT2407]

Still growing but Sydney docking is a growing problem.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Whilst it's great to see the cruise lines bringing newer ships to our region, the fact that most of those newer ships are also much bigger will start to cause problems in some of the smaller ports. The effect of 4000+ passengers invading the Isle of Pines, for example, will destroy the tropical island feel of the place, and will probably also destroy the beaches and reefs there.

 

Of course, there will be some places that thrive from the higher passenger counts. On our recent Celebrity Solstice cruise I noticed that Mt Maunganui had a lot more cafes and restaurants this year than on previous visits. But even there the town could become swamped if two 4000+ passenger ships were docked on the same day. It was busy enough with just Solstice and Golden Princess in port, which combined carry around 5,500 passengers.

[GUT2407]

Yep a lot of ports in the region just aren’t suitable for these mega ships

[VK3DQ]

The Low % of Victorians cruising is a direct reflection of the low number of Melbourne departures .. a "new" cruise terminal is urgently needed if Melbourne is to remain a viable cruise port...

 

Station Pier is a real mess .. just hope it not raining when you next use it

 

Regards

John

[Chiliburn]

There's strong rumours Royal Caribbean’s number 5 oasis class will be built for Asian and pacific regions.

 

[MicCanberra]

5 hours ago, CruiseCriticAUeditor said:

Read it here: https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/4052/

Cheers.

[MicCanberra]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Whilst it's great to see the cruise lines bringing newer ships to our region, the fact that most of those newer ships are also much bigger will start to cause problems in some of the smaller ports. The effect of 4000+ passengers invading the Isle of Pines, for example, will destroy the tropical island feel of the place, and will probably also destroy the beaches and reefs there.

 

Of course, there will be some places that thrive from the higher passenger counts. On our recent Celebrity Solstice cruise I noticed that Mt Maunganui had a lot more cafes and restaurants this year than on previous visits. But even there the town could become swamped if two 4000+ passenger ships were docked on the same day. It was busy enough with just Solstice and Golden Princess in port, which combined carry around 5,500 passengers.

There will need to be a balance to ensure the places can remain attractive destinations. Not enough infrastructure and services for the passengers and cruise ship numbers may swamp the place to the detriment of the place and then ships may stop visiting altogether.

[MicCanberra]

It is good to see they recognise the port issues not just in Sydney but also elsewhere.

[The_Big_M]

Given we already have the number 1 passenger density of major markets in the world, growth was always going to move downwards. There just isn't the demand to keep growing massively.

 

It's also misleading to pin that on Sydney as both:

a) there have been more ship visits to Sydney in the past, making it incorrect. It's not a true limit, albeit it's less available

b) the claim is that other markets can grow, so if true that would have happened

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by The_Big_M

[Witchymob]

We have been on a cruise holiday every year since 2008.  This year we have nothing booked as we are in Western Australia and there are no ships coming over winter the last one was in March and nothing now until October.  We have sailed Princess on all but one of those cruises but there isn't anything from any other State over winter either.  We like the winter get away and all the cruises we have been  on have been full, but from a long winter season in Fremantle in 2008 to last year the choices have reduced so there was only one we could do last year and nothing this year.  It seems the major cruise lines are only interested in sending ships  in our summers when it is too cold and rough in the rest of the world.  I have always wondered why no line have put a ship in Darwin for a season sailing to south east Asia, during the dry season.

[SinbadThePorter]

1 hour ago, Witchymob said:

 I have always wondered why no line have put a ship in Darwin for a season sailing to south east Asia, during the dry season.

 

I for one would jump at the chance.

 

But I don't think it will work because it would require the airlines to provide cheap fares from the capital cities to Darwin. Since they are so used to price gouging I don't see that happening.

[MicCanberra]

22 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I for one would jump at the chance.

 

But I don't think it will work because it would require the airlines to provide cheap fares from the capital cities to Darwin. Since they are so used to price gouging I don't see that happening.

I would love that too, but agree, the airfares would blow out budgets.

[GUT2407]

24 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

I for one would jump at the chance.

 

But I don't think it will work because it would require the airlines to provide cheap fares from the capital cities to Darwin. Since they are so used to price gouging I don't see that happening.

Yep airfares would be a killer

[Pushka]

I think this just shows that the cruising market has moved from Australian based cruises to international ones. 

[The_Big_M]

50 minutes ago, Pushka said:

I think this just shows that the cruising market has moved from Australian based cruises to international ones. 

 

Exactly. Yet they try to use that as an argument that it's because of "Sydney infrastructure."

 

Rubbish. They believe they can get better yields elsewhere - which is likely true. That is why ships aren't operating out of other ports, or even Sydney more.

 

[MicCanberra]

I think people are doing both cruises now, they got the taste here and now are going further afield as well.

[Pushka]

Because Adelaide is late to the cruise market compared with the Pacific cruises that have been operating for decades from Sydney, there is a “boom” in cruises starting here next season. There is probably some pent up demand here for people who haven’t cruised much. 

 

Did I mention we are off to Alaska on a Viking Cruise in 3 weeks time? 😁

 

 

[MMDown Under]

6 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Because Adelaide is late to the cruise market compared with the Pacific cruises that have been operating for decades from Sydney, there is a “boom” in cruises starting here next season. There is probably some pent up demand here for people who haven’t cruised much. 

 

Did I mention we are off to Alaska on a Viking Cruise in 3 weeks time? 😁

 

 

Bon Voyage!  

The thought has crossed my mind that the cruise lines don't want to put decent ships and itineraries here in winter because they would loose the custom of all those Aussies who cruise overseas in our winter.  

I will be cruising overseas in August.

6 minutes ago, Pushka said:

 

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

22 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Because Adelaide is late to the cruise market compared with the Pacific cruises that have been operating for decades from Sydney, there is a “boom” in cruises starting here next season. There is probably some pent up demand here for people who haven’t cruised much. 

 

Did I mention we are off to Alaska on a Viking Cruise in 3 weeks time? 😁

 

 

Have a great trip.

[getting older slowly]

I think one thing the stats may show such a low % of Victorian  and large number from NSW is as stated the number of cruises round tripping from Sydney compared to Melbourne.....

 

Also the number of people due to the dislike of flying, or love the convenience of simply driving to port, to get on board.... which is directly related to number of cruises available.....

 

This covers us... why did we go cruising... because it left from Melbourne....

 

not because to where it was going ( well we like going to New Zealand )

 

Cheers Don

 

We have to wait until November to be off again... why so long   

[MicCanberra]

Because that is when the majority of the ships come back.

[OzKiwiJJ]

The annoying thing is that Princess used to have a good selection of winter cruises, mostly operating out of Sydney, Fremantle, or Brisbane. Before she went to P&O Dawn Princess would do back to back Top End runs and they were very popular. Now, once Sea Princess takes off on the circumnavigation/Hawaii-Tahiti/world cruise/Hawaii-Tahiti/circumnavigation series, and Sun Princess gets shunted off to Asia, there are no Princess ships operating shorter cruises for at least three months over winter. It''s very disappointing. And when the ships do return the majority of the itineraries are the same-old same-old NZ ones with a few token South Pacific ones, and one or two Tasmania or Queensland ones, or a PNG cruise in the peak wet season. Go figure!

[The_Big_M]

True. From the cruise line perspectives, as fewer people want to cruise in Winter, the yields are lower so they look to send the ships off elsewhere then. There's a market, but it's not as profitable.

[OzKiwiJJ]

15 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

True. From the cruise line perspectives, as fewer people want to cruise in Winter, the yields are lower so they look to send the ships off elsewhere then. There's a market, but it's not as profitable.

But people were cruising in winter. The top end cruises were always fully booked, as was the PNG cruise we did in August 2016. But all those cruises were on Sun class ships. Once Princess dumped Dawn, and had Golden winter over instead they may have a drop in bookings although I can't recall what itineraries Golden did during that period.