Carnival says goodbye to Melbourne

[bazzaw]

https://www.9news.com.au/national/carnival-australia-major-cruise-company-to-pull-ships-from-melbourne-ports/4bb4d111-2d2a-47ad-968a-4eb8e798b5d5

[MMDown Under]

They were both good cruise ships. Your cruises must give you happy memories 

[Yaya_in_Oz]

Yeh, I read that but surely there would have to be more to it. $3.50 would hardly be a deal breaker on people taking a cruise. Carnival would just pass the charge onto passengers who wouldn't even notice if a cruise was a few dollars extra.

I think Princess are just mean. Melburnians have supported the cruise line for many years and the thanks we get is to have to fly to another city and back to take a cruise in our own country when we have the second highest State population. Surely they could offer a few cruises from Melbourne other than round Australia. Hopeless.

[MicCanberra]

There has to be more to it.

[Aus Traveller]

2 minutes ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

Yeh, I read that but surely there would have to be more to it. $3.50 would hardly be a deal breaker on people taking a cruise. Carnival would just pass the charge onto passengers who wouldn't even notice if a cruise was a few dollars extra.

I think Princess are just mean. Melburnians have supported the cruise line for many years and the thanks we get is to have to fly to another city and back to take a cruise in our own country when we have the second highest State population. Surely they could offer a few cruises from Melbourne other than round Australia. Hopeless.

How can Carnival pass the extra cost on to passengers making it cost a few dollars extra? Itineraries have been published and bookings accepted. $3.50 might not sound much, but multiply that by the number of passengers and it becomes a sizeable amount. That is every time the ship docks. I suspect that Carnival has publicised this issue hoping it will put pressure on the authorities to delay increasing their port fees.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

1 minute ago, Aus Traveller said:

How can Carnival pass the extra cost on to passengers making it cost a few dollars extra? Itineraries have been published and bookings accepted. $3.50 might not sound much, but multiply that by the number of passengers and it becomes a sizeable amount. That is every time the ship docks. I suspect that Carnival has publicised this issue hoping it will put pressure on the authorities to delay increasing their port fees.

The itineraries only came out today for 2025/26 so they could have easily changed the price on the website. No booking should have been accepted as the cruises weren't open for booking.

I agree they are trying to put pressure on authorities to delay increasing fees but even if that was done, they are not going to change the offered itineraries to include Melbourne for 2025/6.

 

Thats why I'm giving P and O a go. I'm not flying to Sydney or Brisbane every time I want to do an Australian cruise. If I'm at the airport, I may as well go a bit further and I hope the other approx 7 million Victorians do the same. Princess probably think they are so precious and sought after that we'll all just fly to Sydney. As if.😶‍🌫️

[getting older slowly]

i will enjoy the cruises out of melbourne until they stop

 

After which we will stop cruising .... so carnival corp get none of my money and we spend it else where..

 

Cheers Don  1 1/2 hours till boarding

[Ondine]

Just newspapers beating up the cruise industry with half baked news.  Yes there are new port charges which come in effect on Jan 1 and apparently were just announced last week but they are not very large.  Other things are at play.

 

Cunard announced on November 3rd (4 weeks ago) that they were pulling out of Australia after the 2024/25 season.  We have known for 6 months that after this season 2023/24 QE would not be returning to Melbourne and in 2024/25 would home port Sydney, later announcing that this would be the last time for Sydney.  No mention of this in the Press!

 

When the new itineraries came out for Princess about 6 months ago we Melbourne people complained on this forum that there were very few cruises listed for Diamond Princess in 2024/25 and if you look at the Melbourne Ports schedule you can see that they were not planning to come back in the near future.

P&O have got a lot of slots for 2025/26 booked but this is only an indication.

 

Disney and Virgin have committed for 2024/25 cruising but things can change.

 

I am looking forward to Norwegian Sun coming in 2024/25 and hope that the cruises are not too expensive because I would like to support any company who comes here.  Interesting itineraries although would have to be B2B.

 

I believe another problem is the scarcity of ships.  Princess have announced that they will be home porting Cape Canaveral from this season so that takes another ship out the mix left for Aus.  I heard that they are also going to do the Antarctic voyages again which is in our summer.  It took us too long to get started after Covid lockdown and companies have looked elsewhere to position their now limited number of ships.  Remember they sold so many off.  They work years in advance.

[Aus Traveller]

10 minutes ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

The itineraries only came out today for 2025/26 so they could have easily changed the price on the website. No booking should have been accepted as the cruises weren't open for booking.

I agree they are trying to put pressure on authorities to delay increasing fees but even if that was done, they are not going to change the offered itineraries to include Melbourne for 2025/6.

 

Thats why I'm giving P and O a go. I'm not flying to Sydney or Brisbane every time I want to do an Australian cruise. If I'm at the airport, I may as well go a bit further and I hope the other approx 7 million Victorians do the same. Princess probably think they are so precious and sought after that we'll all just fly to Sydney. As if.😶‍🌫️

I see the point you make about the 2025/26 itineraries.🙂

[MicCanberra]

there will still be 126 bookings for 25/26 season.

[Ondine]

7 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

there will still be 126 bookings for 25/26 season.

Not sure where they got that figure from.  Melbourne Ports has 100 visits scheduled for 25/26 and that is the total number of visits including all the day stops by all ships some of which are here multiple times. 

It is not an indication of home porting which the article is really about.  Day visits don't require all the infrastructure or staff that turnarounds do.  Fewer ships home porting means less fuel and food supplies needed.

[Flickit]

The TT-Line (Spirit of Tasmania ships) shifted operations from Station Pier to Geelong recently due to claimed Victorian Ports Corporation 'price gouging', plus there were some issues with the 1950's infrastructure at Station Pier... (When it was first announced back in 2020 I assumed the ports corporation was just pushing the Tassie ships out to make room for more cruise ships)

[Ondine]

Spirit of Tassie relocated 12 months ago last October.  The reports prior to moving were that they could not come to an agreement with Port of Melbourne regarding an increase in fees so they built a new terminal in Geelong (Corio) and went.  Geelong were happy to have them and in the past have touted getting cruise ships there.  One mayor was offering to build a new terminal for cruising but I don't think he is still Mayor.

Perhaps Port of Melbourne want the cruise ships to contribute to a new terminal like they did in Brisbane but that was prior to covid ruining everything.

[Flickit]

Geelong is great for the Tassie ships, I've been through the new terminal twice this year, it's much better than Station Pier, easier access, plenty of parking, and such. (Station Pier was ok back before the local area was modernised, but in recent decades it's been a bit of a pain getting in and out of there).

 

I'm not sure how the cruise ships would go down at Geelong with the distance from the airport and the city, I'm sure it could be managed but it doesn't seem ideal... 

[bazshirl2]

I'm with you Don. Will be travelling elsewhere when homeporting ends here.

Have a great cruise. Barry

[MicCanberra]

Melbourne may have culture but apparently that won't have home porting cruise ships.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

Channel 7 news just had a segment on this also. I think a few people will be shocked/surprised.

I was aware we were only getting half a season with Diamond 24/25 and thought it would be similar 25/26. But to stop homeporting altogether... 

 

There are other ships departing Melbourne but apart from P and O, nothing in my price range.

Train journeys are my favourite so perhaps its time to revisit those.

[arxcards]

It has been shaping that way for a year. Glad the news media has finally caught wind of it, but Melbournites have been talking about these reduced schedules here for ages.

[yarramar]

2 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Melbourne may have culture but apparently that won't have home porting cruise ships.

The current culture of Melbourne is more like a toxic mould.

[MMDown Under]

7 hours ago, getting older slowly said:

i will enjoy the cruises out of melbourne until they stop

 

After which we will stop cruising .... so carnival corp get none of my money and we spend it else where..

 

Cheers Don  1 1/2 hours till boarding

Bon Voyage Don

[icat2000]

I'm disappointed too. Because travelling up to Sydney or Brisbane can add up to $1000 on your journery. You have to factor in accommodation, flights, meals, parking at airport.

 

The itinerary will have to tempt me to fly to those ports.

 

 

 

 

[MMDown Under]

28 minutes ago, icat2000 said:

I'm disappointed too. Because travelling up to Sydney or Brisbane can add up to $1000 on your journery. You have to factor in accommodation, flights, meals, parking at airport.

 

The itinerary will have to tempt me to fly to those ports.

 

 

 

 

Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady is going to home berth in Melbourne.  As they have no children allowed, they have good specials during school holidays in January. The ship arrives in Sydney from Athens on 4th Dec.

[MicCanberra]

10 hours ago, yarramar said:

The current culture of Melbourne is more like a toxic mould.

At least you can get a coffee 

[MicCanberra]

8 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady is going to home berth in Melbourne.  As they have no children allowed, they have good specials during school holidays in January. The ship arrives in Sydney from Athens on 4th Dec.

Good specials for Virgin, doesn't necessarily mean a cheap cruise though.

[NSWP]

25 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

At least you can get a coffee 

And great Italian cuisine down Lygon St.