Carnival Cruise Line to Absorb P&O Australia

[SinbadThePorter]

2 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

Yes, bacon every second day was my experience.

 

My experience year or so ago on Luminosa was a bit different. Out of about 20+ days I can only recall bacon at breakfast in the buffet two times. All the other days it was soggy ham. 😢

[reeves35]

I wonder if Carnival Adventure and Carnival Encounter will initially wear a hybrid livery keeping the existing Southern Cross design near the bow with the Carnival logo added beside it.  There are only a couple of weeks for the initial rebrand so it is unlikely the 2 Grand class ships will receive a completely new livery until their next drydocks.

 

[arxcards]

22 minutes ago, reeves35 said:

I wonder if Carnival Adventure and Carnival Encounter will initially wear a hybrid livery keeping the existing Southern Cross design near the bow with the Carnival logo added beside it.  There are only a couple of weeks for the initial rebrand so it is unlikely the 2 Grand class ships will receive a completely new livery until their next drydocks.

 

Possible, but they will be limited with what they can do. The stuff they are doing at swap-over in Melbourne is unlikely to involve much hull painting as they will only be tied-up at Station Pier. Initially, they will look much the same from the outside, but in the end I think a similar logo is all that will be left as a nod to the past (which is just a recent thing anyway). For 2025, they need to satisfy all the P&O folk that booked a P&O cruise, but still attract Carnival passengers. It will be an interesting balancing act.

[joejoe 59]

We booked the 4 day country cruise for July next year out of Brisbane. It will be interesting to see what changes are made.

 

[Sparky74]

We disembarked the Pacific Encounter this morning. She is looking pretty tired.

Every time it rained there were buckets catching the drips. This has been an issue in the Pantry for sometime as evidenced by the rust patches on the ceiling. But I don’t recall seeing the entrance to the Encounter Hotel roped off due to leaks previously.
Many of the seats in the Marquee Theatre are dilapidated. The carpets on the staircases are threadbare in patches and there just seems to be a lack of maintenance all over the ship. 

I hope they have time to give her some much needed TLC during the changeover. It seems a shame that she’s not going in for a full makeover. 

[cruiser3775]

That's  a shame Sparky. Doesn't do the brand's reputation any favours.

[emjaymlukey]

I am wondering what will happen to our P&O Casino Players club points ?? will they all be cancelled, or transferred to Carnival casino points?

[ceeceeDee]

16 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

We disembarked the Pacific Encounter this morning. She is looking pretty tired.

Every time it rained there were buckets catching the drips. This has been an issue in the Pantry for sometime as evidenced by the rust patches on the ceiling. But I don’t recall seeing the entrance to the Encounter Hotel roped off due to leaks previously.
Many of the seats in the Marquee Theatre are dilapidated. The carpets on the staircases are threadbare in patches and there just seems to be a lack of maintenance all over the ship. 

I hope they have time to give her some much needed TLC during the changeover. It seems a shame that she’s not going in for a full makeover. 

That's disappointing to hear, Sparky. Encounter has obviously gone downhill since we were on her in June/July last year. Although I do remember seeing evidence of a fairly serious leak over the Oasis Bar at the time.

 

What condition were the cabins in (and may I ask what category you had?). Our mini suite last year was in good condition.

 

I guess we can only hope that Carnival will let the moths out of the wallet and give the old girl more than a quick once over at some stage. I know there's 'cheap and cheerful' but 'cheap and dilapidated' just won't cut it. Our cruise dollars may well be spent with another Line. Mind you, we will be able to judge for ourselves when we're on Encounter in December. But that's another 4 months of potential deterioration.☹️

[arxcards]

17 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

We disembarked the Pacific Encounter this morning. She is looking pretty tired.

Every time it rained there were buckets catching the drips. This has been an issue in the Pantry for sometime as evidenced by the rust patches on the ceiling. But I don’t recall seeing the entrance to the Encounter Hotel roped off due to leaks previously.
Many of the seats in the Marquee Theatre are dilapidated. The carpets on the staircases are threadbare in patches and there just seems to be a lack of maintenance all over the ship. 

I hope they have time to give her some much needed TLC during the changeover. It seems a shame that she’s not going in for a full makeover. 

A water leak isn't a drydock issue, and I would hope they are trying to fix it on the run. The same applies to older air-conditioning systems that can't handle the humidity to the point that the ceilings are dripping with condensation. The wear and tear is a worry, as she was only drydocked 18 months ago. Unless they are planning a change of carpet decor in March, there is nothing to stop them replacing worn carpet on the run as well. We have encountered (no pun intended) carpet replacement on several cruises.

 

Beyond a bit of rebranding and change of POS systems, I don't know what they have in store in March, but they can certainly take care of minor engineering issues. The full scheduled drydock services are mostly for engineering compliance inspections and below the water stuff, where they tack hotel reno's to the list to make the most of their docking time. Any of those hotel issues can also be tackled during the 2 week swap-over in March.

 

For us, P&O has always been a secondary cruise line with ships that have already seen their best days before they arrive here. That doesn't necessarily make them bad ships, but they are inclined to have evolving maintenance issues. Second hand ships aren't necessarily a Carnival trait, so it will be really interesting to see how Carnival massages the ship at changeover.

 

PS: Encounter's next scheduled drydock is in Feb 2026, so she is only half way through her 3 year maintenance cycle.

Edited August 24 by arxcards
PS

[joejoe 59]

3 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

That's disappointing to hear, Sparky. Encounter has obviously gone downhill since we were on her in June/July last year. Although I do remember seeing evidence of a fairly serious leak over the Oasis Bar at the time.

 

What condition were the cabins in (and may I ask what category you had?). Our mini suite last year was in good condition.

 

I guess we can only hope that Carnival will let the moths out of the wallet and give the old girl more than a quick once over at some stage. I know there's 'cheap and cheerful' but 'cheap and dilapidated' just won't cut it. Our cruise dollars may well be spent with another Line. Mind you, we will be able to judge for ourselves when we're on Encounter in December. But that's another 4 months of potential deterioration.☹️

We just got off Encounter at the end of July after a 2 week cruise. Yes she leaked a bit when it bucketed down,  as she did in August last year & has done for years. I did notice the carpet on some, not all of the stairs is a bit thread bare in places.

I actually think the main hotel areas are nicer then on Coral Princess, it's prettier.

The service by all on the ship was great. There was plenty of cleaning  & maintenance going on.  Our cabin looked exactly the same as our cabin on Coral Princess in January,  no better, no worse. 

We really have limited choice out of Brisbane so it's cruise on what's on offer or don't cruise. 

 

I'm sure you will really enjoy your December cruise. 

[ceeceeDee]

2 hours ago, joejoe 59 said:

We just got off Encounter at the end of July after a 2 week cruise. Yes she leaked a bit when it bucketed down,  as she did in August last year & has done for years. I did notice the carpet on some, not all of the stairs is a bit thread bare in places.

I actually think the main hotel areas are nicer then on Coral Princess, it's prettier.

The service by all on the ship was great. There was plenty of cleaning  & maintenance going on.  Our cabin looked exactly the same as our cabin on Coral Princess in January,  no better, no worse. 

We really have limited choice out of Brisbane so it's cruise on what's on offer or don't cruise. 

 

I'm sure you will really enjoy your December cruise. 

Thanks, JoeJoe. We tend to enjoy our cruises regardless. I honestly don't remember one we haven't enjoyed! Some more than others, but nothing to get het up about. We know P&O well and accept that the ships were mostly pushing 20 years old before even donning the P&O livery so we expect them to be a bit creaky in the joints. 🤭 

 

I agree the main hotel areas have been really well done and we love the Bonded Store.

 

I'm very pleased to hear that the service was great. We have never had a complaint in that area, but wondered if the impending changes were affecting the staff adversely.

 

And, as you say, we really do have limited choice out of Brisbane. If we had to, we'd fly to Sydney to widen the scope but it really is convenient to just drive to the terminal at Pinkemba. (not to mention cheaper! 🤣).

[Sparky74]

6 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

That's disappointing to hear, Sparky. Encounter has obviously gone downhill since we were on her in June/July last year. Although I do remember seeing evidence of a fairly serious leak over the Oasis Bar at the time.

 

What condition were the cabins in (and may I ask what category you had?). Our mini suite last year was in good condition.

 

I guess we can only hope that Carnival will let the moths out of the wallet and give the old girl more than a quick once over at some stage. I know there's 'cheap and cheerful' but 'cheap and dilapidated' just won't cut it. Our cruise dollars may well be spent with another Line. Mind you, we will be able to judge for ourselves when we're on Encounter in December. But that's another 4 months of potential deterioration.☹️

We were in an Oceanview Cabin, # 5333, and didn’t notice any maintenance issues in our cabin. Not that we were particularly looking for them!

 

On the first night the cabin was very noisy, the worst we have ever had in all our years of cruising. It sounded like someone was continually dragging tables across the floor above us. There was some "motion in the ocean" and it turned out to be waves hitting the ship. We were in just the right (or wrong) spot! Fortunately it abated the next day and we didn’t hear the noise again until the last night when it returned but wasn’t as loud and was far less frequent. 
 

The other (minor) issue with this cabin is that it has those retro-fitted bunk beds on the walls. When I went down with what I think was the 'flu we asked to have the bed separated. It gave us so much more room and it was so much easier to get in and out of bed. We wished we had asked for the beds to be separated on the first night. 
 

In spite of getting sick, it was a great cruise. Bring on the next one!

[ceeceeDee]

5 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

We were in an Oceanview Cabin, # 5333, and didn’t notice any maintenance issues in our cabin. Not that we were particularly looking for them!

 

On the first night the cabin was very noisy, the worst we have ever had in all our years of cruising. It sounded like someone was continually dragging tables across the floor above us. There was some "motion in the ocean" and it turned out to be waves hitting the ship. We were in just the right (or wrong) spot! Fortunately it abated the next day and we didn’t hear the noise again until the last night when it returned but wasn’t as loud and was far less frequent. 
 

The other (minor) issue with this cabin is that it has those retro-fitted bunk beds on the walls. When I went down with what I think was the 'flu we asked to have the bed separated. It gave us so much more room and it was so much easier to get in and out of bed. We wished we had asked for the beds to be separated on the first night. 
 

In spite of getting sick, it was a great cruise. Bring on the next one!

Thanks, Sparky. Pity about your noisy first night!

 

I hope you were not feeling poorly for the entire cruise!

 

Sounds like you enjoyed yourselves, regardless.

 

 

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

We were in an Oceanview Cabin, # 5333, and didn’t notice any maintenance issues in our cabin. Not that we were particularly looking for them!

 

On the first night the cabin was very noisy, the worst we have ever had in all our years of cruising. It sounded like someone was continually dragging tables across the floor above us. There was some "motion in the ocean" and it turned out to be waves hitting the ship. We were in just the right (or wrong) spot! Fortunately it abated the next day and we didn’t hear the noise again until the last night when it returned but wasn’t as loud and was far less frequent. 
 

The other (minor) issue with this cabin is that it has those retro-fitted bunk beds on the walls. When I went down with what I think was the 'flu we asked to have the bed separated. It gave us so much more room and it was so much easier to get in and out of bed. We wished we had asked for the beds to be separated on the first night. 
 

In spite of getting sick, it was a great cruise. Bring on the next one!

Good priced guarantee cabin?

Public area above is potential noise (kids games arcade). The off-the-wall pullmans are not retrofitted, they are standard Star Princess issue, and are much more conveniently designed than the retrofitted ones that pull up from the floor. But, if hand picking a cabin, I personally go for a designated twin cabin with public decks above & below, even if it means a small premium being added to the fare.

[ceeceeDee]

14 hours ago, arxcards said:

Good priced guarantee cabin?

Public area above is potential noise (kids games arcade). The off-the-wall pullmans are not retrofitted, they are standard Star Princess issue, and are much more conveniently designed than the retrofitted ones that pull up from the floor. But, if hand picking a cabin, I personally go for a designated twin cabin with public decks above & below, even if it means a small premium being added to the fare.

We tend to not go guarantee so we can pick a cabin with accommodation (cabins) on the decks above and below and far enough away from the lifts to decrease foot traffic. We had a cabin fairly far forward (we tend not to get sea sick) last cruise and it was blissfully quiet. Didn't hear a thing for the entire 7 days.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, ceeceeDee said:

We tend to not go guarantee so we can pick a cabin with accommodation (cabins) on the decks above and below and far enough away from the lifts to decrease foot traffic. We had a cabin fairly far forward (we tend not to get sea sick) last cruise and it was blissfully quiet. Didn't hear a thing for the entire 7 days.

We like cabins with accommodation above and below. We don't find being near the lifts any problem at all. With our door closed we don't hear anything from the lifts or people walking in the corridor.

[cruiser3775]

I also choose near the lifts for convenience, having mobility issues. As long as you choose a cabin two or three away from the actual entry to the lift/stairs lobby, there is no problem with noise from other passengers or the lifts themselves, in my experience.

[arxcards]

27 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

We like cabins with accommodation above and below. We don't find being near the lifts any problem at all. With our door closed we don't hear anything from the lifts or people walking in the corridor.

Now the ships are bigger and longer, we seek out cabins close to the aft lifts. Noise is rarely a problem for us. It isn't about less walking, but time spent walking boring corridors. Bonus, especially on Princess is that these are D or E grade cabins, and cheaper than the middle of the corridor.

[arxcards]

I have yet to hear anything about a future owner, but Pacific Explorer is not showing as for sale in the usual haunts. I missed it at the time, but I wonder if Sky News is on the money for a change.

P&O Explorer: Inside the grim boneyard that houses retired cruise ships | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

 

[ceeceeDee]

9 hours ago, arxcards said:

I have yet to hear anything about a future owner, but Pacific Explorer is not showing as for sale in the usual haunts. I missed it at the time, but I wonder if Sky News is on the money for a change.

P&O Explorer: Inside the grim boneyard that houses retired cruise ships | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

 

Poor Dora😟

[Mycruiseobsession]

Today's  email from P&O for an "Operated by Carnival" cruise booked late next year.

 

The changes are coming.

 

 

 

Edited September 10 by Mycruiseobsession
Typos

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

Today's  email from P&O for an "Operated by Carnival" cruise booked late next year.

 

The changes are coming.

 

These are in line with the changes they had announced. It will be curious to see how much more evolved these pre-cruise communications will get.

[arxcards]

12 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

Poor Dora😟

It doesn't look great for her. Her cruising days for P&O will be over in around 5 months time. Had she scored a new cruise line owner, those itineraries would surely be announced and on sale already. It is possible she could have a secondary life, such as a floating hotel for worker accommodation, but those scenarios are comparatively rare.

[Jim_P]

I think there's still a chance of a boutique line like Ambassador snapping her up. She's the right size and age and cruising is booming right now. 

[arxcards]

9 minutes ago, Jim_P said:

I think there's still a chance of a boutique line like Ambassador snapping her up. She's the right size and age and cruising is booming right now. 

If that was their intent, they would be selling cruises on her already for late March 2025, as they can't afford to spend $50M+ on a ship and have it sitting around waiting for cruisers to book itineraries.

 

The former Ocean Princess, a near identical sister, is laid up and also for sale. She is newer and apparently in better shape, but can't find a new owner. Sailing most of her life in the UK as Oceana, there is much more local nostalgia attached to her than there is for Dora.