Carnival Cruise Line to Absorb P&O Australia

[dizzy1948]

11 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

DW & I move every couple of years. We get transferred and have to go wherever we’re sent. 🤷‍♂️
It’s been great living within 3 hours drive of Brisbane. We’ve been here 4 years now so I’m starting to get nervous.
If we end up in WA then I guess it will mean flying to a cruise port. 

Hope they don't transfer you here. 🤣

[By The Bay]

What will happen to the Tiger on Dora?

 

[lyndarra]

17 hours ago, reeves35 said:

I think the garish Egyptian theme may have been Pacific Sun (formerly Carnival Jubilee).  Spirit has the weird purple and red themes in the central atrium.  Both are Joe Farcus interiors who did all Carnival's interiors from the original Carnivale through to Carnival Magic though Carnival Dream and Magic were toned down to some of the previous over-the-top styles.  

I checked my photos and it was Spirit, Pacific Islands cruise June 2013.

Sailaway was delayed, I presume, to take advantage of Vivid for which we had a ringside/harbourside seat.

[arxcards]

Just now, By The Bay said:

What will happen to the Tiger on Dora?

 

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.

[arxcards]

11 hours ago, NSWP said:

But what will happen to the P&O CRUISELINGS ?  Will they become an extinct race?

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

[reeves35]

26 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

One of the stated (in passing) reasons for the change is the difficulty of repositioning P&O branded ships outside of Oz/NZ.

 

So I expect the 2025/6 season may see some movement. Fewer ships and shorter seasons.

That probably makes some sense.  Carnival cannot move P&O ships to Asia or Alaska in the Northern Summer like they can a Carnival branded ship such as Luminosa.  Of course, the flipside of this is the ships in Australian waters will not be particularly Australian with US branded outlets (Lido Marketplace instead of The Pantry etc), US power sockets etc.  

Edited June 5 by reeves35

[Mycruiseobsession]

On 6/4/2024 at 10:02 AM, MicCanberra said:

Interesting, although as Carnival Corp already owns them, it may just be re-badging, and shuffling deck chairs. May mean changes to service and crew as well.

This is how i am reading it. The p&o au brand has really gone down hill so this is a way for Carnival to regroup and focus  on profits. 

[Mycruiseobsession]

13 hours ago, Kiwi_cruiser said:

RIP P&O Australia 😞

 

They will be missed.

 

It will be interesting to see what changes Carnival does.

 

It will also be interresting to see how much support Carnival will give to the people in the South Pacific, like what P&O does now?

I don't  think the support will change, it just seems to be a business move. Carnival owned the brand anyway.

 

I think we will see a reduction  in some services at Carnival  to bring it down a little (a merge of P&O cost cuttings under the better brand reputation of Carnival)

 

Carnival will now equal Jeststar

Princess = Qantas

 

Their profits will increase and their customer services will decline but they know we will still book cruises because what better way is there to holiday?!

 

From what I have read the 2 P&O ships are being added to Carnival anyway so I am going to assume  there will be the similar  itineraries  etc just under the Carnival flag 

 

What I am most interested  in is the seasonal ports like Cairns,Perth etc

 

Will they keep following what P&O did with the short home port seasons in regional locations.

 

I have Carnival, P&O and Princess past cruise numbers all linked - hopefully  that means I will still keep my Platinum status with Princess.

 

 

 

[Mycruiseobsession]

23 hours ago, arxcards said:

The stuff I have fingers crossed for:

VIFP credits for past P&O cruises - hey, I can dream. They could be stingy, but they also need to attract rusted-on P&O cruisers to embrace Carnival instead of jumping ship.

So I already get this anyway.

 

I forgot how I did it but there is a way to link past P&O passenger to Carnival 

 

Not as good as the P&O to Princess but still it is available. 

[arxcards]

3 minutes ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

So I already get this anyway.

 

I forgot how I did it but there is a way to link past P&O passenger to Carnival 

 

Not as good as the P&O to Princess but still it is available. 

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

Edited June 5 by arxcards
hoping for the future

[Mycruiseobsession]

21 hours ago, reeves35 said:

From a marketing point of view, I would have to question how Carnival has handled this announcement.  Surely, they would have foreseen that not everyone would be thrilled by the announcement so it is puzzling that there was nothing new or interesting contained with it. 

 

A smarter move may have been to combine the closure (and Explorer retirement) announcement with something upbeat and positive like a fleet addition, a special series of farewell sailings...anything!  Instead, all we got was a dry piece of PR babble obviously written by a marketing department operative in Miami who probably hadn't heard of P&O Australia until being asked to write the press release. 

These corporations just  don't  care because they don't have to.

 

The way of the current world.

 

Apathy is the new corporate philosophy.

[Mycruiseobsession]

8 minutes ago, arxcards said:

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

Edited 7 minutes ago by arxcards
hoping for the future

I don't  understand  their system  all I know is I was allocated  a VIFP number and previous cruise recognition and can book on cheaper VIFP fares however  I have never followed through with a booking.

 

Do they offer tiers like Princess  Captain's Circle?

[By The Bay]

6 minutes ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

Do they offer tiers like Princess  Captain's Circle?

Each day you cruise is another VIFP point earned, so whether you like long cruises or spontaneous getaways, every one is totally worth it.

Blue First sailing.

Red 2nd sailing – 24 points.

Gold 25–74 Points.

Platinum 75–199 Points.

Diamond 200+ Points.

 

See: VIFP Levels

Edited June 5 by By The Bay

[SinbadThePorter]

3 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

Platinum 75–199 Points

 

If they take my old P&O Oz cruises as point worthy then I'd be instantly Platinum. 🥳

 

Pity I have no intention of sailing with Carnival again.

[SinbadThePorter]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

I also wonder about the mountain of P&O archives that has been stored away.

 

Chris Frame will have those. 😉

[arxcards]

3 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

If they take my old P&O Oz cruises as point worthy then I'd be instantly Platinum. 🥳

 

Pity I have no intention of sailing with Carnival again.

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.

[arxcards]

2 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Chris Frame will have those. 😉

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.

[lyndarra]

I'm guessing they, the ships, will go to N America. I saw a news item on a US TV news channel a few days ago which mentioned cruising is booming over there and noting that it seems to be millenials filling the ships.

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, By The Bay said:

What will happen to the Tiger on Dora?

 

put it on the new REGAL PRINCESS, it was originally on ye olde Regal.

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

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

 

Edited June 5 by NSWP

[arxcards]

10 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

I'm guessing they, the ships, will go to N America. I saw a news item on a US TV news channel a few days ago which mentioned cruising is booming over there and noting that it seems to be millenials filling the ships.

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

[mr walker]

Our Princess Captain's Circle & P&O Cruiseling Codes numbers are the same. We did nothing to make this happen, so it must be somehow 'automatic'. 

Our Carnival VIFP # is different.

[Mycruiseobsession]

The Carnival Media release says

 

"P&O Cruises Australia guests will also be invited to participate in Carnival’s loyalty program and promotional offerings specific to Carnival ships sailing in the region.” 

 

I am going to guess (hope) that it means past P&O cruises will  count towards VIFP once P&O ceases in 2025 rather than just being invited  to start again!

[NSWP]

2 minutes ago, NSWP said:

lets get the party started.

Edited June 5 by NSWP

[ceeceeDee]

3 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

This is the key to it - "However, given the strategic reality of the South Pacific's small population and significantly higher operating and regulatory costs, we're adjusting our approach," he said.

 

That's coded for - Down under is a small market and not as profitable. Add to that, NZ is becoming problematic for them and other regulatory issues.. and Aus is the backwater where they want to squeeze a better return out of with less ships. Expect fewer options and increased fares I would think. 

And there is the possibility that the will deploy ships elsewhere so there is a possibility that we won't have ships here year round. Who knows? Speculation of the Seas here we come/.