arxcards

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?

You are not alone. When Pacific Explorer leaves, Cairns & Auckland both lose their ship as well, and Melbourne will be reliant on NCL coming back to have a home ported ship. Yes, it stinks all round.

Pretty tough to retrofit the whale tail onto an old Princess cowl. Especially with Adventure, as there is no way it will go under the bridge with one. Carnival did sign-off on a newbuild for Australia, but then reneged. Announced in late 2015, a year later they decided we would like it better if they sent us Splendor instead, and our newbuild became Carnival Panorama. It will take more than a Carnival Miracle to get a newer ship here, but they do have the chance to rotate some when Adventure & Encounter retire. That is a few years away though.

The two current ships, sure. Maybe some more Carnivation at the next dry dock. That is the wedge though, and subsequent ships will arrive as Carnival spec ships. P&O on their site: In early 2025 P&O Cruises Australia brand will be sunset and its operations integrated into sister line, Carnival Cruise Line. As a result, all itineraries on Pacific Explorer scheduled to sail after 2nd March 2025 are being cancelled. 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 to cruise before this date, your itinerary is unaffected and we look forward to welcoming you onboard soon. We are all immensely proud of P&O Cruises Australia’s 90-year heritage of dedicated operations in the region and Carnival Cruise Line are honored to carry forward its storied legacy and continue to deliver the same onboard experiences and itineraries with the benefit of Carnival Cruise Line HUB app and loyalty program.  Thank you for your support of P&O Cruises Australia and Carnival Cruise Line. How that fits is hard to envisage. Will it mean that Adventure & Encounter are separated from the US market, from those passengers expecting a Carnival product when they book their Australian cruise. Over time, they can't continue to have two Carnival ships in a port that offer totally different franchises on their ships.

I think one of the Brisbane ships will be a floater - perhaps literally 😉 A bit like Explorer, Brisbane for the summer, then Freo, Cairns, Auckland. Hey, maybe even Melbourne will get a turn.

It would be great, but for that to happen they would likely disappear from Captains Circle at the same time. There would be quite a few elites that have their bubble popped, and much less demand on the laundry. There is a "Find my VIFP number link" on this page, and it is as easy as name & DOB. VIFP Club Member Cruise Deals - Learn More At Carnival I haven't ever needed to quote it during booking.

I was thinking the same. Based on the past Jubilee, we won't see the new Jubilee until 2042. For now, I guess it will be Carnival Adventure & Carnival Encounter joining Carnival Splendor & Carnival Luminosa.

In the early era post-covid, they were very sensitive about paper menus, as were P&O. I had the Hub app, and previewed some menus on it, but we had printed menus handed to us by default on Splendor in December.

Carnival branding should equal Carnival product, but it would have to be ad hock until they can cycle through a drydock. I wonder what they will do with all those milk bottles from the Waterfront? The stuff I am wagging my tail about: The opportunity to have a bit more variety of ship cycling through the Australian ports, not a cast-off sent for their final 5 to 10 years of service. That should end up with another ship to replace Explorer - eventually. Yes, eggs benny would be nice, as well as sea day brunch. 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. Disappointed: There will no longer be a choice during winter cruising here. While it is false competition, it also holds the prices down a bit too. 94 years of a local connection is gone, as well as a Sitmar legacy. True, it is local in brand only, but it isn't Carnival Australia replacing P&O Australia. Fahrenheit 555 is nice enough, but a shame if Luke Mangan is gone.

I thought it was a strange arrangement for Carnival to send Spirit here to compete with P&O's Pacific Jewel in the first place. As soon as they were competing, I suspected P&O was to become Carnivoz within a couple of years.

Nailed it! This could have happened any time in the past 10 years. The costs of running two competing operations in North Sydney must be the only thing that isn't low budget, and it was just a matter of time till that was seen as low hanging fruit.

Blessed are the cheesemakers