Will cruises be allowed in Australia and New Zealand by April 2022?

[norwega]

We're booked on a cruise from Sydney to Hawaii, stopping in New Zealand in April 2022.  What are the chances of it happening? 

Thanks

[onlyslightlymad]

You might want to check out this thread.  

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

The problem isn't only going to be whether that cruise will happen but whether you will be able to come to Australia to join it, and that is a very low probability. Sorry.

[40yearcruiser]

Our March 2022 cruise on Princess from Sydney to Fiji B2B with a transPacific back to the US was canceled almost 3 months ago. That was our 3rd try for this itinerary, the first in 2020 was canceled 2 days before we were to fly over. The reason for the latest cancellation was repositioning of the ship, but I think they saw the handwriting on the wall that Australia wasn't going to be welcoming outsiders anytime soon. I hope you will get to go but with the new variants of the virus it doesn't look promising. We have rebooked for 2023 and are hoping this will be behind us by then.

[Markanddonna]

Our April 2, 2022 TP to Australia was just canceled this week. Now, to complicate matters, French Polynesia is banning most large cruise ships in 2022 and probably in the future. They want to limit the impact to their environment.

[cboyle]

https://cruisepassenger.com.au/no-cruising-in-new-zealand-before-october-2022/

 

No Cruising In New Zealand Before October 2022, Association Reveals

PETER LYNCH·7 OCT 2021

Anyone looking to cruise to New Zealand this season is out of luck – there are no plans to resume cruising into New Zealand until late next year at the earliest.

 Cruising will not resume into New Zealand until the nation has achieved its 90 per cent vaccination rate, which is well above Australia’s target of 80 per cent before international borders re-open.

 

 The New Zealand Cruise Association Chief Executive Officer Kevin O’Sullivan told Cruise Passenger that cruising will not return to New Zealand until 90 per cent of New Zealanders have rolled up their sleeves and had their vaccination.

 

 “90 per cent of cruises are cancelled. The cruise lines are still booking but the cruises are being cancelled,” he said.

 

Mr O’Sullivan said that the New Zealand cruise industry had not yet spoken to the Health Minister Chris Hipkins, and that talks were unlikely until the government’s desired vaccination rate was achieved – a mirror of the treatment being metered our to the industry body in Australia.

 

“We’ll have to discuss a phased re-entry. That could be smaller ships. It’s hard to say. NZ will follow what Australia does,” said Mr O’Sullivan. “Fifty per cent of those cruising into New Zealand are Australian.”

 

He said that before Delta there was talk of a cruise bubble. “We looked at cruising New Zealand only, or Australia and New Zealand cruising.”

 

 “We were looking at 60 per cent capacity but at the moment it’s hard to say. There are some countries with a higher vaccination rate and there are pre-travel COVID tests so there’s no reason we wouldn’t accept vaccinated passengers”.

 

“At the moment we can’t discuss cruising. It will depend on other countries.”

 

 The impact of no cruising in New Zealand has been widely felt – and the ripples will hit Australia.

 

Lines like Princess relied on trips to Milford Sound as a draw card.  Without visits to New Zealand and with Pacific nations still to reach vaccination targets, itinerary planning is difficult.

 

The New Zealand economy has also taken a hit.

 

 “It was worth $600 million and it was on its way to $1 billion,” said Mr O’Sullivan. “All international tourism has ground to a halt.”

 

An attempt by Ponant to restart cruising in New Zealand in January was rebuffed at the last minute when the Immigration Department tried to insist some crew members should be replaced by New Zealanders.

 

The Le Laperouse was turned away  at enormous cost to the line – a full season had been booked by New Zealander passengers – because of the 11th hour intervention.

[onlyslightlymad]

I'm sorry but that's not right.  Our maritime borders are closed at present and have been for some time.  There are exemptions.

Vessels may be granted an exemption to arrive in New Zealand in the following circumstances:

• All of the persons on board the ship are able to travel to New Zealand in accordance with the Immigration Act 2009;
• The ship is seeking permission to arrive in New Zealand for the purpose of:
  • Reprovisioning or refuelling, or both;
  • Carrying out a refit or a refurbishment of, or a repair to, the ship that is more than minor; or
  • Delivering the ship to a business

 Le Laperouse was chartered to a NZ Company.  It applied for an exemption on the grounds that the ship was being delivered to a business.  Visas were issued to those crew deemed necessary to deliver the vessel in accordance with the exemption.  These did not include such people as beauty therapists or bar tenders.  Whoever wrote that article needs to do their homework.  

[The_Big_M]

Seems pretty accurate. People know what a cruise line does, and that it has spa and other workers on board, and the exemption was granted to operate cruises, which the government well knew were being sold there. And the exemption was granted by the Health department who are the responsible department for cancelling cruises due to the pandemic - which is a health matter. So Ponant had done nothing improper and all in line with the exemption that had been granted. The exemption given was to operate cruises with 100 passengers so was quite specific that it was not for anything less.

 

Then another department rejected some of the necessary visas, all because it wasn't a good look politically, so the cruise line and people who'd booked got messed around. And due to a clause which has never been an issue before. Cruise line workers never have to be locally employed, as they operate offshore. They also medically had met all the necessary quarantine requirements so there was no actual, real issue.

 

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/covid-19-coronavirus-cruise-ship-le-laperouse-refused-entry-to-nz-waters/4DUKPGP4RIKHO6WBS2RALIOA2Y/

 

Ponant Cruise Ship Refused Entry by New Zealand Authorities in U-Turn, Season Cancelled (cruisecritic.com.au)

 

Even more damning, the Ponant cruises had been organised/chartered by Nathan Russ - who had also both arranged exemption and successfully operated cruises under that under another company Heritage Expeditions. So he was both familiar with the procedures and had successfully completed them.

 

Clearly, this was a case of the government changing their minds after agreement and coming up with their own backdoor to prevent the cruises from operating despite the earlier agreement. But given they control the strings, a company getting into massive dispute with them is only going to make things worse for future business. So the company just has to suck it up to have an opportunity to operate in future. Says a lot about the government's character though.

 

[onlyslightlymad]

10 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

Seems pretty accurate. People know what a cruise line does, and that it has spa and other workers on board, and the exemption was granted to operate cruises, which the government well knew were being sold there. And the exemption was granted by the Health department who are the responsible department for cancelling cruises due to the pandemic - which is a health matter. So Ponant had done nothing improper and all in line with the exemption that had been granted. The exemption given was to operate cruises with 100 passengers so was quite specific that it was not for anything less.

 

Then another department rejected some of the necessary visas, all because it wasn't a good look politically, so the cruise line and people who'd booked got messed around. And due to a clause which has never been an issue before. Cruise line workers never have to be locally employed, as they operate offshore. They also medically had met all the necessary quarantine requirements so there was no actual, real issue.

 

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/covid-19-coronavirus-cruise-ship-le-laperouse-refused-entry-to-nz-waters/4DUKPGP4RIKHO6WBS2RALIOA2Y/

 

Ponant Cruise Ship Refused Entry by New Zealand Authorities in U-Turn, Season Cancelled (cruisecritic.com.au)

 

Even more damning, the Ponant cruises had been organised/chartered by Nathan Russ - who had also both arranged exemption and successfully operated cruises under that under another company Heritage Expeditions. So he was both familiar with the procedures and had successfully completed them.

 

Clearly, this was a case of the government changing their minds after agreement and coming up with their own backdoor to prevent the cruises from operating despite the earlier agreement. But given they control the strings, a company getting into massive dispute with them is only going to make things worse for future business. So the company just has to suck it up to have an opportunity to operate in future. Says a lot about the government's character though.

 

No, the exemption was not given for a cruise line to operate.  It was given to an NZ company to have a ship delivered to a business here.  That business had leased the ship.  That was given by the Director General of Health.  Visas are issued by the Ministry of Immigration and they were issued for those  staff required for the purpose of delivering the ship to the NZ business.  That was the exemption that was applied for.  

The government did not change their mind about letting a fully crewed cruise ship into the country because that application was never made.  If it had been it would have been rejected.  The Russian ship brought in by the NZ Company was brought in with operating crew, not beauticians.  Perhaps you are arguing that that ship should not have been allowed in either.  Perhaps you are right. 

 

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/01/immigration-minister-kris-faafoi-scolds-french-cruise-ship-le-lap-rouse-for-setting-sail-for-new-zealand-before-securing-visas.html

[mochuck]

The latest advice is mid April 2022 but there has to be agreement on safety protocols by the states.
https://7news.com.au/politics/east-coast-restart-looms-for-cruise-ships-c-5654939

[SinbadThePorter]

If the go ahead is given in April, it will still take several months for ships to arrive.

 

At the moment the only ships that would be likely to arrive before October are from P&O Oz.

[lissie]

Just updating this old thread - NZ air borders open to Australians 12 April and to the rest of the world 2 May. No date on cruises yet - but there  will be an announcement "soon" . Seems likely that it will an announcement of Sept/Oct which would equate to our normal cruise season start date 

Edited March 16, 2022 by lissie

[juna1]

Cruises are back in Australia from mid April 2022 

Edited March 19, 2022 by juna1

[OzKiwiJJ]

On 3/19/2022 at 2:09 PM, juna1 said:

Cruises are back in Australia from mid April 2022 

Although only a couple of cruise ships will be operating initially and not until June. P&O's Pacific Explorer starts cruising June 4th from Sydney and Coral Princess starts cruising June 18th from Brisbane.