Queen Elizabeth Aus summer season cancelled from 2026

[exlondoner]

11 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

If it is not because of emissions issues - which very few ships would meet if QE doesn't I am sure - then you have to wonder why they are doing it. If it is a demand issue then the question and I think an honest question is there demand for 3 -4 queens in Western Europe/Eastern Med/East Coast of the USA?

I expect Cunard have thought about that. Why no mention of Alaska?

[chengkp75]

28 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

If it is not because of emissions issues - which very few ships would meet if QE doesn't I am sure - then you have to wonder why they are doing it.

Again, ace, facts matter, and reading comprehension matters.  You are the only one who has mentioned emissions regarding cruise ships, and there are no "more stringent" emissions requirements (New Zealand has within the last couple of years adopted the "world wide" emissions standards that ships must meet everywhere else in the world, so no compliance problems are created).  The environmental requirements that may have caused the ships to leave the Oz/NZ market are those dealing with biofouling of the hull (i.e. the need to clean the hull prior to entering territorial waters), not emissions.

[ace2542]

13 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I expect Cunard have thought about that. Why no mention of Alaska?

That is only a half season though. But ok Alaska too still begs the question if demand is the issues with sales poor on the Anne as people say they are. Is their demand for 4 Queens? Of course the 4th Queen was commissioned before the pandemic and the effect that has had on the industry in many repsects

 

My father passed away back in June. We where supposed to be on the cancelled westbound crossing April 23rd. I feel the need to go on QM2 on more time but beyond that I probably won't go Cunard again after the next one.

[exlondoner]

The biofouling was an issue that led to some port cancellations last year, as far as I remember.

[ace2542]

17 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Again, ace, facts matter, and reading comprehension matters.  You are the only one who has mentioned emissions regarding cruise ships, and there are no "more stringent" emissions requirements (New Zealand has within the last couple of years adopted the "world wide" emissions standards that ships must meet everywhere else in the world, so no compliance problems are created).  The environmental requirements that may have caused the ships to leave the Oz/NZ market are those dealing with biofouling of the hull (i.e. the need to clean the hull prior to entering territorial waters), not emissions.

Yet the other lines don't seem to be withdrawing from the Australian market. Emission issue or no doesn't change the fact that their MIGHT not be the demand for FOUR cunard ships in the American/Carrbbean//Northern/Western/Eastern Europe markets particuarly as has been stated the anne might not be selling well.. Princess have put a waterslide or something on the new ship for the first time anyones guess why they have done that and MSC has the Good Ship murder TV Series filmed on the new Virtuosa which seems to be doing well. They know what they where doing allowing that. Perhaps the traditional Cunard brand is struggling. Like I have said I  one more QM2 left in me. It will be hard to draw me back after that.

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by ace2542

[exlondoner]

10 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

Yet the other lines don't seem to be withdrawing from the Australian market. Emission issue or no doesn't change the fact that their MIGHT not be the demand for FOUR cunard ships in the American/Carrbbean//Northern/Western/Eastern Europe markets particuarly as has been stated the anne might not be selling well.. Princess have put a waterslide or something on the new ship for the first time anyones guess why they have done that and MSC has the Good Ship murder TV Series filmed on the new Virtuosa which seems to be doing well. They know what they where doing allowing that. Perhaps the traditional Cunard brand is struggling. Like I have said I  one more QM2 left in me. It will be hard to draw me back after that.

 

 

So, if I follow you correctly, the other lines all know what they are doing, but Cunard (or rather Carnival with its Cunard hat on) hasn’t got a clue. And yet, whenever I get a vague idea of looking at booking an extra cruise near the last minute, they either seem pretty full or vastly expensive. Strange that.

[ace2542]

8 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

So, if I follow you correctly, the other lines all know what they are doing, but Cunard (or rather Carnival with its Cunard hat on) hasn’t got a clue. And yet, whenever I get a vague idea of looking at booking an extra cruise near the last minute, they either seem pretty full or vastly expensive. Strange that.

I would love to be wrong but I don't think there is demand for all of these ships currently operating in all lines. Was is QM2 to do when Anne does it's first world cruise?

 

Something will have to give at some point for a lot of firms

[chengkp75]

15 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

I would love to be wrong but I don't think there is demand for all of these ships currently operating in all lines. Was is QM2 to do when Anne does it's first world cruise?

 

Something will have to give at some point for a lot of firms

Sounds like you should share your market demographic knowledge with all these cruise lines to show them the error of their ways.

[ace2542]

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

So, if I follow you correctly, the other lines all know what they are doing, but Cunard (or rather Carnival with its Cunard hat on) hasn’t got a clue. And yet, whenever I get a vague idea of looking at booking an extra cruise near the last minute, they either seem pretty full or vastly expensive. Strange that.

So why does the Anne appear to be slow selling? I am going by what has been posted here on that statement.

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, ace2542 said:

So why does the Anne appear to be slow selling? I am going by what has been posted here on that statement.

And was it posted by someone in a position to know? Or possibly someone who simply doesn’t like the idea of the new ship? Is there any way to tell? I’m not sure Cruise Critic is likely to be the best source of commercial info.

[seasickphil]

24 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

I would love to be wrong but I don't think there is demand for all of these ships currently operating in all lines. Was is QM2 to do when Anne does it's first world cruise?

 

Something will have to give at some point for a lot of firms

We got off Elizabeth two weeks ago today, she was sailing on one week cruises out of Barcelona from  September, all of them were full and she was pretty much full when leaving for Singapore last week.

[Winifred 22]

9 hours ago, exlondoner said:

So, if I follow you correctly, the other lines all know what they are doing, but Cunard (or rather Carnival with its Cunard hat on) hasn’t got a clue. And yet, whenever I get a vague idea of looking at booking an extra cruise near the last minute, they either seem pretty full or vastly expensive. Strange that.

There were  definitely not very many close to sailing options this year. I was wait listed for several popular ones  and never got offered anything. I was pretty wide with cabin choice too. The majority of my bookings were booked last year. Judging by the prices for QA  there is no cost cutting, before I eventually booked the original price I looked at was many £100’s cheaper. 

[exlondoner]

28 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

There were  definitely not very many close to sailing options this year. I was wait listed for several popular ones  and never got offered anything. I was pretty wide with cabin choice too. The majority of my bookings were booked last year. Judging by the prices for QA  there is no cost cutting, before I eventually booked the original price I looked at was many £100’s cheaper. 

I think it is possible that a lot of people who are booked on the new ship for 2024 are waiting to see what she is like before committing themselves for 2025, which after all is a long way ahead. We contemplated doing that, but thought, on what is likely to be a popular Med. cruise, that the prices would be higher. But it is such a long way ahead, we may not even be fit enough.

Edited November 7, 2023 by exlondoner

[Winifred 22]

1 minute ago, exlondoner said:

I think it is possible that a lot of people who are booked on the new ship for 2024 are waiting to see what she is like before committing themselves for 2025, which after all is a long way ahead. We contemplated doing that, but thought, on what is likely to be a popular Med. cruise, that the prices would be higher. But it is such a long way ahead,we may not even be fit enough.

Yes I can’t think that far ahead I have something booked for January 2025 on QV  but after that am going to wait and see what is available  and at what price. 

[D&N]

I wonder if the aircon issues mentioned are a Vista thing?

Our one trip on P&O Arcadia (a Vista) was an Acapulco to Barbados transit in Jan 2006. The ship had only been in service about 8 months. We were late sitting for dinner and the lounges were fairly full beforehand when all the late diners were having pre dinner drinks. Most nights it felt very warm in the lounges, but at other times the temperature was fine or even a bit cool.

 

Regarding biofouling; I thought that the manner reported here of the implementation of that policy was unreasonable. A company can't really plan to offer an itinerary on the basis of; we plan to take you to see this place, but we don't really know if we can because even if we think that the hull is clean the inspection team a week or so beforehand might not agree. And if they don't issue clearance we might have the option of paying a third party to dive under the ship and clean the hull. But that depends on weather and sea conditions allowing that activity to be carried out and even then the inspection team might still consider that the hull is not clean enough. Then we might need to inform clients that we can't take them to see this place and probably give them some commercial gesture as compensation.

 

Given that set of criteria, I wouldn't plan to sell cruises that sail into that sort of area.

 

If the NZ authorities actually want the ships to visit, they could offer some facility that guarantees to clean the hull to standard at a known cost. But it probably suits them better to do without the ships.

[exlondoner]

Interesting thought about the Vista air conditioning. Of course, Arcadia may simply have been sulking, as she was originally going to be Queen Victoria for Cunard, but was demoted to P&O.

 

I don’t know how important it is for NZ to rebuild its tourist trade. Perhaps not very.

Edited November 7, 2023 by exlondoner

[D&N]

It's not something I've investigated, but are the places involved with the hull cleanliness issue not cruise by rather than calls? Not sure what NZ gain from that other than loss of tourist trade in actual ports.

 

Thinking from a practical point of view those areas where there is concern for the marine environment are better served by a ship that remains in the area all year round.

QE will be bringing all sorts of marine life from it's 9 months(ish) trip around the Pacific, crossing Atlantic, through the Med, Red Sea, Indian Ocean etc. You can maybe understand their wish to keep all that stuff out.

[Jim_P]

I was just looking at the Sydney port schedule and the QE is scheduled in regularly in the 2025/26 season so Cunard had her planned to be here. This must have been a very last minute decision.

 

Given that other lines are expanding their presence in Australia (and Princess just announced that their flagship, the Discovery Princess, will be spending 2025 and 2026 in Australia) and theres a lot of talk lately about a new cruise terminal being built at Port Kembla to accommodate the cruise market which is set to grow by about 10% in Australia in the next five years, this is a strange decision. Especially with a fourth Cunard ship set to enter the northern hemisphere market.  

 

Disappointing that the only way I'll be able to go on Cunard in the future means hopping on a leg of a world voyage and seeing the exotic ports of Adelaide and Melbourne over and over unless I want to have to make my way home from China.

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Jim_P

[maggielou362]

38 minutes ago, Jim_P said:

...Disappointing that the only way I'll be able to go on Cunard in the future means hopping on a leg of a world voyage and seeing the exotic ports of Adelaide and Melbourne over and over unless I want to have to make my way home from China.

 

My thoughts exactly, Jim.

[Mareblu]

12 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Again, ace, facts matter, and reading comprehension matters.  You are the only one who has mentioned emissions regarding cruise ships, and there are no "more stringent" emissions requirements (New Zealand has within the last couple of years adopted the "world wide" emissions standards that ships must meet everywhere else in the world, so no compliance problems are created).  The environmental requirements that may have caused the ships to leave the Oz/NZ market are those dealing with biofouling of the hull (i.e. the need to clean the hull prior to entering territorial waters), not emissions.

I believe you are correct.  Our three-week January cruise on QE to New Zealand almost ended in passenger mutiny, when our lovely vessel was denied entry to the waters of Milford Sound, and Bay of Islands, because the hull did not pass inspection.  We were then denied the opportunity to visit Dunedin, in NZ's south, as we sailed directly to the North Island (from Sydney).  Cunard was aware of this eventuality, as the previous cruise had been disrupted for this very reason.  A diving team attempted, while we drifted in the waters off Tauranga, to cleanse the hull, but the conditions were deemed too treacherous.  We felt rather guilty admitting that we were not too disappointed, because we had visited all regions except Dunedin on previous trips to NZ, but many passengers were Brits who had made the long journey specifically to visit these beautiful and interesting areas.  An onboard outcry ensued.  We didn't see it, but apparently a petition was presented to the Captain, and before we knew it, each stateroom and suite received a letter from Cunard, apologising for the situation, and announcing that each passenger would receive fifty per cent. of the fare in FCCs.  The Captain also addressed the passengers in a special broadcast.  We confess that we enjoyed our QG accommodation and service so much that we would probably repeat the entire cruise, even sans the designated cruise-by and port omissions.  I should add that several other vessels, Viking for one, encountered the same entry denials from NZ authorities, but subsequently attended to hull cleaning (Viking diverted to South Australian waters to attend to this).  I'm unsure if their renewed entry efforts were successful.

[LittleFish1976]

3 hours ago, D&N said:

I wonder if the aircon issues mentioned are a Vista thing?

Our one trip on P&O Arcadia (a Vista) was an Acapulco to Barbados transit in Jan 2006. The ship had only been in service about 8 months. We were late sitting for dinner and the lounges were fairly full beforehand when all the late diners were having pre dinner drinks. Most nights it felt very warm in the lounges, but at other times the temperature was fine or even a bit cool.

 

Regarding biofouling; I thought that the manner reported here of the implementation of that policy was unreasonable. A company can't really plan to offer an itinerary on the basis of; we plan to take you to see this place, but we don't really know if we can because even if we think that the hull is clean the inspection team a week or so beforehand might not agree. And if they don't issue clearance we might have the option of paying a third party to dive under the ship and clean the hull. But that depends on weather and sea conditions allowing that activity to be carried out and even then the inspection team might still consider that the hull is not clean enough. Then we might need to inform clients that we can't take them to see this place and probably give them some commercial gesture as compensation.

 

Given that set of criteria, I wouldn't plan to sell cruises that sail into that sort of area.

 

If the NZ authorities actually want the ships to visit, they could offer some facility that guarantees to clean the hull to standard at a known cost. But it probably suits them better to do without the ships.

 

I don't know that there were any last minutes changes to the regs surrounding biofouling, were there? A quick look at the current New Zealand standard suggests a new standard was implemented from October this year (2023 i.e. just last month) which was an amalgamation of two previous standards, both from 2018.

 

From their website. How to comply.

 

You'll be able to meet the biofouling requirements by doing one of the following (and having documentation to prove it):

• Undertaking continual hull maintenance using best practices (recommended for short-stay vessels).
• Inspecting and, if necessary, cleaning the hull and niche areas within 30 days before arrival in New Zealand (recommended for long-stay vessels).
• Booking an appointment for the vessel to be hauled out and cleaned by an MPI-approved treatment supplier within 24 hours of arrival (recommended for vessels coming to New Zealand for refit or repair).

It seems like the expectation is clear and should be clearly understood by a shipping company intending to visit. They class cruise vessels as long stay vessels per the website.

 

Tourism is very important to New Zealand and I doubt there is any desire to be unnecessarily obstructive, or capricious when undertaking inspections. There are surely objective, quantifiable standards that a hull must reach. They don't have the facilities that I know of to haul a vessel the size of QE out of the water and give her a quick clean - I imagine most places wouldn't.

 

[Mareblu]

1 hour ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

I don't know that there were any last minutes changes to the regs surrounding biofouling, were there? A quick look at the current New Zealand standard suggests a new standard was implemented from October this year (2023 i.e. just last month) which was an amalgamation of two previous standards, both from 2018.

 

From their website. How to comply.

 

You'll be able to meet the biofouling requirements by doing one of the following (and having documentation to prove it):

• Undertaking continual hull maintenance using best practices (recommended for short-stay vessels).
• Inspecting and, if necessary, cleaning the hull and niche areas within 30 days before arrival in New Zealand (recommended for long-stay vessels).
• Booking an appointment for the vessel to be hauled out and cleaned by an MPI-approved treatment supplier within 24 hours of arrival (recommended for vessels coming to New Zealand for refit or repair).

It seems like the expectation is clear and should be clearly understood by a shipping company intending to visit. They class cruise vessels as long stay vessels per the website.

 

Tourism is very important to New Zealand and I doubt there is any desire to be unnecessarily obstructive, or capricious when undertaking inspections. There are surely objective, quantifiable standards that a hull must reach. They don't have the facilities that I know of to haul a vessel the size of QE out of the water and give her a quick clean - I imagine most places wouldn't.

 

I completely agree, LittleFish, New Zealand authorities simply wish to retain the pristine environment of these waters.  Now, more enlightened contributors may be able to confirm these details, but my understanding is that Australian authorities this year announced the implementation of identical requirements.  I'm unsure as to when these would take effect.  I truly believe that Cunard made a commercial decision that complying was not cost effective, hence the announcement to remove its

vessels from home porting in Aust/NZ waters.

[NSWP]

I have a thought, now if the Aussie pax on Cunard promised to wear Tux/dinner suit in the dining rooms, even Britannia  restaurant and buffet…then Cunard may return to the colonies down under. The Brit Cunarders would be content then.

Edited November 8, 2023 by NSWP

[Mareblu]

I’m pretty sure the Pologate poster is American🤫

[Mareblu]

Found some more Cunarders, Les…