6/3/24: Carnival Cruise Line to Absorb P&O Australia. Will this affect Princess???

[LACruiser88]

June 3, 2024 7:15 PM EDT

June 3, 2024 7:15 PM EDT   Carnival Corporation to Strategically Align Portfolio and Absorb P&O Cruises Australia into Carnival Cruise Line   Carnival Cruise Line to boost its capacity by absorbing P&O Cruises Australia in 2025, further optimizing the company's brand portfolio creating operational efficiencies    MIAMI and SYDNEY, June 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest cruise company, today announced that in March 2025, the company will sunset the P&O Cruises Australia brand and fold the Australia operations into Carnival Cruise Line, the most popular cruise line in the world.    This change is the latest in a series of strategic moves designed to increase guest capacity for Carnival Cruise Line, the company's flagship brand and the highest-returning brand in Carnival Corporation's global portfolio.   This will result in the addition of eight new ships to Carnival Cruise Line's fleet since 2021, including the successful shift of three vessels from sister brand Costa Cruises. In addition, the company recently placed its first new ship order in half a decade for two new Excel-class cruise ships to join Carnival Cruise Line in 2027 and 2028.   "Despite increasing Carnival Cruise Line's capacity by almost 25% since 2019 including transferring three ships from Costa Cruises, guest demand remains incredibly strong so we're leveraging our scale in an even more meaningful way by absorbing an entire brand into the world's most popular cruise line," said Josh Weinstein, chief executive officer of Carnival Corporation & plc.   "In 2019, Carnival Cruise Line was 29% of our total capacity, and when we complete this move early next year, Carnival Cruise Line – our highest-returning brand – will make up approximately 35% of our total global capacity. While our company's overall growth between 2019 – 2028 is projected to be less than 2% (CAGR), the majority will be for Carnival Cruise Line, which will grow by approximately 50% over that time period."   In addition to further optimizing the composition of Carnival Corporation's global brand portfolio, the realignment will strengthen the company's performance in the South Pacific through numerous operational efficiencies.   "P&O Cruises Australia is a storied brand with an amazing team, and we are extremely proud of everything we have accomplished together in Australia and the broader region," said Weinstein. "However, given the strategic reality of the South Pacific's small population and significantly higher operating and regulatory costs, we're adjusting our approach to give us the efficiencies we need to continue delivering an incredible cruise experience year-round to our guests in the region.    Carnival Corporation & plc remains committed to Australia and we will continue to be the largest cruise operator in the region with 19 ships calling on 78 destinations and representing almost 60% of the market."   Building on Shared Legacy in the Region  As the P&O Cruises Australia brand retires early next year, the Pacific Encounter and Pacific Adventure ships will be rebranded and operated by Carnival Cruise Line brand. Pacific Explorer will exit the fleet in February of 2025. Current itineraries will operate business as usual, and guests will be notified in the coming days of any changes to future bookings as a result of this announcement.   When the transition is complete next year, Carnival Cruise Line – which has served the South Pacific since 2013 – will have four ships in the market, including Sydney-based Carnival Splendor and Carnival Luminosa sailing seasonally from Brisbane, in addition to their new sister ships Encounter and Adventure.   "We look forward to building on the history and heritage of P&O Cruises Australia by bringing some of our innovations to more cruise guests in the region," said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. "While we plan to make some technology upgrades and other small changes to the two P&O Cruises Australia ships, they will continue to be geared to the unique Australian market with a familiar feel and much of the same experiences for P&O Cruises Australia guests.   The most notable change will be the availability of our popular HubApp, enabling guests to make online dining and excursion reservations, request food and beverage delivery, and chat with other guests, among other features. 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."   "Over the coming months, we will find ways to celebrate and honor P&O Cruises Australia – a valued part of our legacy and an important contributor to the tourism industry in the South Pacific," said Weinstein. "We value the connection our P&O Cruises Australia guests, employees, travel advisor partners, public officials and destinations have with our company and are committed to building on this association moving forward as Carnival."

Edited June 3 by LACruiser88

[LACruiser88]

Will there be any changes to the Princess fleet with this major change???

[Astro Flyer]

24 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

Will there be any changes to the Princess fleet with this major change???

Good question? 🤔 Pacific Encounter is the former Star Princess & Pacific Adventure was Golden Princess but I am not aware of the other ships in P&O Australia’s fleet.

 

My perception of P&O Australia as a step up from Carnival Cruise’s party ships.

 

[CruiseAdict218]

2 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

Good question? 🤔 Pacific Encounter is the former Star Princess & Pacific Adventure was Golden Princess but I am not aware of the other ships in P&O Australia’s fleet.

 

My perception of P&O Australia as a step up from Carnival Cruise’s party ships.

 

Pacific Explorer is the former Dawn Princess which will exit the fleet entirely. Adventure and Encounter being former Princess ships, am surprised they will be operated by Carnival. 

[MicCanberra]

Interesting, may be better or worse, time will tell.

[Astro Flyer]

2 minutes ago, CruiseAdict218 said:

Pacific Explorer is the former Dawn Princess which will exit the fleet entirely. Adventure and Encounter being former Princess ships, am surprised they will be operated by Carnival. 

Thanks…should have searched better before posting too quickly.

Edited June 4 by Astro Flyer

[arxcards]

Currently, P&O Australia cruises qualify towards Princess Captains Circle. That will change to VIFP, but I am curious whether my past P&O Australia cruises will now count towards VIFP status instead??

 

The cost of maintaining local Australian offices for both P&O and Carnival worked well enough when everything was going gangbusters down here, but now they are competing for each other's passengers in a limited market, while serving the same shareholders. This move was always just a matter of time.

 

P&O Australia ships are always hand me downs, dominated by Princess. Apart from the three current ships mentioned, the original Crown & Regal Princess' spent many years cruising here for P&O Australia. Not exclusively Princess though - they have had past Carnival & HAL ships in their fleet as well. The brand is much more of an Australian version of Carnival. A few decades ago, they were arguing about who had the legal right to call their ships "the fun ships".

[Esprit]

10 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Will there be any changes to the Princess fleet with this major change???

No

[mtnesterz]

15 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Will there be any changes to the Princess fleet with this major change???

It is interesting reading how P&OAU came to be and how they sourced their ships.

P&OAU fleet often came from Princess, by transferring still servicable older ships.

The change then for Princess will be that ships, while still profitable to operate, will stay with the fleet longer, resulting in a generally older fleet. 

[MicCanberra]

P&O also sourced ships from HAL, I think moving older ships within the Carnival Corp umbrella may still happen, just that they may go to Carnival now. Although they also have sold off ships to other cruiselines as well Azamara, CMV, Ambassador just to name a few.

[charliedalrymple]

We just took a cruise last week out of Sydney on P&O's Pacific Adventure. It used to be a Princess ship and has retained the same layout--so it felt very familiar to us. In many cases they have simply changed the name of a venue but it was otherwise identical.  I do hope that Carnival does a bit of refurbishment, because the Adventure was looking pretty tired.

[SiliconCruiser]

Doesn't really matter, it will still be under the Carnival corporate ownership.  The only impact will be to Princess passengers who were previously given Captain's Circle credit for cruises on P&O Australia.  I'm guessing that will no longer happen if they're under the Carnival brand. 

 

[cr8tiv1]

I would be thrilled to have the P&O (Golden Princess) back in service with Princess.  But I fear that she will stay "Down Under"...you luck Aussies.

 

I would love to see Princess/CCL bring back smaller ships.

 

 

 

Edited June 5 by cr8tiv1

[cruisingrob21]

I do wonder if CCL is trying to upsize their ship sizes to replace some others.  I suppose by doing this they could move the luminosa and splendor back to North American market to increase tonnage?  Although it might be kind of a wash since the splendor is slightly larger than the ex Golden/Star, but the Luminosa is a bit smaller.  I could also see Carnival cleaving off some of the older spirit class ships to HAL or maybe even Princess for more exotic itineraries.  The HAL vista class ships and Carnival Spirit class ships both share similar design scopes - and the Coral and Island are in that lot also being panamax.

 

I had some fun with photoshop...

[icat2000]

On 6/4/2024 at 10:00 AM, Astro Flyer said:

Good question? 🤔 Pacific Encounter is the former Star Princess & Pacific Adventure was Golden Princess but I am not aware of the other ships in P&O Australia’s fleet.

 

My perception of P&O Australia as a step up from Carnival Cruise’s party ships.

 

Not in my experience.

[MicCanberra]

Here in Australia, P&O and Carnival were almost the same in terms of cruise experience. Of course this changes like any cruise with the particular cruise length.