Carnival Cruise Line to Absorb P&O Australia

[MicCanberra]

I have seen the announcements on FB, they may or may not be right, but until the cruiseline announces it. It is hearsay.

[MicCanberra]

12 minutes ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

I am going to guess they are talking about the current P&O cruises that are listed on the P&O website as "Operated by Carnival"

And that is the most likely scenario. 

[The Cruise and Travel Guy]

Hi CC team,

 

The information was released by me this morning, and was provided by Carnival's local media and PR team. It reads: "There is no plan to change the pricing structure on Adventure and Encounter after March 2025."

Earlier, and in response to clarification I was seeking surrounding the onboard guest experience post March 2025, I received the following statement from P&O's PR team: "Guest experience on board, including the crew, entertainment, dining, as well as including Byron Beach Club & P&O Edge Adventure Park, will remain the same."

I hope that helps provide clarity around some of your questions. I had many of the same.

[sewgood]

16 minutes ago, The Cruise and Travel Guy said:

The information was released by me this morning

 

I caught your video on it earlier today explaining everything.🙂

[Mycruiseobsession]

28 minutes ago, The Cruise and Travel Guy said:

Earlier, and in response to clarification I was seeking surrounding the onboard guest experience post March 2025, I received the following statement from P&O's PR team: "Guest experience on board, including the crew, entertainment, dining, as well as including Byron Beach Club & P&O Edge Adventure Park, will remain the same."

And that's where I think it's referring  to those cruises listed on P&O Au  but with the "operated by Carnival" comes in.

 

 

 

When someone books one of these cruises via the P&O Cruise conditions /contract that's what would be different to booking a cruise on the current Carnival bookings conditions for their respective ships.

 

[The Cruise and Travel Guy]

1 hour ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

And that's where I think it's referring  to those cruises listed on P&O Au  but with the "operated by Carnival" comes in.

 

 

 

When someone books one of these cruises via the P&O Cruise conditions /contract that's what would be different to booking a cruise on the current Carnival bookings conditions for their respective ships.

 

Of course - that’s what I understood this topic was about: Carnival Adventure and Carnival Encounter.

 

Voyages on both ships will, according to P&O and Carnival, be consistent with the existing onboard experience as it is currently (with P&O branding) to at least June 2026. 

[Sparky74]

I wonder how long it will be before they transfer the P&O ships to the Carnival website. Surely maintaining two seperate websites isn’t going to be cost effective. 
Perhaps once the the Carnival Encounter and the Carnival Adventure are on the Carnival website the "guest experience" and charges will be alined with theatre of the Carnival Splendor and the Carnival Luminosa. 
This is pure speculation on my part. 🤷‍♂️

[MicCanberra]

3 hours ago, The Cruise and Travel Guy said:

Hi CC team,

 

The information was released by me this morning, and was provided by Carnival's local media and PR team. It reads: "There is no plan to change the pricing structure on Adventure and Encounter after March 2025."

Earlier, and in response to clarification I was seeking surrounding the onboard guest experience post March 2025, I received the following statement from P&O's PR team: "Guest experience on board, including the crew, entertainment, dining, as well as including Byron Beach Club & P&O Edge Adventure Park, will remain the same."

I hope that helps provide clarity around some of your questions. I had many of the same.

Welcome to Cruise Critic 

[Mycruiseobsession]

1 hour ago, Sparky74 said:

I wonder how long it will be before they transfer the P&O ships to the Carnival website

Maybe it will never happen and it is just an advertising stunt like a certain rug store that is always having a closing down sale 🤣

 

[MicCanberra]

10 minutes ago, Mycruiseobsession said:

Maybe it will never happen and it is just an advertising stunt like a certain rug store that is always having a closing down sale 🤣

 

Steve Vizzard's Fukarwe rugs?

[arxcards]

5 hours ago, The Cruise and Travel Guy said:

Hi CC team,

 

The information was released by me this morning, and was provided by Carnival's local media and PR team. It reads: "There is no plan to change the pricing structure on Adventure and Encounter after March 2025."

Earlier, and in response to clarification I was seeking surrounding the onboard guest experience post March 2025, I received the following statement from P&O's PR team: "Guest experience on board, including the crew, entertainment, dining, as well as including Byron Beach Club & P&O Edge Adventure Park, will remain the same."

I hope that helps provide clarity around some of your questions. I had many of the same.

Thanks for your comments Adrian. Keep a handy supply of popcorn handy, as this could be an interesting 8 months ahead. Both Carnival and P&O are being truthful, but they are also being candid. There are subtle differences on what Carnival are saying in the US vs what P&O are saying. Carnival's JH has been quoted as saying they have further exciting news to drop, while it is all business as usual for P&O.

 

At the core, Christine Duffy has been quoted as saying the ships will be rebranded during their 2 week pause, while P&O is avoiding that message and saying it is just about technology upgrades, Hub app, VIFP, crew training for a P&O cruise being operated by Carnival. PR is about promoting product and managing expectations. For P&O, it is about having those already booked expecting a P&O like product. For Carnival, it is about those thinking they are booking a Carnival cruise receiving something that resembles Carnival. I just hope they can find a way of keeping everyone happy.

 

Pricing structure - I take this to mean fare pricing, as this was also an answer to concerns that the fares would be going up. Do you think this also refers to pizza & soft serve? Some things can continue on for the life of the ship, such as the complimentary dining venues and steakhouse, and that ticks the box with P&O's PR statement. Then, as an example, there is the lack of specific detail about Luke's vs Guy's. Bland PR is telling the truth, regardless of the outcome.

 

We have a P&O cruise booked on Adventure prior to the change, and are looking forward to it. We have Carnival cruises booked on Splendor & Luminosa and are looking forward to those as well. At this stage, I am not interested in a hybrid "Carnival Operated" P&O cruise until they have more clarity.

 

-----------------------------------

 

From 29th of March, 2025, all itineraries will be operated by Carnival

Additional benefits on Carnival

Carnival operated cruises offer the P&O onboard product and experience with the additional benefits of Carnival:

1. The Carnival Loyalty program
2. The HUB app

Any other changes will be notified to you prior to your cruise.

[Dididi]

Thank you for the advice all of you have offered.

 

After the P&O Australia's PNG cruise in August, we'll have 11 cruises (2 P&O AUS and 9 Princess) for a total of 113 days with Princess, our line of choice (together with Azamara, a very different product).  I learned about P&O Australia when trying to find an off season Australian or South Pacific cruise with Princess, something that line hasn't offered in years.  

 

Our next Princess cruise will be in December 2025, on the Grand Princess (yes, I know....) from San Juan. Carnival cruises from San Juan and Miami are infamous, hard-party vessels.  If the itinerary is right, however, we might consider a Carnival cruise out of Australia in a few years from now if that's the only option.  Too bad the June 2026 Pacific Island Hopper out of Auckland was cancelled.

 

Sparky, yes, I read that you and your wife are on the same PNG cruise as us, and that this is definitely not the first time you tried to do this itinerary.  Same for us. I enjoyed reading your "Are We Mad?" thread and wish you had finished the saga.  If you see a jet lagged 60-year old desperately waiting for the buffet to open at 6am so she can dash to the coffee machine, that will be me. The photo is from our Star Princess (now Pacific Encounter) December 2019 cruise to Hawaii.  Back then we were in a Lido inside cabin; this time we got fancy and chose a balcony down the hall.

[Sparky74]

3 hours ago, Dididi said:

…Sparky, yes, I read that you and your wife are on the same PNG cruise as us, and that this is definitely not the first time you tried to do this itinerary.  Same for us. I enjoyed reading your "Are We Mad?" thread and wish you had finished the saga.  If you see a jet lagged 60-year old desperately waiting for the buffet to open at 6am so she can dash to the coffee machine, that will be me. The photo is from our Star Princess (now Pacific Encounter) December 2019 cruise to Hawaii.  Back then we were in a Lido inside cabin; this time we got fancy and chose a balcony down the hall.

 

Rather than derail this thread(!) I’ve started a Roll Call for the PNG cruise. 
 

 

[The Cruise and Travel Guy]

My concern with this changeover is mostly to do with the customer experience in the short term. Come April 2025, we’re being told that travellers cruising on Carnival Adventure will have a completely different experience to those cruising on Carnival Splendor.

 

Far from this information coming just from PR departments however, I later found an interview with CCL President, Christine Duffy from June 5th in which she says: “…but I want to assure everyone that while there is going to be a change for the brand name, we are going to continue operating the P&O Cruises Australia ships post the conversion in March the way that we do today.”

I had missed this piece (I’ll blame the fact that I was travelling at the time the news broke 😅) but you can read the entire article on the KarryOn website under cruise industry news. I can’t seem to paste in the link, perhaps my account is too new!

 

I’m incredibly interested (intrigued?) to see how this develops over the next 9-12 months.

[CDaze71]

I'm my opinion, if they truly are wanting to still run these two ships in the same way as P&O currently do, they SHOULD NOT rename them to CARNIVAL. They just can't, if they want to continue up charging for things. Don't call them, Carnival Encounter / Adventure.

My idea is keep the name PACIFIC or even use AUSSIE. 

AUSSIE ENCOUNTER 

AUSSIE ADVENTURE 

Then they could continue to charge for everything as they do today. 

Then an American on the ship wouldn't get upset being asked to pay for their traditional boarding day lunchtime burger. 

[arxcards]

6 minutes ago, CDaze71 said:

I'm my opinion, if they truly are wanting to still run these two ships in the same way as P&O currently do, they SHOULD NOT rename them to CARNIVAL. They just can't, if they want to continue up charging for things. Don't call them, Carnival Encounter / Adventure.

My idea is keep the name PACIFIC or even use AUSSIE. 

AUSSIE ENCOUNTER 

AUSSIE ADVENTURE 

Then they could continue to charge for everything as they do today. 

Then an American on the ship wouldn't get upset being asked to pay for their traditional boarding day lunchtime burger. 

It isn't just about the pizza, burgers & US passenger expectations. There are lots of similarities in what P&O Australia and Carnival offer, but there are lots of loyal P&O cruisers that hate Carnival and vice versa. The word unprecedented gets used way too much these days and I am fascinated in how Carnival Australia is going to manage the expectation of both camps. Both brands are already 80% the same, yet with parochial passengers.

 

PR communication comes with an agenda and is as much about what isn't being said. From last week's shock announcement, you start to notice things that haven't been said recently, such as why Marguerite's position hadn't been replaced by the Carnival hierarchy. Now it is just the local team and crafted communication.

[MicCanberra]

They are just trying to keep all the passengers loyal to either brand to keep them cruising. Of course having two slightly different cruise products may seem easy enough, it won't be able to be maintained under the one operation.

[Chiliburn]

2 hours ago, The Cruise and Travel Guy said:

My concern with this changeover is mostly to do with the customer experience in the short term. Come April 2025, we’re being told that travellers cruising on Carnival Adventure will have a completely different experience to those cruising on Carnival Splendor.

 

Far from this information coming just from PR departments however, I later found an interview with CCL President, Christine Duffy from June 5th in which she says: “…but I want to assure everyone that while there is going to be a change for the brand name, we are going to continue operating the P&O Cruises Australia ships post the conversion in March the way that we do today.”

I had missed this piece (I’ll blame the fact that I was travelling at the time the news broke 😅) but you can read the entire article on the KarryOn website under cruise industry news. I can’t seem to paste in the link, perhaps my account is too new!

 

I’m incredibly interested (intrigued?) to see how this develops over the next 9-12 months.

Welcome to cruise critic.

 

I haven’t been on Carnival but have on P&O . Friends tell me Carnival Australia is the pits and P&O are better ,At least they have a cap on Kids .

[Sparky74]

19 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

Welcome to cruise critic.

 

I haven’t been on Carnival but have on P&O . Friends tell me Carnival Australia is the pits and P&O are better ,At least they have a cap on Kids .

And yet others will tell you the opposite. 🤷‍♂️
It’s all very subjective. 
After our initial P&O cruise on the Pacific Eden in 2019 I wasn’t keen on returning to them and even joked that P&O stood for Poor & 'Orrible. 
We were underwhelmed with our cruise on the Carnival Splendor in 2022 but delighted with the Pacific Encounter when we boarded the day after debarking the Carnival Splendor. We’ve returned to P&O several twice since then with another two cruises with them in the next couple of months. We’ve not been back to Carnival but we will try again sometime.

Suffice it to say that two people can be on the same cruise and have completely different experiences. 

All reviews should come with the caveat, JMHO YMMV.

 

One more story. On one of our RCI cruises, DW's parents were also sailing with us. They were doing B2B having been on the previous cruise. They were astonished at the difference between the two cruises and said that the service and the food had been far superior on the first cruise. Go figure. 🤷‍♂️
 

As Adrian @The Cruise and Travel Guy said, we'll have to wait and see how this develops over the next 9-12 months. 
 

😎

[CDaze71]

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

... Friends tell me Carnival Australia is the pits and P&O are better ,At least they have a cap on Kids .

This used to be the case. But now there are no caps on kids on either P&O or Carnival. Travel outside of school holidays. 

[windsor26]

16 minutes ago, CDaze71 said:

This used to be the case. But now there are no caps on kids on either P&O or Carnival. Travel outside of school holidays. 

And with Carnival particularly that is the problem  With the very crowded layout of entertainment and photo opportunities along all the corridors of main deck  you cannot enjoy any one item as you can hear both other offerings from each side One night in the Theatre  seated a few rows down from the entrance we could hear the band in the bar outside better than what was being presented on the stage 

[lyndarra]

On 6/13/2024 at 8:50 AM, Sparky74 said:

It’s all very subjective.

Suffice it to say that two people can be on the same cruise and have completely different experiences.

 

Ain't that the truth!

[arxcards]

Melbourne doesn't miss out after all. 😉

 

Updated bookings show that much of the rebranding for both ships during March 2025 will be accommodated at Station Pier. They are both in Melbourne for 9 to 10 days, departing for a day here and there to make room for other ships that are scheduled in port.

[Ondine]

13 hours ago, arxcards said:

Melbourne doesn't miss out after all. 😉

 

Updated bookings show that much of the rebranding for both ships during March 2025 will be accommodated at Station Pier. They are both in Melbourne for 9 to 10 days, departing for a day here and there to make room for other ships that are scheduled in port.

 

Very strange.

Adventure is here at Outer East arriving 16th departing 17th and again arriving 19th departing 27th allowing Viking Orion to have the berth on 18th March.  Encounter arrives on 19th at Outer West departing 22nd and arriving again on 24th departing 27th allowing Crown Princess to pick up passengers on 23rd for her circumnavigation cruise.

Both are listed as Transit rather than Turnaround (but this doesn't necessarily mean much).

Maybe they will invite the Victorian government onboard to try to win them over as they will be Carnival ships by then but I won't hold my breath.  Don't think they will be taking passengers.

As someone, I think in Alice in Wonderland once said - curious and curiouser.  Vic Ports site was updated last Wednesday.

[arxcards]

39 minutes ago, Ondine said:

 

Very strange.

Adventure is here at Outer East arriving 16th departing 17th and again arriving 19th departing 27th allowing Viking Orion to have the berth on 18th March.  Encounter arrives on 19th at Outer West departing 22nd and arriving again on 24th departing 27th allowing Crown Princess to pick up passengers on 23rd for her circumnavigation cruise.

Both are listed as Transit rather than Turnaround (but this doesn't necessarily mean much).

Maybe they will invite the Victorian government onboard to try to win them over as they will be Carnival ships by then but I won't hold my breath.  Don't think they will be taking passengers.

As someone, I think in Alice in Wonderland once said - curious and curiouser.  Vic Ports site was updated last Wednesday.

With no passengers aboard, it will cost them next to nothing to dock. They aren't docking for PR, but to allow trades & materials to come and go. A drydock is only required if they are doing maintenance below the waterline, but there will be a bit happening inside the ships.