Another issue is port availability, only so many times you can do Noumea, Vila, Mystery & Morton islands. With access to others such as Lifu, Wala, Champagne Bay, some PNG ports also being an issue. We are so over sailing in Australia and have 100 days booked on various lines around the world. Carnival has lost its way in Australia, as they are totally controlled by Miami now, we used to enjoy Carnival but the "Fun" is not as fun as it used to be (they had some leeway in the past) . P&O were not our favourite line but they were a solid product if you had lots money to spend on board.
Pretty sad the future choices especially for non Brisbane and Sydney and Auckland residents. The itineraries are showing little variances or opportunities to visit different ports. Even RC churns the same itineraries and shorter durations.
Thanks for your insights, Adrian. Yes it is sad for cruisers like me, who live in the West Coast, to no longer enjoying easier access to cruising out of Fremantle. However I have always found that when cruising from Fremantle was available, the pricing for any such cruises departing and / or returning were always significantly more pricey per day than departures of similar length cruises from the East Coast. I found it was more cost effective to fly to Sydney or Brisbane the night before and cruise from there instead. Just saying!
That makes sense! It seems like the cost of cruising from the West Coast had always been a little bit higher. I guess that comes down to supply and demand again. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Cruising will never be the same. It’s going down the gurgles quick smart. We’ll never even consider cruising on the mainstream floating entertainment venues. It’s the smaller niche ships that still provide “Real Cruising”. Bit more expensive just like P&O was in the days of “Real Cruising”. If anyone ever wants the “Real Cruise” experience again, it’s worth saving (if you need to) for the smaller lines like people saved for the “Real Cruise” experience years ago on the old P&O. Great work.
I do think the close down of P&O Australia may stem from Carnival Corp getting its nose out of joint when the Australian government wouldn't let P&O home port its ships here during the Pandemic and drove them away. Petty I know but I bet that is a factor in the close down
Hi Adrian. From a purely numbers perspective Carnival are correct when they claim that they are " Doubling the Fun ". If they were currently cruising two ships out of Australian Ports and after March they will have Four ship running under the " Carnival Brand then they are correct. But as You have taken into account that they are swallowing the P.and O. ships to do this on a whole of Cruising numbers way of looking at thing they in fact have reduced the numbers. They have Not Lied but simply used Numbers to portray a rosy picture which looks for them. Most people who cruise in Australia have No Idea who owns the various cruise lines and believes that Carnival has purchased P. and O.. Perception is everything and for those cruisers who do not know the facts, Carnival appears to have in fact Doubled the Fun. Perception is more importanter [ sic } than the Truth. Luv Ya Work.
Hey David. Yes, absolutely. As I noted, it is technically true, but very much a misrepresentation of that truth. Disappointingly, these decisions will have an impact on Aussie cruisers, and not in a good way. Time will tell ultimately 🙃 Thanks as always for watching 🙏🏼
Cannot see Disney staying after Disney Adventure starts operating out of Singapore in December 2025. With a capacity of 6k plus passengers, sailings every four days and frequent flights between Australian capital cities and Singapore it's a game changer. Singapore has paid to have Disney operate out of Singapore for the next five years. The ship will not be porting in any other city. Singapore paid for exclusive rights to Taylor Swift concerts in Asia. Smart move by Singapore with Disney ship assuming they can fill it. That's around 12k tourists a week spending hotel nights, airfares etc. Add to this Phillipines opening up cruises and you can see where we are heading
Totally agree. I think Wonder’s season this year has been quite bad for the cruise line, from the perspective of passenger loads, so I can’t imagine they’ll want to continue at a perceived loss…
@@TheCruiseandTravelGuy Adrian how do you know people have been bppkonh in droves where id the proof of that? Hopefully not taking notice of what the cruise lines tell you they always tell you [people are booking in droves and yet here we are at Christmas with many cruise far from full I know that because of the advertisements and what gets sent to me in the mail if full they would never advertise there is no need to do so.
Thanks Adrian for keeping us all in the loop regarding cruising here in Australia. I appreciate your updates& insights to what’s going on regarding Australian cruising. In regard to a previous negative comment regarding us Aussies flying to other destinations for cruises, they need to just speak for themselves. I don’t like flying so rely on ships mostly leaving from Sydney. My husband & I are booked onto a future cruise departing from Brisbane but will be driving up there for that one. Most of our cruises are on Carnival & P&O, so I’m interested in hearing all your comments regarding any possible changes for the future.
Being European, living in Dubai, I felt sad that Carnival took over a 3 Costa ships. Luminosa, Venezia and Firenze and rebranded them and made them more like Carnival. The Costa Victoria was our first Cruise in 2018 from Mauritius and got us hooked on Cruising. What Carinval did to the 3 Costa ships seems to be similar to what they are now doing with P&O Australia. Honestly we have done 8 cruises now, of which 5 after Covid, and have 3 more booked for 2025. This on Costa, Princess, Celebrity, MSC, Virgin and NCL. However we have stayed away from Carnival and RCL as those we feel do not match our liking, read not our definition of “fun”. As such if we Cruise from Australia which I hope we can do 1 day not sure which line to try. If on Carnival as they are now the biggest operator down South then will probably try one of the ex P&O Australia ships or the Luminosa. The closest we come to Cruising in Australia is the 2025/26 Christmas & New Year Cruise we booked on Crown Princess from Singapore to Brisbane. At least will see some parts of Australia. Luckily have been down under a number of times already in Aus and NZ.
Thank you Adrian, as usual very insightful, an honest video. We are on Encounter May ‘25 it will be interesting I see what they have done to it. I guess it could be a hit or a miss, they are holding some cards to see how it is accepted by the Australian cruise consumer. It will be all about their bottom line as to which way they eventually jump. It could be a gradual ease into wherever they are going with this? who knows!
I’m with you - I think there’s a longer term plan to either integrate the two experiences fully, or even see a couple of these ships leave all together (but I’m just speculating…). I hope you enjoy the Carnival Encounter!
It’s not good business to have 2x ships sailing out of a port. I suspect that once dust settles from P&O demise, Luminosa & splendor will move back to sole US & UK sailings, or they will move the ships to southern ports again.
Adrian, this has nothing to do with Governments or high fees.n That is higher but not by that much. We are NOT filling their cruise ships. why else would Carnival suddenly tale P&O Australia into the Carnival brand why would they take ships away from Costa they are simply not getting the number of passengers they hoped they would get, and why would they shut down their Spanish brand? As you say Disney is backing off, people simply cannot afford their cruise fares so they are not getting the interest they hoped for. Same for Virgin they were not getting the bookings they thought they would, and they came up with a ridiculous explanation as to why they were not going to go ahead here that fetching their ship back from Europe would have to go through the Red Sea into pirate waters which is a load of absolute rubbish. I, in my much older years have done many cruises from UK to Australia never once have I come via the Red Sea/SuezCanal. Always been down the west coast of Africa to Cape Town then straight across to Australia No problem at all. We simply do not have enough cruisers making bookings and with these crazy increased prices will get even worse.
On the ex P&O ships, complimentary pizza will be available from 11am-4pm, but on the original Carnival ships, the pizzeria will stop by 12am or so, and a midnight buffet will be available instead.
Did VV really fail to enter the local market? Nearly everyone I spoke to who cruised on VV during its season here absolutely loved it and were looking forward to VV coming back. Instead, passengers will head overseas for a VV cruise if VV doesn’t come back.
They successfully entered the market, but failed in my opinion. I’ve made a few videos about VV which you can watch if you’re interested, here’s one: th-cam.com/video/qSZ2RTYkQbQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=5Hzetb5fGio00szM
I would disagree. You have 2 sets of ships with different options for things to do. The crews will be different as well, for example all the P&O staff will be off the ship at the start of next year, as they will have 1 or 2 months off the ship no matter what. a few of the staff told me this so they were super happy to get a long time off the ship and could plan what to do for that time. I also notice the Carnival pricing is extremely cheap after the swap over, some of it is over half the discount price of P&O cruising
That’s pretty much right. There are a couple of options, but not too many. Norwegian Spirit has some a year or so from now, but these are one way cruises back to Sydney from memory.
😮I feel very frustrated with the Australian state and federal governments. I wish they would stop with the negative actions and shrinking cruising options from Sydney any all the other cruising!! Why such hight port and docking fees!!!! Just because they don’t like cruise, many thousands of Aussie’s love to cruise especially from Sydney every year!!!! The cruise industry, port workers, supplier’ s motels ….. and the list goes on and on.. suffered immensely allow them to recover, make docking fees and charges and avaliablility for ship to come and return every season!!!! Many of us in oz live to cruise all year round!!
Port charges are among the highest in the world and the ferry to Tasmania had to leave Melbourne , and it was a part of national highway connecting all Australia.
Would be nice! Princess technically does - it’s just that their ship usually sails off around the world so it’s not here for a few months over the winter.
I think the Geelong Spirit of Tasmania pier allows for ships of up to 200m in length. Most mainstream cruise ships around our waters these days are anywhere from 290-340m.
Hi Adrian, you seem to be very self focussed about your business and have never responded to any of our comments. Is your concern about Carnival related to less profit for you than P&O? Any cruises from Australia, especially Brisbane, are welcome to us. Better to have four ships than none! G n M
Hey Grant. Just like Carnival’s marketing department, you’ve decided on a furphy as your lead line! I do respond to comments, so to say I’ve “never” is baseless. Of course I’m focused on my business - what do you do for work, Grant? And re 4 ships is better than none - did you miss the part about 5 ships becoming 4? 🤔
I suspect it won't be long before the Splendor leaves Australia permanently and won't be replaced Aussies don't spend enough onboard and the ships will go where they can make money. That's how the cruise industry business model works
Despite what the cruise lines tell you even though they make a lot of money out of onboard sales they also make a lot of money from just the cruise fares.
Out of the “4” carnival ships operating here in Australia only 1 is up to date with “funship 2.0”…. The rest are just knockoffs of where they formerly came from.
Wait until some U.S. passengers come over to try out 'new' ships!! I did see some excitement in U.S. circles about Carnival taking on ex Princess ships. The Australian Carnival product is already quite different to the U.S experience. The ex P&O ships and the further watered down experience will be a major shock to U.S. pax.
That’s the weird part - having different Carnival experiences in one market that international travellers may unwittingly find themselves on. The ex-Princess ships are (in my opinion) much nicer vessels than the Splendor/Luminosa. It does make me wonder if there are longer term plans to shift the onboard experience on Adventure/Encounter to be more in line with Carnival, or if they’re planning on the ships exiting the fleet as they approach 30 years in service.
Marketing spin says it all. Painting a picture that suites them. YT is my fav news media for travel/cruising. Thanks Adrian. I wish Carnival would extend the Princess Loyalty program across their other brands. I know they have said it is not in their plans atm.
Thanks Dave. Carnival is in an interesting spot - I think we’re a very odd-duck market in the cruise world. It’s got to be challenging to operate here, but I do think all parties are a bit shortsighted (governments and cruise lines).
I’m going to give them a go, to see what the new blended experience is like after the changeover. They’ll be the only mainstream cruise line with a year round presence in Australia, so that counts for something. Hopefully it’s *fun* lol
Thanks Adrian, I’m onboard the lovely Westerdam now, from Perth to Sydney, it’s sad the way our governments can’t seem to get excited about the cruising industry, a lot of people onboard are Americans and all the people I have met- love Australia, it is a showcase to these people as well as other nationalities - Asian and a few Australians. If they were to lose this market it would be a huge loss to Australia.
It is disappointing to see. The government is missing the longer term picture - hopefully it’s one of those things that eventually equalises. Enjoy the rest of your cruise on the beautiful Westerdam!
I went on one cruise from Sydney, post-Covid, but it wasn’t the same and I decided to pass on any future cruises. I’m actually enjoying domestic and overseas travel by plane more than I did any cruise.
I did 4 in late 2022. Both P&O cruises were disappointing, but returning May this year to try the Adventure - even upgrading to Byron Bay Beach Club at 150% the cost of normal solo fares (ie: 3x balcony fares) I wish I'd rather stayed home. Dropped from 4 weeks international from Sydney, to 9 nights PA
An excellent summary. Of course Carnival is doing whatever it can to ensure its bottom line rather than providing us with a fabulous service … they’re a for-profit business so I can’t fault them for that (and I guess if the tv reporter fell for it many members of the public will too). 😂 What you say about Australia becoming unfriendly to cruise lines is spot on and it’s just the latest in a long list of reasons nobody wants to do business of any kind here. I guess that’s why we’re saddled with the Luminosa and not the newer/better ships, but I wouldn’t cruise again on that floating temple to Italian superiority complexes if Carnival paid me to do it. Let’s hope we do better from ex-P&O than ex-Costa.
Note on a FB post that Pacific Explorer will be heading to Asia - as part of the Genting gorup - Star Scorpio - yep, another cruise ship to be turned into a boring Asian casino few day ship. In any case - cruising in AU needs something NEW, the same locations/ports don't have me interested anymore. Virgin tried something different (in March) by having longer stays in some ports - instead of the rush off / rush back on. It will be an interesting 2025 to see where Down Under cruises head towards.....
My only positive takeaway from the news about Explorer’s sale to Resort World is that she isn’t being scrapped. Hopefully she continues on for a long time to come. It’s definitely an interesting time for the future of cruising down under
All because they are not getting enough passengers if they were they would be staying obviously same applies to Disney and Virgin and no doubt the P&O Australia brand.
I'm glad Carni is giving a different experience on their ships. Carni is just weird with no vibe. I'll stick with the old P&O (Carni) ships and enjoy the tasteful decor.
"Double the Fun" is really only a play on words. Carnival are known as "Fun" ships and they technically will be doubling, but its a fine straw to grab.
Of course. And as I noted, it’s really symptomatic of the wider problems facing the local cruise industry. But watching mainstream media advertise the “additional” ships Australians will get to enjoy is too far across the line in my opinion.
This seems like the continued demise of the Australian cruising industry. The gang at Carnival's marketing department have tried to dress up the mess tbut hey might have been better to leave it alone. Australia is just not a great place to base cruise ships. So we get the secondhand tired old leftovers from the the big two. Until there's a major shift in Australia to a united, cost-effevtive range of ports and facilities we'll be the poor relations with most cruise lines losing interest,
Stop bagging the cruise lines. They are only interested in looking after them selves as we are. We Aussie cruisers don't care and will spend our money where we get the best value for money. If we have to we will fly to get them we will.
@@chucknorris8704 Why is it a moronic comment? I am saying as I see it. Just because you don't agree doesn't mean you have to be rude. That is Adrian's mantra to say as he sees it!!!
I don’t bag cruise lines - if that’s the way you see it, I suggest you go back and give the video another watch. I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.
It’s a bit of a sad state of affairs. I can only hope that within the next 3-5 years, things improve, but that really means things need to start changing at a policy/government level very soon.
Nothing to do with politicians it is simply the greed of the cruise lines and the majority of people do not cruise will probably;y never cruise, cruisers seem to think they are entitled in some way but they are. a very small minority. Noy long ago we also had the stupid suggestion of building a $50 million island similar to Dubai in Botany Bay I wonder what world some people live in.
P&O Adventure Review The tap water was vile, over chlorinated water due to water borne diseases causing gastroenteritis. Thanks for giving us the shits. The standards of hygiene were very poor more passengers left with a cough than embarked furthering the idea put forward by former PM Rudd “cruise ships are a Petri dish.” The food was terrible, unbelievable no fresh fruit, no weetbix, no ice cream, watered down soup, and the meat & fish variety limited and sparse.
Another issue is port availability, only so many times you can do Noumea, Vila, Mystery & Morton islands. With access to others such as Lifu, Wala, Champagne Bay, some PNG ports also being an issue.
We are so over sailing in Australia and have 100 days booked on various lines around the world. Carnival has lost its way in Australia, as they are totally controlled by Miami now, we used to enjoy Carnival but the "Fun" is not as fun as it used to be (they had some leeway in the past) . P&O were not our favourite line but they were a solid product if you had lots money to spend on board.
This is why you're my go-to guy for all cruise news. You're not afraid to tell it like it is.
Thank you - that means a lot.
Pretty sad the future choices especially for non Brisbane and Sydney and Auckland residents. The itineraries are showing little variances or opportunities to visit different ports. Even RC churns the same itineraries and shorter durations.
Thanks for your insights, Adrian. Yes it is sad for cruisers like me, who live in the West Coast, to no longer enjoying easier access to cruising out of Fremantle. However I have always found that when cruising from Fremantle was available, the pricing for any such cruises departing and / or returning were always significantly more pricey per day than departures of similar length cruises from the East Coast. I found it was more cost effective to fly to Sydney or Brisbane the night before and cruise from there instead. Just saying!
That makes sense! It seems like the cost of cruising from the West Coast had always been a little bit higher. I guess that comes down to supply and demand again. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks for the video Mate
Happy Christmas 🎁
Merry Christmas to you too!
Cruising will never be the same. It’s going down the gurgles quick smart. We’ll never even consider cruising on the mainstream floating entertainment venues. It’s the smaller niche ships that still provide “Real Cruising”. Bit more expensive just like P&O was in the days of “Real Cruising”.
If anyone ever wants the “Real Cruise” experience again, it’s worth saving (if you need to) for the smaller lines like people saved for the “Real Cruise” experience years ago on the old P&O.
Great work.
Great to have someone from Australia telling it as it is, always interesting subject and cruise reviews, Lipstick on a Pig 😆 I like it 👍
Appreciate that! 😄 thanks for watching.
I do think the close down of P&O Australia may stem from Carnival Corp getting its nose out of joint when the Australian government wouldn't let P&O home port its ships here during the Pandemic and drove them away. Petty I know but I bet that is a factor in the close down
Hi Adrian.
From a purely numbers perspective Carnival are correct when they claim that they are " Doubling the Fun ". If they were currently cruising two ships out of Australian Ports and after March they will have Four ship running under the " Carnival Brand then they are correct. But as You have taken into account that they are swallowing the P.and O. ships to do this on a whole of Cruising numbers way of looking at thing they in fact have reduced the numbers.
They have Not Lied but simply used Numbers to portray a rosy picture which looks for them.
Most people who cruise in Australia have No Idea who owns the various cruise lines and believes that Carnival has purchased P. and O..
Perception is everything and for those cruisers who do not know the facts, Carnival appears to have in fact Doubled the Fun.
Perception is more importanter [ sic } than the Truth.
Luv Ya Work.
Hey David.
Yes, absolutely. As I noted, it is technically true, but very much a misrepresentation of that truth. Disappointingly, these decisions will have an impact on Aussie cruisers, and not in a good way. Time will tell ultimately 🙃
Thanks as always for watching 🙏🏼
Lipstick on a pig sums it up perfectly , thanks for the maths Adrian, Merry Christmas, cheers.
Merry Christmas!
Cannot see Disney staying after Disney Adventure starts operating out of Singapore in December 2025. With a capacity of 6k plus passengers, sailings every four days and frequent flights between Australian capital cities and Singapore it's a game changer. Singapore has paid to have Disney operate out of Singapore for the next five years. The ship will not be porting in any other city. Singapore paid for exclusive rights to Taylor Swift concerts in Asia. Smart move by Singapore with Disney ship assuming they can fill it. That's around 12k tourists a week spending hotel nights, airfares etc.
Add to this Phillipines opening up cruises and you can see where we are heading
Totally agree. I think Wonder’s season this year has been quite bad for the cruise line, from the perspective of passenger loads, so I can’t imagine they’ll want to continue at a perceived loss…
Absolutely agree!
Would the cost of living crisis be an issue eg with demand?
Possibly.
I imagine it’s had some impact, but where there’s perceived good value, people have been booking in droves.
@@TheCruiseandTravelGuy Adrian how do you know people have been bppkonh in droves where id the proof of that? Hopefully not taking notice of what the cruise lines tell you they always tell you [people are booking in droves and yet here we are at Christmas with many cruise far from full I know that because of the advertisements and what gets sent to me in the mail if full they would never advertise there is no need to do so.
Thanks for the truth
Thanks Adrian for keeping us all in the loop regarding cruising here in Australia. I appreciate your updates& insights to what’s going on regarding Australian cruising. In regard to a previous negative comment regarding us Aussies flying to other destinations for cruises, they need to just speak for themselves. I don’t like flying so rely on ships mostly leaving from Sydney. My husband & I are booked onto a future cruise departing from Brisbane but will be driving up there for that one. Most of our cruises are on Carnival & P&O, so I’m interested in hearing all your comments regarding any possible changes for the future.
How would he know about the future?
I appreciate you tuning in, and I'll keep you updated on any developments regarding the Aussie cruising market. Thanks for watching.
Being European, living in Dubai, I felt sad that Carnival took over a 3 Costa ships. Luminosa, Venezia and Firenze and rebranded them and made them more like Carnival. The Costa Victoria was our first Cruise in 2018 from Mauritius and got us hooked on Cruising. What Carinval did to the 3 Costa ships seems to be similar to what they are now doing with P&O Australia. Honestly we have done 8 cruises now, of which 5 after Covid, and have 3 more booked for 2025. This on Costa, Princess, Celebrity, MSC, Virgin and NCL. However we have stayed away from Carnival and RCL as those we feel do not match our liking, read not our definition of “fun”. As such if we Cruise from Australia which I hope we can do 1 day not sure which line to try. If on Carnival as they are now the biggest operator down South then will probably try one of the ex P&O Australia ships or the Luminosa. The closest we come to Cruising in Australia is the 2025/26 Christmas & New Year Cruise we booked on Crown Princess from Singapore to Brisbane. At least will see some parts of Australia. Luckily have been down under a number of times already in Aus and NZ.
Thank you Adrian, as usual very insightful, an honest video. We are on Encounter May ‘25 it will be interesting I see what they have done to it. I guess it could be a hit or a miss, they are holding some cards to see how it is accepted by the Australian cruise consumer. It will be all about their bottom line as to which way they eventually jump. It could be a gradual ease into wherever they are going with this? who knows!
I’m with you - I think there’s a longer term plan to either integrate the two experiences fully, or even see a couple of these ships leave all together (but I’m just speculating…). I hope you enjoy the Carnival Encounter!
It’s not good business to have 2x ships sailing out of a port. I suspect that once dust settles from P&O demise, Luminosa & splendor will move back to sole US & UK sailings, or they will move the ships to southern ports again.
Adrian, this has nothing to do with Governments or high fees.n That is higher but not by that much. We are NOT filling their cruise ships. why else would Carnival suddenly tale P&O Australia into the Carnival brand why would they take ships away from Costa they are simply not getting the number of passengers they hoped they would get, and why would they shut down their Spanish brand? As you say Disney is backing off, people simply cannot afford their cruise fares so they are not getting the interest they hoped for. Same for Virgin they were not getting the bookings they thought they would, and they came up with a ridiculous explanation as to why they were not going to go ahead here that fetching their ship back from Europe would have to go through the Red Sea into pirate waters which is a load of absolute rubbish. I, in my much older years have done many cruises from UK to Australia never once have I come via the Red Sea/SuezCanal. Always been down the west coast of Africa to Cape Town then straight across to Australia No problem at all. We simply do not have enough cruisers making bookings and with these crazy increased prices will get even worse.
I also noticed that the free pizza will stop at 4pm - used to be available until 11pm on Carnival - another sneaky cut back
No you are wrong, made to order pizza will stop at 11pm but a buffet which will include a new york style pizza will be available until 2am
On the ex P&O ships, complimentary pizza will be available from 11am-4pm, but on the original Carnival ships, the pizzeria will stop by 12am or so, and a midnight buffet will be available instead.
On Adventure and Encounter it will only be open from 11am-4pm.
Thanks for an insightful video, Adrian. You are the only cruise video producer I watch. ❤ Sue
Thank you, Sue - that means a lot!
Did VV really fail to enter the local market? Nearly everyone I spoke to who cruised on VV during its season here absolutely loved it and were looking forward to VV coming back. Instead, passengers will head overseas for a VV cruise if VV doesn’t come back.
They successfully entered the market, but failed in my opinion. I’ve made a few videos about VV which you can watch if you’re interested, here’s one: th-cam.com/video/qSZ2RTYkQbQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=5Hzetb5fGio00szM
I would disagree.
You have 2 sets of ships with different options for things to do.
The crews will be different as well, for example all the P&O staff will be off the ship at the start of next year, as they will have 1 or 2 months off the ship no matter what.
a few of the staff told me this so they were super happy to get a long time off the ship and could plan what to do for that time.
I also notice the Carnival pricing is extremely cheap after the swap over, some of it is over half the discount price of P&O cruising
Thanks for watching and sharing your views.
Hi Adrian
So what now for NZ? Nothing from Auckland is sad
That’s pretty much right. There are a couple of options, but not too many. Norwegian Spirit has some a year or so from now, but these are one way cruises back to Sydney from memory.
@@TheCruiseandTravelGuy thanks for the info !
😮I feel very frustrated with the Australian state and federal governments. I wish they would stop with the negative actions and shrinking cruising options from Sydney any all the other cruising!! Why such hight port and docking fees!!!! Just because they don’t like cruise, many thousands of Aussie’s love to cruise especially from Sydney every year!!!! The cruise industry, port workers, supplier’ s motels ….. and the list goes on and on.. suffered immensely allow them to recover, make docking fees and charges and avaliablility for ship to come and return every season!!!! Many of us in oz live to cruise all year round!!
Port charges are among the highest in the world and the ferry to Tasmania had to
leave Melbourne , and it was a part of national highway connecting all Australia.
About time we cruisers are very much in the minority most people do not cruise.
Hi Adrian I really appreciate how honest you are. Someone has to say it like it is! Cheers.
Thank you! Appreciate that.
I wish Princess and Celebrity would have a year round ship here
Would be nice! Princess technically does - it’s just that their ship usually sails off around the world so it’s not here for a few months over the winter.
❤️ love your work! What about the idea of taking cruise ships into the spirit of Tasmania terminal in Geelong? Do they have the capacity to do that?
I think the Geelong Spirit of Tasmania pier allows for ships of up to 200m in length. Most mainstream cruise ships around our waters these days are anywhere from 290-340m.
Hi Adrian, you seem to be very self focussed about your business and have never responded to any of our comments. Is your concern about Carnival related to less profit for you than P&O? Any cruises from Australia, especially Brisbane, are welcome to us. Better to have four ships than none! G n M
Hey Grant. Just like Carnival’s marketing department, you’ve decided on a furphy as your lead line! I do respond to comments, so to say I’ve “never” is baseless.
Of course I’m focused on my business - what do you do for work, Grant?
And re 4 ships is better than none - did you miss the part about 5 ships becoming 4? 🤔
I suspect it won't be long before the Splendor leaves Australia permanently and won't be replaced
Aussies don't spend enough onboard and the ships will go where they can make money.
That's how the cruise industry business model works
Despite what the cruise lines tell you even though they make a lot of money out of onboard sales they also make a lot of money from just the cruise fares.
I imagine our bar tabs are among the biggest in the world 🤣
Out of the “4” carnival ships operating here in Australia only 1 is up to date with “funship 2.0”…. The rest are just knockoffs of where they formerly came from.
You're right, it’s quite a mixed bag and will be even more so come March 2025.
Wait until some U.S. passengers come over to try out 'new' ships!! I did see some excitement in U.S. circles about Carnival taking on ex Princess ships. The Australian Carnival product is already quite different to the U.S experience. The ex P&O ships and the further watered down experience will be a major shock to U.S. pax.
That’s the weird part - having different Carnival experiences in one market that international travellers may unwittingly find themselves on. The ex-Princess ships are (in my opinion) much nicer vessels than the Splendor/Luminosa.
It does make me wonder if there are longer term plans to shift the onboard experience on Adventure/Encounter to be more in line with Carnival, or if they’re planning on the ships exiting the fleet as they approach 30 years in service.
Marketing spin says it all. Painting a picture that suites them. YT is my fav news media for travel/cruising. Thanks Adrian. I wish Carnival would extend the Princess Loyalty program across their other brands. I know they have said it is not in their plans atm.
Thanks Dave. Carnival is in an interesting spot - I think we’re a very odd-duck market in the cruise world. It’s got to be challenging to operate here, but I do think all parties are a bit shortsighted (governments and cruise lines).
Thanks Adrian
100% my thoughts exactly. Carnival / P&O thing really disappoints me.
Reality seems to be half the fun at double the cost. Thanks Adrian.
Simple answer is do NOT sail with Carnival! They are overpriced and are not doing right by Australians
I’m going to give them a go, to see what the new blended experience is like after the changeover. They’ll be the only mainstream cruise line with a year round presence in Australia, so that counts for something. Hopefully it’s *fun* lol
Yeah, as suspected, they will take the good ex Princess ships and leave us with their old crappy ships 😮
Seems like the Aussie standard thing doesn’t it
Thanks Adrian, I’m onboard the lovely Westerdam now, from Perth to Sydney, it’s sad the way our governments can’t seem to get excited about the cruising industry, a lot of people onboard are Americans and all the people I have met- love Australia, it is a showcase to these people as well as other nationalities - Asian and a few Australians. If they were to lose this market it would be a huge loss to Australia.
It is disappointing to see. The government is missing the longer term picture - hopefully it’s one of those things that eventually equalises. Enjoy the rest of your cruise on the beautiful Westerdam!
I just looked at the future cruises desk - the Noordam will be here in 2025/2026.
❌ - my favourite way to get news content LOL
I went on one cruise from Sydney, post-Covid, but it wasn’t the same and I decided to pass on any future cruises. I’m actually enjoying domestic and overseas travel by plane more than I did any cruise.
I did 4 in late 2022. Both P&O cruises were disappointing, but returning May this year to try the Adventure - even upgrading to Byron Bay Beach Club at 150% the cost of normal solo fares (ie: 3x balcony fares) I wish I'd rather stayed home. Dropped from 4 weeks international from Sydney, to 9 nights PA
Sorry to hear that. Hopefully you will return to cruising one day, but in the meantime, enjoy your land travels!
An excellent summary. Of course Carnival is doing whatever it can to ensure its bottom line rather than providing us with a fabulous service … they’re a for-profit business so I can’t fault them for that (and I guess if the tv reporter fell for it many members of the public will too). 😂
What you say about Australia becoming unfriendly to cruise lines is spot on and it’s just the latest in a long list of reasons nobody wants to do business of any kind here. I guess that’s why we’re saddled with the Luminosa and not the newer/better ships, but I wouldn’t cruise again on that floating temple to Italian superiority complexes if Carnival paid me to do it. Let’s hope we do better from ex-P&O than ex-Costa.
🤣 your description of Luminosa made me laugh out loud
@ A successful mission then. Thanks for letting me know, and for a great channel.
Note on a FB post that Pacific Explorer will be heading to Asia - as part of the Genting gorup - Star Scorpio - yep, another cruise ship to be turned into a boring Asian casino few day ship. In any case - cruising in AU needs something NEW, the same locations/ports don't have me interested anymore. Virgin tried something different (in March) by having longer stays in some ports - instead of the rush off / rush back on. It will be an interesting 2025 to see where Down Under cruises head towards.....
My only positive takeaway from the news about Explorer’s sale to Resort World is that she isn’t being scrapped. Hopefully she continues on for a long time to come.
It’s definitely an interesting time for the future of cruising down under
Thanks Adrian. You are correct. It's totally misleading. A shame that our local media didn't dig for the truth!
Where is Explorer going?? i thought it was being scrapped... :( we looved this ship ..
She’s off to Resorts World Cruises - she’ll operate out of Asia. At least she has another lease on life.
Also, Cunard are no longer going to base Queen Elizabeth here for our summer cruising season!
All because they are not getting enough passengers if they were they would be staying obviously same applies to Disney and Virgin and no doubt the P&O Australia brand.
I'm glad Carni is giving a different experience on their ships. Carni is just weird with no vibe. I'll stick with the old P&O (Carni) ships and enjoy the tasteful decor.
The P&O ships are definitely my preference based on appearance and decor…
Thanks Adrian, we need you in the industry to give us the full and transparent picture of cruising 👌
How the hell does he know what goes on in the industry he is just a blogger making money from all you people here?
Thanks Paul.
"Double the Fun" is really only a play on words. Carnival are known as "Fun" ships and they technically will be doubling, but its a fine straw to grab.
Of course. And as I noted, it’s really symptomatic of the wider problems facing the local cruise industry. But watching mainstream media advertise the “additional” ships Australians will get to enjoy is too far across the line in my opinion.
Reduce capacity to keep demand even higher so prices can get even higher …… sounds very similar to the Australian airline industry 😮
Yes, there’s definitely an adjustment period, or recalibration, happening now and for the next few years at least.
Right or wrong answer, g’ments are supposed to work for the people. There needs to be a national approach by g’ments starting with Melb and Sydney.
This seems like the continued demise of the Australian cruising industry. The gang at Carnival's marketing department have tried to dress up the mess tbut hey might have been better to leave it alone. Australia is just not a great place to base cruise ships. So we get the secondhand tired old leftovers from the the big two. Until there's a major shift in Australia to a united, cost-effevtive range of ports and facilities we'll be the poor relations with most cruise lines losing interest,
Where's the Explorer going Adrian?
She’s off to join Resorts World, and will sail in Asia as Star Scorpio. Thankfully she’ll have another lease on life and isn’t being scrapped.
Stop bagging the cruise lines. They are only interested in looking after them selves as we are. We Aussie cruisers don't care and will spend our money where we get the best value for money. If we have to we will fly to get them we will.
LOL what a moronic comment.
@@chucknorris8704 Why is it a moronic comment? I am saying as I see it. Just because you don't agree doesn't mean you have to be rude. That is Adrian's mantra to say as he sees it!!!
We are sick of flying to cruise, speak for yourself. Not all Australians agree
I don’t bag cruise lines - if that’s the way you see it, I suggest you go back and give the video another watch. I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.
It's like a bait and switch!
You couldn’t pay me to go on a Carnival branded ship ever again🤮🤮🤮
Wow it is interesting 🤔 what is happening
A little bit sad… I hope things turn around going into the 2026/2027 season.
Very disappointed with Australia once again!
It’s a bit of a sad state of affairs. I can only hope that within the next 3-5 years, things improve, but that really means things need to start changing at a policy/government level very soon.
💄🐷🤣
never from main stream media I like the truth
".... .... Pants on fire!", Carnival.
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Bye, Bye Cruising, thanks to our wonderful Politicians, who couldn’t even organise or run a chook raffle
Nothing to do with politicians it is simply the greed of the cruise lines and the majority of people do not cruise will probably;y never cruise, cruisers seem to think they are entitled in some way but they are. a very small minority. Noy long ago we also had the stupid suggestion of building a $50 million island similar to Dubai in Botany Bay I wonder what world some people live in.
P&O Adventure Review
The tap water was vile, over chlorinated water due to water borne diseases causing gastroenteritis. Thanks for giving us the shits. The standards of hygiene were very poor more passengers left with a cough than embarked furthering the idea put forward by former PM Rudd “cruise ships are a Petri dish.”
The food was terrible, unbelievable no fresh fruit, no weetbix, no ice cream, watered down soup, and the meat & fish variety limited and sparse.
Wow. Sounds terrible. Will be back on Adventure to review it soon - actually twice.
Local newspaper 🗞️ and TH-cam 📼 👍
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