Big news for the cruise world, especially for a particular market. Carnival Corporation has announced that one of its brands will close, and its operations will be absorbed by Carnival Cruise Line.
This will allow Carnival’s fleet to expand further, after already absorbing 3 ships from Costa Cruises.
But what is this cruise line, and why are ships being taken away from other brands to join Carnival?
The reason behind this move
The reason for this move is quite simple. According to the data, Carnival is the highest-returning brand in the portfolio and as a result, the management continues to focus on it.
In addition, the American brand has strong passenger demand, so the newly arrived ships can be more easily filled compared to the Australian or Italian market.
On this matter, Josh Weinstein, chief executive officer of Carnival Corporation & plc said:
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.
Consequently, P&O Australia will shut down early next year and will be integrated into its sister line.
It will be the first time that Carnival has ended one of its historic brand names since it began acquiring cruise lines in 1989.
It’s quite an interesting thing since the Carnival fleet is going to increase again. We had already seen in the ranking of Carnival ships from best to worst that the company already has 27 ships, a very impressive number.
How does Carnival change?
After this absorption, Carnival will have a total of 29 ships.
Three of them have already arrived from Costa Cruises in 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively Costa Luminosa, Costa Venezia, and Costa Firenze.
On the contrary, P&O Cruises Australia currently has three ships, but only two will join Carnival, Pacific Adventure, and Pacific Encounter.
Pacific Explorer, which began operations in 1996, will be sold or scrapped.
If you will be traveling with Carnival I recommend you see the list of cabins to avoid on its ships.
Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line said:
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.
It is therefore good news that the ships will remain in the Australian market, which is usually quite a difficult area for cruises.
As Weinstein said:
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
The last cruises
These will therefore be P&O Australia’s last months of cruising, as the group is scheduled to close in early 2025.
Some cruises will also have to be canceled since sales have already begun for some 2026 itineraries.
In addition, making all the changes and rebranding will take several months, so ships will have to stop and leave passengers at home.
If you have booked a cruise with P&O Australia for that period, get in touch with the company to confirm whether or not your cruise will take place.
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