NEWS UPDATE: The Love Boat Cruise, NCL Spirit to Aus in March, Princess Cancellations and more!

Watch my Royal Caribbean World Cruise video here: https://youtu.be/WMqOXazSWVY Join my private Facebook group for cruise deals, tips and advice - the more members we have, the better we’ll get! www.facebook.com/groups/CTGdeals Head to my website for great cruise and travel deals: www.thecruiseandtravelguy.com.au Follow me on Facebook and Instagram: www.facebook.comn/thecruiseandtravelguy www.instragram.com/thecruiseandtravelguy Princess cruises have announced a very special voyage to commemorate the life of actor Gavin Macleod, best known for his role as Captain Stubing on the Love Boat. The 7 night cruise sets sail from Los Angeles on February 26th onboard Majestic Princess. The ship will sail the Love Boat’s signature Mexican Riviera itinerary with stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. Original cast members will be onboard including Jill Whelan who played Captain Stubing’s daughter, Vicki, your cruise director, Julie McCoy otherwise known as Lauren Tewes, as well as Doc, Gopher and my personal favourite Ted Lange who played bartender Isaac - he had the keys to the booze after all. Onboard there will be themed activities including the sail away party, a Disco Deck Party, vow renewal as well as a Q&A with the cast. Themed menus and speciality cocktails will no doubt help to bring the 70s back to life. Royal Caribbean’s first ever foray into a world cruise is proving to be a resounding success - with 70% of the ship’s capacity already sold out. With the cost of passage ranging from $80,000 to $500,000, this cruise is no cheapie - however for their money guests will be treated to 9 months of cruising the world to incredible destinations - you can learn more about the voyage by clicking the link in the description below or the card above. I was hopeful we’d make it a whole week without news of any further cancellations, but alas, the cruising gods had other ideas. Princess announced the cancellation of their scheduled Coral Princess cruises that were originally due to set sail beginning on March 14th from Brisbane. Unfortunately, some major voyages including the 28 night Australia circumnavigation, 35 night Hawaii return voyage and the 107 night world cruise were all cancelled. Princess cited the ongoing uncertainty around travel to different regions as the main reason. Assuming cruising in Australia gets the green light soon, Princess have indicated that a new Coral Princess season may go on sale soon. Stay tuned for that. Carnival is continuing to update its ships with its new livery - having most recently finished painting Australian favourite, Carnival Spirit in its new brand colours. The updated look first debuted on the brand new Mardi Gras and will eventually extend to all Carnival ships. We’ll get to see it up close when Spirit eventually makes her way back to her home port of Brisbane, some time in 2022. During an earnings call this week, Norwegian Cruise Line’s CEO Frank Del Rio reaffirmed plans for Norwegian Spirit to resume sailing in Australia from March 2022. Though far from set in stone, the forward planning is hopefully indicative of things to come, signalling a change in the Australian government’s anti-cruise rhetoric. To that end, there have been no further developments on the approvals front. The government remains tight lipped about when cruising can resume though the story has certainly garnered more attention with multiple publications and news outlets picking up the story. The big news of course being that as of this week, we can fly overseas to holiday and cruise, yet remain unable to do so from, the arguably safer confines of our own backyard. As always, I’ll make sure to bring you the latest developments on the cruise news front so make sure you hit that subscribe button to stay up to date. Thanks for watching!