NEWS UPDATE: Carnival Corp AU aims for mid-year restart + water slide FAIL & are fares increasing?

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 Follow me on Facebook and Instagram: www.facebook.comn/thecruiseandtravelguy www.instragram.com/thecruiseandtravelguy Head to my website for great cruise and travel deals: www.thecruiseandtravelguy.com.au A travel agent onboard the Norwegian Encore, this week captured the exact moment a fellow guest took a ride on the Ocean Loops waterslide. Unfortunately for the passenger, the adrenaline started pumping for the wrong reason. Instead of momentum and speed carrying her through to the end of the ride, she took a bit of a head first slide backwards before settling in one of the lower portions of the slide that just happened to be off the side of the ship and high above the sea below. According to the person who filmed the video, the woman was promptly rescued by the ship’s crew, exiting through an escape hatch. I hope she got to skip the queue to take a second, full, ride on the slide. Carnival Australia President Marguerite Fitzgerald this week announced that the brand’s cruise lines are planning for a mid-year Australian cruise restart focused on domestic journeys. According to the article in the Cruise Weekly publication, the cruise lines under her purview, including Carnival, P&O Australia and Princess will be looking closely at international restrictions to best plan for voyages further afield. She also indicated that guests can look forward to some changes when they finally board their ships later this year saying, “You will see some different things, you’ll see some new dining, some new bar concepts, particularly on P&O. When you think about some of the concepts that were already there on Explorer we’re going to bring those over to newer ships, and also some new ideas.” Carnival have also confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Carnival Spirit will not be returning to Australia - well, not anytime soon. Although Carnival’s Australian office have yet to confirm exactly which ship will replace Spirit, it’s expected that Costa Magica will be the ship taking her place. Magica will undergo a multi-million dollar refit before her transfer to Carnival later this year at which point, she may just call Brisbane home. Spirit has returned to the US for the first time in 10 years, sailing from Jacksonville, Florida, she has finally welcomed guests onboard for the first time since early 2020. She will undertake a series of cruises to the Caribbean and surrounding islands before transiting to the US West Coast in April via the Panama Canal for her Alaska season. Spirit is the 21st ship to resume sailing for Carnival. Carnival Splendor will make her long awaited return to Sydney later this year, with her repositioning voyage set to be released for booking soon. Based on some hints provided by Carnival’s Australian team, I expect it will be an epic Alaska to Australia cruise via island stops in Hawaii and the South Pacific. I’ll bring you more information about it soon. As you’d probably know very well if you own a car, fuel prices are on the rise. The travel industry is set to be impacted by these rising fuel costs, and cruise lines are likely to pass on the costs by way of an increased fuel surcharge. Generally speaking, cruise line passenger contracts allow for fuel surcharges to be levied on passengers even after final payment. Most major cruise line corporations purchase fuel in bulk when it’s priced competitively, so as to negate the potential impacts of rising costs at later times - such as now. Whether cruise lines will implement a fuel surcharge remains to be seen, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Watch this space. Some industry watchers were hopeful that the federal health minister, Greg Hunt would announce the end of the cruise ban during the most recent National Cabinet meeting, held on Friday March 11th. As at the time of recording this video though, it appears that no such end was announced and the focus of the health minister’s attention was among other things, preparation for the upcoming winter flu season. The ban continues for now and we can only hope that it’s overturned on April 17th, if not sooner. Thanks for watching!