NEWS UPDATE: Carnival Splendor and Spirit trade AUS for USA | Vanuatu Closed to Tourists until July

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 It’s not every week you can say that a cruise ship caused the cancellation of a rocket launch, but that’s exactly what happened this week. Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, one of the largest ships in the world, was responsible for the cancellation of a SpaceX launch. The ship departed its berth in Miami, Florida setting course for a 7 night Caribbean cruise when it happened to sail straight into a pre determined exclusion zone in the open sea. As a result of the incursion, the launch was cancelled and rescheduled to the following day. A few days ago, some interesting news broke on Facebook via Carnival brand ambassador and senior cruise director, John Heald. He published a post that detailed a curious deployment change, indicating that Brisbane’s Carnival Spirit would be heading to Jacksonville, Florida to begin cruising from March. This announcement was shared by Cruise Director Lee, another of Carnival’s popular ambassadorial figures. Australians, especially those booked on Carnival Spirits earlier sailings that are currently scheduled to take place from the end of May were understandably upset and irritated by the news. All of these announcements and the subsequent backlash occurred before Carnival had made its own offical statement on the matter - which wasn’t a good look for the company. John Heald’s original post has since been removed. I understand that the direct line from Carnival was that this news was a leak and consisted of incomplete information, however their official announcement didn’t provide much more in the way of detail - it read: “Due to the overwhelming success of the resumption of cruising in the U.S and the continued uncertainty in Australia with operations still on pause, Carnival Spirit will be deployed to Jacksonville, Florida to commence cruising from March 7, 2022. Carnival Cruise Line looks forward to resuming guest operations in Australia when government officials can provide clarity.” It doesn’t stop there however, because two days after all that happened, it was announced, officially this time, that Carnival Splendor would be joining Spirit in her redeployment to the United States. What came as a bit of shock though, was that Carnival confirmed the Splendor won’t return to Sydney until September 26th. More shocking, is that Spirit won’t be returning to Brisbane until October 5th. 2023. I don’t think anyone can begrudge Carnival for making the choice to send its ships to a country that actually allows cruising - an idle ship is just a drain on finances after all. I do however believe that this could have been handled much better from a PR perspective. Many local cruisers were left reeling from the news, and these are people that have been booking and rebooking and rebooking and rebooking cruises throughout each round of cancellations. It didn’t help matters that the news broke via unauthorised channels to begin with, and even worse was that the initial information was incomplete if not incorrect. All of the guests affected by the cancellations have been offered a refund or future cruise credit with onboard credit bonus. I can tell you there has been a shift in consumer sentiment about future cruise credits as of late, people are much more likely to request a refund now. As a point of interest though, a Carnival staffer has indicated that there may still be two Carnival ships based in Australia later this year. That could be something exiting to look forward to. P&O made an announcement of its own this week, advising its travel partners and guests that Vanuatu announced its borders will remain closed to International visitors until at least the end of July. As a result, several South Pacific itineraries will likely be altered, with P&O saying: “As the Vanuatu border closure will affect your client’s cruise itinerary, we wanted to get in touch as soon as possible to let you know we are currently reviewing these changed circumstances. We ask for your continued patience and understanding while we assess potential substitute cruise itineraries for your clients.” A further update from the company about affected itineraries is expected in March. To that end, Australia’s cruise ban is due to be reviewed in less than two weeks. The ban was recently extended until February 17th, but as I mentioned in a recent video, the expectation is that a cruise restart is dependent on the Biosecurity Amendment Bill being passed by both the lower and upper Houses of Parliament. There is still some time to go before that happens, so I don’t exactly have high hopes for good news in the next fortnight. Thanks for watching!