NEWS UPDATE: P&O Aus & Princess Cancel | QLD Small Cruising? Celebrity Edge is coming to Australia!

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 Headlining news this week of course, are the announcements from both Princess and P&O Australia. Both cruise lines further extended their pause in operations. Princess kicked things off with their announcement, just beating P&O to the punch. The line announced that the entire scheduled summer season for both Sapphire and Royal Princess through to March 2022 had been officially cancelled. Furthermore, sailings on the Coral Princess have been suspended through to January 27th. Affected guests have been offered the option of an alternative voyage with price protection, a future cruise credit with bonus or a full refund. If I had to pick a positive out of all of this, it’s that Princess are still remaining committed to the Coral Princess eventually operating cruises in our region this coming summer, with her first being an 11 day Tasmania roundtrip voyage departing from Brisbane on January 27th. Sister line P&O Australia came through with their announcement more or less just after Princess. P&O confirmed that the Pacific Adventure’s cruises from Sydney were cancelled through to January 18th. Her next scheduled voyage is January 19th, a 5 night Australian Open Tennis Main Event cruise. I don’t yet know how that would function, being that major events like the Australian Open are, just like the cruise industry, in a state of flux right now. From Brisbane, the Pacific Encounter will not sail until January 15th on a 7 night voyage along Queensland’s beautiful coastline. Pacific Explorer meanwhile is scheduled to sail on February 2nd on a 16 night roundtrip from Adelaide, visiting New Zealand. P&O have also cancelled the entire Melbourne season stating that it is no longer feasible. In addition, a Pacific Encounter cruise originally set to sail from Brisbane on April 26th has been cancelled and replaced with a series of shorter domestic voyages. As has become typical, affected guests have the option of a refund, alternative voyage or future cruise credit depending on their individual circumstances. In relation to the latest round of cancellations, P&O Australia President, Sture Myrmell said: “We know that our guests are thinking about their Christmas-New Year holiday plans especially in relation to cruise bookings for this period. As you know, there is still uncertainty about the official requirements to support the resumption of cruising in Australia. Given this uncertainty and to be as open as possible with guests, we have made the difficult decision to extend our pause in operations by a further month to mid-January 2022.” Royal Caribbean have so far not made any announcements about their operations. They remain the only major line to continue their offer of cruises from Sydney this December, starting on December 13th - 4 days before the ban on cruising is set to end on December 17th. In news out of Canberra, Tourism Minister, Dan Tehan has indicated that International borders should be open before Christmas. He claimed that the government is finalising systems that will allow vaccinated Australians to leave the country and return without needing to quarantine in hotels. These plans are contingent on a national vaccination rate of 80%, making it one of the highest vaccination thresholds in the world. Open borders should mean cruising is back in January. In more good news, Celebrity have announced that the Celebrity Edge will be calling Australia home! The blockbuster summer season is scheduled for between December 2023 and April 2024. I’ll be publishing another video that will give you everything you need to know about the new itineraries and this incredible ship. Bookings open on October 13 for Captain’s Club members and October 15 for everyone else. In Queensland, Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk held a virtual press conference from Brisbane’s brand new and as yet unused international cruise terminal. The Premier committed to working with the cruise industry to resume “small” cruise holidays within her state, to commence next year, after vaccination rates hit 80%. She said: “I’ll put that to national cabinet as well, but I honestly think that is a great option for Queenslanders who are fully vaccinated to actually trial some smaller cruises up and down the Queensland coast”. Well, at least it’s something? Thanks for watching, and see you soon!