NEWS UPDATE: P&O Cancel Until March | Enchantment coming down under + extra Coral Princess sailings?

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 This week, P&O sounded the death knell for the Australian summer cruise season when they announced that their planned February restart was being pushed back once more. With the prospect of summer cruising now well and truly deceased, Aussies have no choice but to hope for cruising to resume in Autumn. P&O’s recent cancellation took with it all cruises planned to depart up to and including March 3rd. In addition, an 11 night South Pacific cruise departing on May 2nd got the chop - P&O stated they had hoped to be able to convert the lengthy itinerary into a domestic voyage but were unable to do so, and have therefore replaced it with several shorter domestic legs. P&O’s Pacific Adventure is now the first ship set to sail for the line, departing Sydney for an 8 night trip on March 4th, whilst Pacific Encounter is set to depart Brisbane for a 3 night cruise on March 5th. Carnival Australia had already cancelled their voyages into March some time ago, so the hope is that both local lines will resume cruising around the same time. Last week I told you that the Cruise Passenger publication reported that cruising was going to get the green light to begin in NSW come February 1. Whilst that was never an indication that cruising would be back on February 1, it was a hopeful sign that the ban was soon to be overturned. So far however, there have been no further comments from the government about the resumption of cruising and I fear that the news of a new variant to the virus will further hinder progress. With March being the next date on the cards, realistically the government would need to throw their support behind the industry within weeks to make sure that P&O and Carnival are prepared to start the season come autumn. Like we’ve become all too used to doing - we have no choice but to continue to wait. Avid Australian cruisers can now fly to Singapore and officially hit the high seas. Dream Cruises have opened their Super Seaction cruises for sale to Australians. The 2 and 3 night cruises to nowhere depart Singapore aboard the 150,000 tonne, 2017-launched World Dream. These short voyages start from around $350 per person and are open to fully vaccinated travellers. A pre-cruise rapid-antigen test conducted in the terminal before boarding must also come back negative. Pairing a short cruise with a few nights in Singapore could make for a very fun week for travel and cruise-starved Australians. Royal Caribbean released their 2023 Alaska cruise season and with it, we’ve been given a glimpse into Royal Caribbean’s as yet unannounced plans for its forthcoming 2023/2024 Australian summer season. At the conclusion of their Alaskan cruise seasons, several Royal Caribbean ships make their way over to Australia via Hawaii - these famous transpacific cruises are conducted in two segments, the first being a North American west coast leg to Hawaii and the second being from Hawaii to Australia. Royal Caribbean have confirmed that Enchantment of the Seas will sail from Vancouver to Hawaii on September 24th, 2023 - this could signal that a further transpacific voyage from Honolulu to Australia will be scheduled onboard the ship. Enchantment of the Seas is a Vision Class ship, slightly older and smaller than the Radiance Class, and most similar to the Rhapsody of the Seas that was locally based some years ago. An eagle-eyed member of my Facebook group discovered port listings for Coral Princess, with several dates in July and August this year popping up at the Brisbane cruise terminal. So far, the first available cruise onboard Coral is the 35 night Hawaii round trip voyage taking place in September. Hopefully the port bookings are indicative of some behind the scenes plans for additional local sailings onboard Coral Princess this year. Princess did previously advise that on the basis that cruising resumes down under, they would look to add additional local cruises onboard the ship. So we’ll see! Thanks for watching.