- Carnival Adventure will now sail half the year in the USA, leaving Australia in April 2028.
- This means Carnival will now have just two year-round ships in Australia, down from four previously (including P&O ships).
- Carnival Country Manager Peter Little cited “stronger momentum and local governmental support in other major travel and tourism markets globally” as key reasoning for the change.
Carnival Cruise Line has made the shock announcement that Carnival Adventure will no longer sail year-round in Australia, and will instead relocate to North America for Australia’s non-peak months.
This means rather than sail year-round, Carnival Adventure will more closely mimic Carnival Luminosa’s sailing patterns, spending about half the year in Australia from November to April, and then half the year in the USA.
This brings Carnival down to just two ships sailing year-round in Australia, Carnival Splendor, which sails out of Sydney, and Carnival Encounter, which sails out of Brisbane.
It is estimated that the move slashes Australia’s winter cruising capacity by as many as 70,000 beds, and will hit small ports and producers who rely on the sailings for income and jobs.
Given that just over a year ago, Australia had Pacific Adventure, Pacific Explorer, Pacific Encounter and Carnival Splendor all sailing year-round, the jump from four year-round ships to just two is a huge hit to the local industry.
Peter Little, who leads Carnival Corp’s operations in Australia and New Zealand said: “We’re proud of our long-standing commitment to this market. It is business as usual with Carnival Cruise Line operating from more homeports across Australia and New Zealand in 2027/28 than ever before, so there are plenty of attractive itineraries for our guests.
“Over the next two years, we look forward to welcoming onboard about 1.2 million fun-loving guests across about 400 voyages as we continue to sail year-round to amazing destinations.”
But in what looks like a deliberate acknowledgement of problems with some port cities like Melbourne and with the federal government, Little cited “stronger momentum and local governmental support in other major travel and tourism markets globally” as a reason for the change.
Cruise Lines International Association Australasia (CLIA) immediately issued a statement warning that more capacity could be at risk if governments continue to ignore repeated requests for a national action plan.
“CLIA and the Australasian cruise industry have consistently warned that regulatory uncertainty and a complex operating environment make Australia uncompetitive among cruise destinations and reduce our ability to attract ships to this region.
“While demand for cruising is at record levels internationally and Australians remain some of the world’s most passionate cruisers, Australia is at risk of losing deployment to other countries that offer a more constructive operating environment.
“CLIA has previously called for a national action plan across Federal, State and Territory governments, to support cruise tourism, improve Australia’s competitiveness, attract more ships, safeguard jobs, and create greater economic opportunities in destinations around the country.”
Australia’s cruise industry has lost Cunard Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages over recent years, as well as losing Pacific Explorer when P&O merged into Carnival, and Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises have reduced their Australian fleets.
This impact is already on show with the cruise industry registering over $1 billion less in revenue over the 2024/25 season, compared to the 2023/24 season, and more losses are expected to be on the way.
Cruise lines have long signalled that they feel a lack of governmental support for their operations in Australia, and Australia is known to be a destination with high regulatory costs and requirements.
The move by Carnival is almost certainly driven by economic imperatives. Sailing half the year in North America will be a more profitable move for Carnival.
Little added: “Carnival is adjusting its deployment to better capture greater opportunities elsewhere, while continuing to champion a more competitive and certain operating environment – matters we’ve long emphasised.”
He added: “We look forward to continuing our strong commitment to a cruise sector that provides 22,000 jobs and more than $7 billion in economic benefit to thousands of travel agents, shore tour operators, fresh food producers and transport providers right across Australia.”
Australia’s Maritime Union tried to board Carnival Adventure in Sydney on Friday, but were turned away. The union is claiming they just wanted to “consult with our members on board”.
The move is likely to signal a major upgrade for Adventure. The vessel is still largely a P&O ship, filled with P&O venues and a different lay-out to other Carnival ships.
The ship has a dry dock in Singapore in 2027, but it remains to be seen if it will see significant changes to make it appeal more to the American market.
Related Posts
-
Now it’s in its third life as a Carnival ship, it will continue serving up family-oriented vacations, sailing year-round of Sydney.
-
Terrifying footage has been captured by bystanders at Overseas Passenger Terminal, of a man trying the climb the Carnival Adventure.
-
Carnival Adventure is currently homeported in Sydney, Australia. Take a look at the deck plan for more information.
-
Melbourne's forward booking schedules show that Carnival Adventure will visit in 2028, meaning that its 2027 stop isn't just a one off.
Why not pull the Splendor instead of the Adventure? Splendor was originally a American ship!
I’ve completed 40 cruises over 33 years, and have noticed more recently a sharp decline in both the number of and quality of cruises operating out of or through Australian waters. It’s not just Carnival Cruises, it’s P&O, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, MSC, Cunard, Azamara and others.
Far too much cruise ship operation in Australian waters are mostly in the hands of Carnival, as Carnival often are the booking and traffic agents for several of the above-mentioned cruise lines. Several Governments have played a role as in the debacle of back-flipping on a promised designated international cruise terminal for Newcastle, and in building one in Eden instead, in withdrawing their superliners from Melbourne, Brisbane’s Hamilton cruise terminal, and minimising the number of ships these ships going in to Darwin. Hobart, Fremantle and Adelaide.
Many Australians now fly direct to Singapore to start and/or finish their cruises. The prices for ocean cruising has skyrocketed due to higher demand, less supply and along with both corporate greed & government compliancy etc. regular inventory and intimacy changes and unreliability occur more often and the once-loyal cruiser become more disillusioned and now look at and consider other alternatives to cruising. The eventual death-nail of the Australian cruise industry has well become inevitable.
It is clear that the current labor Governments in NSW, Victoria and Canberra have collectively torpedoed the cruise industry through the “hull” the over the years with poor infrastructure, navel gazing over planning and the highest port costs on the planet. One might suspect their pro-green agenda spells a “could care less” attitude about the cruise industry, especially by the Federal Minister.
AI Overview for what its worth…
Global cruise port costs are highest in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne), Alaska, and the Panama Canal, while Caribbean and European ports generally offer lower, more competitive fees.
If profits are more attractive elsewhere then the question is…”Why is Australia so cost-negative even though the number of cruisers are expanding and the demand is here ???” When you answer this question the solutions become clear.
I am always hit with offers to sail out of Miami for instance for only a few hundred where a similar cruise duration out of say Sydney or Brisbane is often double. As a learned professor often said…”Why is it so ?”
This has become a joke! For years the federal and state governments have ignored the request from major cruise companies to have at least 3 or 4 ships in Australia all year round. But port taxes are high ! Doesn’t the government realise that we will be loosing a lot of tourism money and jobs as well? Wake up Albo and state governments before the ships anchor at other overseas ports instead of Australia!
No thanks to the Victorian Government who ignored the plea’s to upgrade the decrepit, old and unfriendly station pier so called cruise terminal, but instead raised the Port Charges and fees which has driven many of the cruise lines away from Melbourne.
I agree with Mh , it is all about the holy $ US in the final ‘wash up’.
I would be interested to see some stats regarding US tourism at the moment. Is it becoming more domestic oriented than O/S driven due to current political issues in the US and US international policy , and has this been picked up by the Cruise Companies who are up gunning their ‘bed’ capacity , in this case the Carnival Adventure being added to the USA domestic ‘wave season’ / our winter period by some additional 70,000 ‘beds’ etc? I also agree that there must be a National Plan developed for our cruise industry which must be coordinated by the Federal Minister for Tourism with State and Territory counter parts and with our Cruise Industry stakeholders. If a plan is not forthcoming it is foreseeable more cruise capacity will be lost and with it ‘jobs’ and increased costs to Australian cruise consumers.
Having cruised most of my life I have seen a huge decline in ships visiting Australia. I was on the Dawn Princess first home ported sailing in 2008 Cunard no longer visits and they have ruined our maritime history doing away with P&O it’s all down to revenue we don’t use the casinos
The article states that Australia has lost three cruise lines recently. However, the reasons stated have little do with government but more to do with demographics. Virgin markets itself towards upwardly mobile 30 somethings. however they found that this market wasn’t here in big numbers due to mortgage costs. Many cruisers from Australia were older and didn’t like the format. They ended up selling cabins at quite reduced prices. Cunard made a mistake and sold cabins at too lower prices and attracted a very casual clientele which didn’t suit the brand. Australia doesn’t have a large enough pool of people who like to have a formal holiday. This, along with the fact that their cruisers are older and less likely to fly long distances to come to Australia for a cruise. Sealed their fate. Disney is also a cruise line that made huge mistakes. Yes plenty of families would love to take a family cruise but the pricing was over the top and people just couldn’t bring themselves to fork out huge amounts of money for a short cruise. These companies didn’t take into consideration the Australian housing market and the real demographics. Plenty of other lines will fill the void. Carnival is removing one of its year round deployments because of over supply in the winter, All talk about government policy being a problem is just a smokescreen to get a better deal. You can’t blame them.
We have been avid cruisers over the last 15 years , we live in Perth and enjoyed our cruises out of Fremantle, now there are very few cruise lines who port at Fremantle which makes our cruise holidays more expensive and less convenient with flights to pick up the cruise and overnight hotels in Sydney or Brisbane , why is WA being ignored??
It’s funny.
When all the cruise lines were coming here, nobody was saying it was due to the government. It was all because we were a good cruise market.
Now that cruise lines similarly leave for their own commercial benefit, suddenly the government has to be blamed. When the reality is they are chasing the dollars. And Australian taxpayers could subsidise cruises even more and charge NO fees – and they still would leave. Because they can make more money elsewhere.
Government fees are negligible and mostly passed on to the passenger. It’s revenue that makes the big difference.
No thanks to the maritime Union of Australia and the greens for the crusade against carnival Australia