Carnival Cruise Line Australia’s announcement of its 2026/27 local season has cruisers fuming after the line’s latest itineraries leave out regional areas and major ports like Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth.
As previously reported by Cruise Passenger, regional ports and cruisers across half of Australia will suffer as Carnival revealed its ships would only be homeporting in Sydney and Brisbane.
After the announcement that P&O Australia would be absorbed into Carnival, Cruise Passenger predicted the biggest losers would be Australia’s regional ports.
The soon-to-be-retired Pacific Explorer was the ship designated to circumnavigate Australia and New Zealand, calling at a wide variety of cities such as Melbourne, Adelaide, and Fremantle.
However, with the new Carnival itineraries, the four ships – Carnival Splendor, Carnival Adventure, Carnival Encounter, and Carnival Luminosa – will only homeport in Sydney and Brisbane, with sailings dedicated only to New South Wales, Queensland and South Pacific ports.
The numbers are worse than expected for regional Australia
From August 2026 to December to June 2027, across 167 sailings on the four Carnival Cruise ships in Australia, not one will visit South Australia or Western Australia.
There will be a mere total of three cruises to Victoria, two of those being dedicated Melbourne Cup sailings, and one to Phillip Island. Furthermore, there will be just two cruises to Tasmania.
Cruise Passenger had previously calculated that if Carnival did not return to homeporting out of other states, passengers would be thousands of dollars extra to fly
The lack of visits to regional Australian ports also has a broader economic impact. Without cruise tourists spending in regional towns, this will affect local businesses and suppliers who used to earn millions of dollars from cruise ship business.
Cruise Passenger has reported on how towns like Geraldton are feeling the harsh impacts of P&O going under, with hundreds of thousands lost to the economy and its hard-working citizens.
There are ports large and small all over Australia such as Adelaide, Geraldton, Burnie, Fremantle, Eden and so many more that will now be seeing next-to-no cruise. While cruise lines may not feel the effects of this, the Australian people in these towns will.
Aussie’s outcry at Carnival snubs
Leading cruise agency Travel Central outlined their clear thoughts on Carnival’s latest moves. They spell out the sad reality that the cruise lines are following the money, and the money is in Sydney and Brisbane.
“Why Do Carnival Cruises Stick to Sydney & Brisbane? Companies follow the money!
“Many have asked why Carnival Cruises new itineraries don’t sail from places like Melbourne, Adelaide, or even New Zealand.
“The reality is that business decisions are driven by revenue – and right now, cities like Sydney and Brisbane are where cruise lines see the most profit.
“Companies follow the money because they must. Businesses like Carnival focus on regions where they can maximise returns – whether that’s because of strong demand, high spending from cruisers, or favorable operational costs. Expanding to ports like Perth, Darwin, or even Auckland might sound great, but if the demand isn’t high enough to cover costs and generate profit, it simply doesn’t make business sense.”
A cruiser Brad Mack commented his dejected thoughts
“For cruising grounds, we don’t come close to the numbers they do out of Florida, in Alaska and in the Mediterranean. We are not much more than a blip on their spreadsheets, and we are being treated as such.”
Many echoed his thoughts
Phil Bridge wrote: “Tourist industries in Vic, SA and WA are just as deserving of the tourist dollar as the east coast and that its ludicrous to run 4 ships along the east coast.”
Catherine McMenemy Daw wrote: “Adelaide misses out again. People won’t be able to afford to fly to Sydney, accommodation and back to Adelaide.”
Why we often hear of high port fees as a reason for cruise ships leaving Australia, and it’s a legitimate and serious issue, it doesn’t appear to be cutting it with all passengers.
Tom Lee wrote: “If the Victorian Government raised port fees, why don’t Carnival just add the extra amount to the cruise fare? It’s got to be cheaper than flying to Sydney or Brisbane, staying at a hotel the night before, plus meals and transfers.”
Fiona Ryan wrote: “We are Victorian based. I think they’ve forgotten there are other states besides NSW and QLD. Clearly they are happy to loose a substantial amount of dollars/customers. My family and I will continue to cruise with other companies that support and include Melbourne.”
Stacey Woods wrote: “Disappointed for Perth. When you live in country WA it gets pretty pricey when you have to pay a small fortune for flights to the east coast. Our Fremantle cruises are always sold out any 4 day or 3 day cruises with any line so the demand is there.”
Rowan Parry wrote: “How about some cruises based out of Fremantle going up to Singapore. Western Australia has so much to offer.”
Caroline Beattie wrote: “Well you won’t be seeing me onboard. Two ships from Sydney and two ships from Brisbane, what a joke, there’s nothing from Fremantle.”
The reaction is endless, with various cruisers from other Aussie states and New Zealand devastated to see they’ll no longer be able to holiday from their doorstep.
There remain more domestic options with Princess Cruises, however, these come at a higher price point, a less family-centred experience and Princess has also been downsizing its presence in Australia.
Tell us what you think below.
I will not cruise with carnival ever I will go with Royal Caribbean instead I will not support a company that does not support all Australians
The Carnival Corp. bean counters have done their sums and what with our piddlingly weak dollar can’t see an easy profit in Australasia….and it probably ain’t gonna get better any time soon. The massive mega ships with all their added fee gee gaws etc. don’t appeal and I’m sure as hell not about to start flying around the planet to catch a ship.
Does the Carnival Corp. give a damn, obviously not.
We have sailed once with Carnival. Not impressed, so this news doesn’t worry us. We are an older couple and are quite happy with Princess. I can understand why young families will be very upset at this news as Carnival are certainly a family holiday cruise line.
It’s very disappointing that we in Perth have pretty much Nil cruise options out of Fremantle.
To fly over east, and back, also some accommodation, it makes it a financial No Go.
Thanks for nothing, we have done several cruises with Princess, but now we will be travelling in other forms.
I think it’s ridiculous that they don’t think of people that cruise because they can’t fly for whatever reason. I did hear Pacific Explorer was getting decommissioned, Why doesn’t the government take over this ship and keep her as Australian only ship to travel solely around Australia so those that can’t fly out, can at least still cruise the numbers are definitely there for the short 3, 4 and up to 10 day cruises, thank goodness, my family got onto the last Exmouth cruise in February next year taking out 91 year old mum for her first cruise, I guess it will be our last, very sad really to see cruising stopping in w.a,
While I fully appreciate the impact that the lose of P&O Australia will have on a major number of Australian ports we in NZ will be left without any home porting ship at all.
Three weeks ago I sailed from Auckland on what would be one of Pacific Explorers last cruises ex Auckland. The ship was fully booked as have most cruises ex Auckland since her return in July.This equates to multiple thousands of passengers.
What I found interesting was the general word onboard beingthat passengers will not sail with Carnival.Like earlier comments people are not going to pay extra for air fares and accommodation to get to and from Australia just to do a 4 or 5 day cruise.
Maybe it’s time for some other line to give some serious consideration in giving Australia and NZ another alternative. Bring on the competition.
We a very reluctant to cruise with carnival now as they are not offering cruises that go to different places and country’s there is only one in 2027 that is different and it’s an old P&O cruise I mean how many times can a person sail on the same ship to the same islands and ports while they might be doing well now don’t think it will last with every cruise doing the same thing
We a very reluctant to cruise with carnival now as they are not offering cruises the go to different places and country’s there is only one in 2027 that is different and it’s an old P&O cruise I mean how many times can a person sail on the same ship to the same islands and ports while they might be doing well now don’t think it will last with every cruise doing the same thing
Australian and particularly New Zealand governments have targeted the cruise industry, look at their treatment during Covid.
Now they are increasing port fees and tourist taxes aimed at cruisers as well as adding environmental restrictions and charges.
Why would a cruise line want to spend 3 nights and 2 sea days just to get to New Zealand when they can cruise nightly between Caribbean or Mediterranean ports saving hugely on fuel.
The cruise lines have huge debt to repay and need to maximise revenue from their fleets so having ships sailing in lower revenue markets is not good for business.
Hopefully when their balance sheets are more respectable they may return ships to Australia.
I won’t be flying to Sydney or Brisbane to board an East coast cruise Carnival will lose a lot of potential passengers to other cruise lines.
Hardly a surprise. Not unexpected. Increased fees at Melbourne ensured cruise ships would miss Melbourne.
Carnival has cut 1 cruise ship from Australian waters with no replacement for Pacific Explorer.
Then Princess has decided to drop ships in Australia and ensure ships sailing in Australia go to dry dock during the Australian cruise season.
Cruising does not look good for Australians. Wait until they tell us to fly overseas to catch a cruise
It is a shame that we down under couldn’t entice MSC cruise line here. They have the world pretty much covered with us being the exception. They used to have offices in Sydney and used to run promotional evenings regularly around Australia and NZ. Have cruised many times with them out of Europe and South America. Absolutely beautiful ships and they appear to adapt to the regions they sail in. They have moved into the States big time but not yet extended to the West Coast or beyond.
Good to see some finally realise all these decisions are just made for cruise company profits, instead of blaming each change on the government.
No company wants to take heat, or blame, so are happy to deflect to the government instead of admitting the truth.
Fare increases have been far greater than any extra government charges, but the cruise companies never mention that and just complain about charges, when it has no significant part to play in changing sales volume.