This year, Australia’s cruise community saw a whirlwind of news, excitement, drama and changes. Cruise Passenger was there to cover it every step of the way.
Cruise Passenger has compiled the top 10 most viewed stories of the year to give some insight into what captured, moved and affected cruises this year. With everything from P&O Australia closing down to Disney announcing an end to Aussie sailings happening this year, here’s what resonated with cruisers this year.
10 – Princess switches up their packages
Cruisers had plenty to say when Princess made some key changes to their Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages.
Many weren’t thrilled about some of the new changes, which included price rises from 20 to 30 per cent, cutting a range of perks and tightening the rules around drinks packages.
This year, cruisers around the world have claimed cruise lines have used ‘nickel and dime’ techniques, with guests feeling an extra pinch on their wallets with each new change.
However, in this case, Princess Plus and Premier has remained an extremely popular option and still likely represents the best package deal of any large cruise line.
9 – P&O cruisers get no loyalty points for Carnival transition
Australian cruisers were devastated to see the closure of P&O Cruises Australia with Carnival.
And those who were loyal to P&O found that when the lines merged, their cruising days were not going to be counted towards Carnival’s loyalty program.
This resulted in an unfortunate situation where someone who cruised hundreds of times on Pacific Adventure or Pacific Encounter wouldn’t receive any benefits.
Cruisers were able to put some points towards Princess’s loyalty program, however, there were definitely many loyal P&O cruisers feeling like they got the short end of the stick when the transition happened.
8 – The infamous Poop Cruise comes back into the spotlight
The infamous ‘poop cruise’, which happened in 2013, entered back onto the cruise community forums this year when Netflix released a documentary.
While there were many who disputed some of the details of the documentary or felt it was exaggerated, others felt it accurately captured the horror of a true holiday horror story. The documentary arrived right as Carnival was already facing a PR crisis due to some unpopular changes to its loyalty program.
While it’s definitely a chapter left firmly in Carnival’s past, the documentary definitely had everyone talking and was far from great PR for Carnival or the cruise industry as a whole.
7 – Disney Cruises announces it will no longer sail in Australia
Cruisers were thoroughly disappointed when Disney Cruises announced it would no longer be sailing in Australia after this season.
The cruise line came into Australia with plenty of hype and excitement. But it appeared it couldn’t sustain this excitement over the longer term to keep selling cabins.
The cruise lines steep prices appeared to be too high for the Aussie family market and with Disney Adventure about to arrive a few hours away in Singapore, Disney decided to pull the plug.
Disney Wonder is currently sailing her final season in Australia.
6 – Carnival Encounter – were the complaints fair?
After the merger of Carnival and P&O, social media was running riot with complaints, mostly about food and staffing issues. n.
Cruise Passenger reviewer Tiana Templeman gave a fair account of the ship, noting where some complaints are warranted while noting the expectations and limitations of a budget cruise line, as well pointing out many of the positives onboard as well.
5 – The Carnival President reveals why she closed down P&O Australia
When Cruise Passenger sat down with Christine Duffy, it was a priority to get to the bottom of why this decision was made.
Duffy explained that it came down to costs, “This is an expensive place to operate, and so leveraging the scale that we bring as Carnival Cruise Line with a fleet of 29 ships, is allowing us to keep and operate the four ships that we’ll have here, including in the winter.
“Keeping a brand with three ships, given the cost of operations in this part of the world and the regulatory environment that exists here, was not sustainable.”
4 – Crown Princess takes a tilt in New Zealand
Dramatic videos of smashed plates and falling furniture sent readers flocking to this story that covered Crown Princess’s tilt while sailing in New Zealand.
While some onboard saw plates fall or minor flooding, others didn’t even notice that anything was happening, as the ship only experienced a minor tilt.
The incident was not dangerous or stressful for passengers onboard, but the videos were definitely eye-catching and had Cruise Passenger readers intrigued.
3 – Carnival bans a nine year old passenger for life
As always, the behaviour of children on cruise ships was one of the hottest topics of the year, as it always is. There’s no better example of this debate coming to life than when a nine year-old Carnival cruise passenger ended up banned for life after damaging property onboard.
While some cruisers felt a lifetime ban for someone was harsh, many others felt it was both just and necessary. What cruisers do always seem to agree on is that the bad behaviour of kids should be just as much attributed to their parents as the kids themselves.
The child was apparently travelling without his ADHD medication when he damaged gaming equipment and assaulted another child onboard.
2 – The P&O final farewell
The biggest reaction of the year came when Pacific Encounter and Pacific Adventure sailed their very final voyages. Cruisers shared memories of the cruise line that has such a rich history in Australia.
Various figures across the industry and wider community offered their tributes to the cruise line as the ships sailed out on their final voyages.
The ships have largely kept their P&O flavour until now, maintaining most venues and eateries, it’s still unclear what changes the ships will see as they go to drydock and continue as part of the Carnival fleet.
1 – New Zealand’s cruise woes
Of all Cruise Passenger news stories this year, none had more people clicking than coverage of New Zealand’s cruise industry struggles.
New Zealand forecasted a 40 per cent drop in cruise visitors over just two years, and some lines, such as Royal Caribbean, have reduced sailings to New Zealand up to 70 per cent.
However, the good news is that New Zealand has been tackling these issues in a way that many Aussies would love to see happen here. The government came together with the industry to formulate a national strategy that is already showing very promising results in its early days.
The real story is that for New Zealand to have a full cruise recovery, Australia will need to have one as well, and as of now, very few steps are being taken towards this.
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