Carnival Splendor is finished with her dry dock in Singapore and is ready to return to Australian waters with a brand-new look.

Furthermore, the ship will pay a small tribute to P&O Cruises, with a southern cross design across both sides of the ship. This design feature is shared by ships Pacific Adventure and Pacific Encounter which also don the Southern Cross on their respective bows.

Most exciting for cruisers is that Carnival has also announced that there are a few new upgrades onboard the ship, however, these enhancements remain a mystery and will only be revealed when the ship gets back to Sydney on September 9.

While the magnitude of these changes is completely unknown, it still has cruisers excited. Splendor operates year-round in Sydney and has been doing so since 2019. For this reason, many cruisers have already experienced the ship one or more times and are hanging on to see what’s been refreshed or added.

One cruiser Wendy LIscac who’s currently onboard says not to get too excited.

“There is not much you can see, mainly new lighting with USB ports in the cabinets & New carpet. Painted fresh here and there, new glass doors at the buffet entrance .. Bedding sheets, etc are new that’s all I have noticed only 1st night though.”

Other cruisers are happy to wait and see what might surprise them onboard.

Donna Osborne wrote: “Happy to wait until late September. More exciting to just see first hand and not know everything in advance, nothing to look forward to and explore then. Not long to go.”

P&O ships to be refreshed

With P&O ships Pacific Adventure and Pacific Encounter set to be converted into Carnival ships, Carnival Corp has revealed a little bit about what this transition will involve.

The line said in a release: “Carnival announced in June that it will transition the P&O Cruises Australia operations into the Carnival Cruise Line brand next year. Plans are underway for technology upgrades and other systems investments as Pacific Adventure and Pacific Encounter prepare to join the Carnival fleet. 

“In anticipation of the changeover, Carnival has also been communicating with and offering positions to thousands of P&O Cruises Australia crew members effective when the ships join Carnival in March 2025.”

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