“Cruises from Adelaide would save us a fortune in flights”

Cruise Passenger readers always have plenty to say about what’s going on in Australian cruise, and in the broader cruise community. In Your Say, Cruise Passenger looks at the issues our readers are writing to us about on our blogs, posts and newsletters.

This week, Celebrity Cruises announced its 2027/28 Australia season and the sailings have got people talking about the absence of cruises from cities like Adelaide.

Celebrity announced more stopovers in Adelaide.

In recent years, less and less ships have been including Adelaide in their itineraries, and the state of South Australia in general is set to drop in cruise visits over the coming two seasons. 

Many cities around Australia, Adelaide included, are no longer seeing homeporting ships since Pacific Explorer stopped sailing in Australia with the disbandment of P&O Cruises Australia. 

This has left plenty of locals upset that they have to cruise out of Sydney or Brisbane. Plenty of South Australian cruisers have written to Cruise Passenger or commented on social media that they miss Adelaide sailings.

Cruiser Sandra Henry wrote: “We love cruising but are getting older and don’t want to travel to pick up a cruise. We are in Adelaide and would love more Princess ships to visit here so we can cruise more. I know a lot of people would go more if they cruised here.The ship last year from Adelaide was full.’

Yvonne Kenneedy also called for more cruising in Adelaide. 

“Why aren’t there more Princess Cruises lines leaving and returning to and from Adelaide? We have so much to offer. You will find a lot of Adelaide people are very disappointed about the change in the ships not coming to Adelaide. Cruise lines are losing loyal customers and people have trouble travelling that extra distance, especially if they have any disabilities.”

Another cruiser Karen Hill says she would save a ‘fortune’ by cruising out of Adelaide.

“Cruises leaving and returning to Adelaide would be awesome and save us a fortune in flights and accommodation for the night before cruise. I only discovered the cruising bug in March 2024 and did a 15 night cruise to New Zealand. I’m flying to Brisbane in October and going to Noumea, Lifou and Mystery Island, but it would be awesome if we didn’t have to.”

Other cruisers aren’t local to Adelaide, but want to see more cruises visiting there and departing from there. 

Eira Battaglia says: “We love Adelaide for visits. The cruise terminal is modern and easy to navigate, there is a railway station just across from the terminal, which goes into the city. It’s sad that cruise ships are bypassing Adelaide, there needs to be more actually commencing cruises from there, going to Melbourne and Hobart rather than Sydney or out west to Perth and Asia.”

Are luxury cruisess increasing in price?

Elsewhere, cruisers are noticing rising prices in the luxury space.

Laura S wrote: “Last year we cruised around Europe on Seabourn, our favoured cruise line, this year when going to book our yearly cruise, we found all the 5-6 star ships are charging almost double the price, how can they justify that? The value of our dollar means that we now cannot afford to spend $40,000 plus $18-&20,000 on air fares on top of that, Americans sure have it easy.”

Has Disney Cruise Lines suffered the same fate as Virgin Voyages?

With it looking like Disney Cruises could be on the way out of Australia, cruisers believe the line has suffered the same fate as Virgin Voyages and is just biding its time to make it official.

Manfred Hanley write: “Same as when Virgin left. They knew, but waited until they could spin the PR the best way, and reduce negative impact to revenue.

“Same here, they don’t want to create bad press when it’s going to harm them and are agreeing on the best time and way to announce it.

“It’s all about the business.”

We need different sailings

Other cruises are calling for new cruise itineraries. 

“I just wish cruise lines would open up more traveling destinations as they have been doing these same destinations for years now let’s look at other areas around Australia and off the coast and in neighboring nations”, wrote Scotty Rolo.

Drinks packages are still causing strife

One cruiser expressed being upset by Royal Caribbean’s new drink’s package policy, where now both members of a cabin will need to buy drinks packages.

Marcie Koppelman said: “Dreadful, I cruise with my 24 year-old special needs nephew who cannot drink, this is ridiculous”.

Please keep those comments coming!

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