The man who built the Princess brand into Australia’s favourite has a simple message for the line’s fans bemoaning the reduction in the fleet size this season: Australia and New Zealand need to remove regulatory uncertainty, accept increased prices and lower port fees.
Oh, and the Aussie dollar needs to rise as well.
Sudden rule changes and port charge hikes as well as low prices are among the primary reasons lines say is driving the decision to sail ships in other regions, and it is compounded by ports hiking their prices.
Allison was talking as it was revealed that Auckland, which has increased fees hugely and imposed bio regulations, has asked for the return a homeported ship.
Pacific Explorer was pulled out after one season.
New Zealand has a particularly bad record at imposing new regulations that deter cruising. Who can forget the number of ships turned away by biosecurity rules?
Allison declined to discuss the New Zealand position. It’a vital part of Australia’s cruising arena and diplomacy is the order of the day.
He has been toiling away at building cruise brands within Carnival Australia for two decades and is shortly leaving for the UK to head up P&O Cruises’ seven-ship fleet as Chief Commercial Officer.
He is a well-respected industry leader and a big loss to Australian cruising.
And he remains surprisingly optimistic about the future of cruising Down Under, even though he once presided over a wave season fleet of five ships, with regional ports like Adelaide and cities like Melbourne hosting their vessels.
This 2024/25 wave season, beginning shortly, Australia will host the 113,561-tonne Crown Princess, admittedly the largest ship that Princess Cruises has ever sent to Australia to sail full-time.
Throughout her debut season, she’ll make 78 visits across 21 ports in the country, another record for a Princess ship in Australia. She will also become the biggest ship to ever host a world cruise when it leaves Australia on a 113-night world cruise in May 2025.
The Diamond Princess will sail from Sydney.
But Melbourne, a port that jacked up prices in the middle of last year’s season and drove off Virgin Voyages, won’t be seeing a Princess ship homeport. Adelaide will also not have a ship of its own.
Princess fans are gutted. Allison will only say he’s “disappointed”.
He explains it’s hard to press the case to Princess’ US owners for more APAC vessels when countries like New Zealand jack up charges and introduce environmental regulations that make the business of sending ships to the region uncertain and expensive.
Not when American cruise is booming, with prices setting records, Australian and New Zealand governments are gouging port fees and setting up regulatory hoops to jump through.
Americans don’t like business uncertainty, and Australia and New Zealand have been delivering that in spades.
Princess was once despatching four ships a fortnight to Auckland.
Now, no Carnival ship is homeported there and the government is keen to see if relationships can be repaired.
Carnival Australia, once Australia’s largest cruise operator, is having a refit of its own. P&O Australia, an iconic 92-year-old brand, will disappear next February. Its ships will be absorbed into the Carnival brand, with Pacific Explorer, the vessel that returned cruising to Australia after Covid, sold off.
Princess will now work hard at persuading Australians to fly cruise. The fleet’s reduction will leave some die-hard Princess fans waiting at the dockside, and Allison is hoping they can be tempted to Europe by the allure of the new Sun Princess, to Japan aboard the Diamond Princess, or Alaska for the brand new Star Princess.
Ezair will be wheeled out to help book flights.
Crown Princess will be the largest ship to sail a world cruise from Australia – an incredibly popular sailing introduced during Allison’s tenure. The round-Australia cruise is another innovation he has overseen.
Next year will see Princess celebrate its 50th year of cruising in Australia. It wasn’t continuous, he confides because Australians didn’t get why they were charged a premium for en suite bathrooms aboard the Pacific Princess and refused to pay it. The line retreated for several years before returning with en suites everywhere.
Allison numbers the arrival of the Majestic Princess, the Pacific Princess coming to Australia, and the world cruise leaving from Down Under as his proudest moments.
And he points out that Aussies spend more nights on a Princess ship than any other brand, despite other lines having bigger ships.
The line has managed to achieve a major market share, and once took out five Cruise Passenger Readers’ Choice Awards, regularly winning more than any other brand.
What happens next and who succeeds Allison as the brand’s ambassador remains to be seen.
This is such a sad time for alot of people including me. I’m in New Zealand which means we have to pay extra just to fly somewhere else to go on a cruise. Some people can’t afford extra. Come on New Zealand government, stop being so greedy and let these cruise ships back into our ports. You moan that we’re losing tourists, and you wonder why -KW
Short sighted Governments killing the golden goose as usual.
Package deals overseas are better value.
I was lucky enough to sail Virgin’s inaugural cruise from Athens last year.
All over now.
Absolutely agree with Mike. We are in South Australia and very disappointed that we will no longer have PO/Carnival cruises leaving from Adelaide.
We are seniors who have done many cruises which necessitate long haul flights and accommodation. We are now ready to just cruise from Adelaide locally or New Zealand and that choice has been taken away.
Port Adelaide/Outer Harbour is an easy port to negotiate with a train nearby or private bus and parking options.
I have cruised a lot in the past and am dismayed on how few cruises are going from Melbourne.
It’s not the greatest of Port terminals but going to Sydney instead is going to rule it out for me.
Also,not happy that Princess seems make it difficult for solo travellers to book.
No available cabins when you try to book.
Cruise industry in Australia at moment and future is not looking good.
been on the Royal Princess ,awesome trip with totally professional people ,New Zealand needs to invite these ships here and learn from them how to look after our tourists , lots of money to be made
Unfortunately it’s government greed and beaurocracy gone to extreme that makes us suffer the consequences, in my opinion Princess is the best thing that happened to Australia and NZ but we did not take full advantage of it, u polies forget who pays you , wake up or one day you will b obsolete.
Im deverstated I can’t cruise out of Melbourne, I hope our Government comes to there census, with the port charges and give us back our Cruising out of Melbourne.
Pity Princess doesn’t consider West Australians who have sailed for many years with you.,We need a Fremantle based ship
We are saddened by Melbourne’s virtual cruising embargpo (exacerbated by our state government’s port levy increase). The alternatives to domestic cruising have priced us out of the market, as travelling to Sydney necessitates costly airfares and hotel accomodation (to avpoid last-minute flight snafus). We had hoped to do a South Pacific cruise but Princess dropped Melbourne from embarkation options. – MD