- P&O Australia is permanently ceasing operations in Australia.
- Its two remaining ships, Pacific Encounter and Pacific Adventure are about to sail their final voyages.
- The two ships will then go to Melbourne for two weeks and re-emerge as part of the Carnival Cruises Australia fleet.
Since it was announced last June that P&O Australia cruises would be ceasing operations, it’s been a countdown to this day, and it’s finally here. This weekend, P&O Australia’s last two ships Pacific Adventure and Pacific Encounter will sail their very last sailings as P&O ships, and from March 11, the P&O Australia website will shut down and automatically redirect to Carnival.
What comes next? With Pacific Explorer already moved on, on March 8 and March 10 respectively, Pacific Encounter and Pacific Adventure will sail their final itineraries, and then they’ll both sail to Melbourne where they’ll undergo a two-week wet dock.
While it’s still not completely clear what will change on the ships in these two weeks, it’s known that there will be various technology upgrades and onboard rebranding of the ships, it’s unclear if they’ll be re-painted in this time. The general consensus so far is that the ships won’t be particularly different from their current P&O forms, until they’re dry-docked in Singapore in 2026 and 2027 respectively.
When the ships return to operation at the end of March, Christine Duffy, president of Carnival will fly down to Australia to welcome the two ships as the newest to the Carnival Cruises fleet. Cruise Passenger will be present to inspect the ships and report on all their latest updates on March 28,
In these days, all be will revealed about exactly what to expect on the new ships, as well as hopefully some details on what will be done to the ships in their upcoming dry-docks. For everything we know so far about what they’ll look like, check out this Q&A.
You can also find more info here.
From March 11, everything on the P&O Australia website will be moved over to Carnival, this means all enquiries relating to either brand need to be done on the Carnival Australia website.
P&O Australia was the first company ever to operate passenger routes in Australia, way back in 1932 a cruise took 1100 passengers on a seven-day itinerary to visit Brisbane and Norfolk Island. The line has operated more than 10 different ships in our waters, and carried hundreds and thousands of passengers.
P&O will undoubtedly remain a crucial part of Australia’s maritime and cultural history.
While the end of P&O Australia undoubtedly marks a sad occasion for Australian cruising, there’s also an air of excitement as Carnival Australia ushers in a new era.
Pacific Adventure and Encounter
To honour the final sailings under P&O for each of these ships, Carnival Cruises has confirmed to Australia that guests onboard will be invited to a special ‘thank you’ cocktail party, celebrating the history of P&O cruises in Australia.
In a previous life Pacific Adventure was Golden Princess, sailing as part of Princess from 2001 right up 2020. Since then she’s served as Pacific Adventure and will now enter her next chapter as Carnival Adventure, sailing out of Sydney.
Pacific Encounter also has her origins as part of the Princess fleet, initially sailing as Star Princess, beginning from May 2001. She also made the leap to P&O Australia in 2020, becoming Pacific Encounter, and will now sail as Carnival Encounter, out of Brisbane.
Given that the ship sails out of Brisbane, there is currently a question mark over whether she’ll actually get to sail her final voyage, scheduled for March 8 out of Brisbane, but hopefully the weather will allow Encounter to get the send off she deserves.
Meanwhile, as the two ships emerge from Melbourne with a slight makeover, their previous fleet partner Pacific Explorer or ‘Dora’ will already be donning a completely brand new look, sailing as part of Resorts World Cruises in Asia from the end of March.
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Did my last cruise on P&O Just got back 10 march from a 4 day cruise on P&O Adventure to Hobart, was going to Moreton Island got charged because of cyclone Alfred
Had a wonderful time,thanks to all the staff who work so hard to make this happen, they did say they will be carrying out there contracts on carnival, get paid in US $ but passengers will still use Australian $
P&O will be sadly missed,I’ve been cruising with them since the 80s (Fairstar )
I hope Carnival will be just as good, we’ll have to wait and see
It has been a gr8 cruise ,met some lovely ppl ,and been an honour to be one of the last passengers to sail with encounter ,albeit Alfred got very much in the way of our return !! Looking forward to seeing home /land .until the next one ….bring on the thanku party .
Still a complete disgrace that with all the rebranding by Carnival, previous repeat P&O cruise passengers have to start from zero again with all Carnival’s loyalty programs. You’d think Carnival would want to encourage people to continue using their services, but apparently not.
We loved the Pacific Encounter. We were booked on its last cruise to the Islands 8th March. Cyclone Alfred had other plans and it’s all been cancelled. Goodbye to my favourite P&I cruise line. Was looking forward to bringing home all the memorabilia. Thankyou to all the wonderful staff we have met over the years.
Why no cruises ex Melbourne, which is about the most populated city in Australia?
The Caisson Lock DryDocking should’ve done in Garden Island ,Sydney , given that they have been under an Australian Company banner for so long . Everything could be done there ,refitting ,engineering ,repainting and a whole,lot more .
I think the only thing is that it would need to be done in a limited time frame due to our military’s obligations and demands !!
We sailed on the Pacific Explorer Cruise X246P and had a wonderful time. Excellent service and well taken care of. Loved it.
Clifford and Marie Jones
It’s such a shame that the P&Obshops have now gone ,considering people in sosny ports now as far as we know will not get the ships coming on especially Fremantle the hardest part for many people that sailed is a lot of people for medical or other reasons can’t fly so unless ships cine to western Australia and some other ports does that now mean cruising for them is now off there plans because they can’t fly
So sad
The Pacific Adventure has ALWAYS been a P&O ship. Even when she was named Golden Princess. If you look closely near the bow, she has P&O in big letters welded into the panels, put there when it was built, originally for P&O.
Pity Carnival don’t reconize cruise credits from her sister companies,P&O, Cunard,Holland and Princess
Where is adventure sailing to on Monday 10th March
Moreton Island or Hobart?
The wife and I along with her son and his wife who were on their honeymoon did the last 10 day cruise on Pacific adventure and got back in yesterday 6th of march the crew were marvellous in Angelo’s especially Gay who made our day every morning. It’s sad to see P&O go so I’m not sure we will sail with Carnival so it looks like it’s back to Royal Caribbean.
I hope Australia is putting out the flags and shouting good riddance to one of the worst employers in the world
Hope they put new couch es in the suites. I hated no support and. Stewardess tying up mattress support in it
According to P&O Australia Facebook post, all sailings are under Carnival Cruise Australia now. P&O Australia have already stepped back.
Question 1 Will Pacific Adventure final sailing be to Hobart or Moreton Island?
Question 2 When will Pacific Encounter get back to Brisbane and what will be its new final Cruise?
We sailed on the Encounter when it was the Star Princess on an around South America cruise in 2012-13 and it was a brilliant cruise, the big back area which was a nightclub after dark, we used to sit drinking cocktails as the ship left its various ports. Sadly we haven’t cruised on the Encounter as it was based in Brisbane but glad we get to do a final cruise with P&O Australia.
In 1981 we cruised on the original Sea Princess, a Love Boat, it gave me the love of cruising, quite different to todays ships, each table had officers to dine with the passengers in the MDR.