Carnival Corporation has announced that Carnival Cruise Line will absorb sister cruise line P&O Cruises Australia starting in March 2025. Due to the merger, all sailings on P&O Cruises Australia scheduled to sail after March 2, 2025 have been canceled.
Carnival is making this change to add more capacity as Carnival Cruise Line is the company’s highest returning brand.
P&O Cruises Australia currently has three cruise ships in their fleet, Pacific Adventure, Pacific Encounter, and Pacific Explorer. Pacific Explorer will be retired while the other two will be converted to Carnival Funships.
Both Pacific Adventure and Pacific Encounter are Grand class ships.
Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said the following,
“We look forward to building on the history and heritage of P&O Cruises Australia by bringing some of our innovations to more cruise guests in the region,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.”
She went on to say that Carnival plans on making some technology upgrades, as well as some small changes to the ships.
The most notable change will be the availability of Carnival Cruise Line’s HubApp, enabling guests to make online dining and excursion reservations, request food and beverage delivery, and chat with other guests.
The cruise ships will remain in Australia giving Carnival Cruise Line four ships sailing in the region. The ships will join Carnival Splendor and Carnival Luminosa offering cruises in the South Pacific.
After the switch to Carnival, the vessels will continue to be geared towards the Australian cruise market.
Josh Weinstein, chief executive officer of Carnival Corporation & plc, gave the following statement about this merger,
“Despite increasing Carnival Cruise Line’s capacity by almost 25% since 2019 including transferring three ships from Costa Cruises, guest demand remains incredibly strong so we’re leveraging our scale in an even more meaningful way by absorbing an entire brand into the world’s most popular cruise line.
In 2019, Carnival Cruise Line was 29% of our total capacity, and when we complete this move early next year, Carnival Cruise Line – our highest-returning brand – will make up approximately 35% of our total global capacity. While our company’s overall growth between 2019 – 2028 is projected to be less than 2% (CAGR), the majority will be for Carnival Cruise Line, which will grow by approximately 50% over that time period.”
This change from Carnival Corporation does not impact P&O Cruises UK. They will continue to operate as normal.
P&O Cruises Australia has been sailing in the region for 90 years and Carnival Cruise Line will carry on the storied legacy.
After the merger is complete, Carnival Corporation will have eight cruise lines, down from a a high of 10 they had in 2015.
Carnival Cruise Line will also have 29 cruise ships in their fleet once the vessels are transferred over. They also have two more Excel class ships on order that will come into service in 2027 and 2028.
