Australia’s largest cruise operator Carnival Australia is on course for one of its biggest summer cruise seasons, featuring more than 600 calls to ports around the nation as well as the local debut of two spectacular ships – Princess Cruises’ Ruby Princess and Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Splendor.
The nation’s summer cruise season will begin with the arrival of Princess Cruises’ 3560-guest Majestic Princess which sails into Sydney on September 17, 2019 after visiting Darwin (September 10) and Brisbane (September 15).
Her arrival will mark the start of 625 calls to 34 different ports around Australia by 19 ships from the seven cruise lines represented by Carnival Australia: Carnival Cruise Line, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises World Cruising and Seabourn.
The ship visits will deliver around $440 million in economic benefits to communities around Australia through passenger and crew spending, supplies and port charges, with the season set to close on April 29, 2020, when Seabourn Sojourn sails from Sydney.
Carnival Australia President Sture Myrmell said the 2019-20 cruise season would feature an exciting range of ships as well as 50 inaugural port visits around the country for ships across the company’s cruise lines.
“This is going to be a summer cruise season to remember, with our cruise lines offering Australian holidaymakers a fantastic range of new itineraries and new ports across 19 great ships,” Mr Myrmell said.
“In fact the number of local port visits by our ships has grown by more than 50 per cent compared to the summer season 10 years ago, underlining not only the growing popularity of cruising, but also how much cruising has become part of the tourism fabric of our nation.”
On her second season Down Under, Majestic Princess’s arrival not only marks the start of the summer cruise season but the largest in history for Princess in this region, featuring a record 141-day deployment in Western Australia as well as cruising from the east coast.
Mr Myrmell said highlights of the season also include the first Australian visit by the 3084-guest Ruby Princess which will arrive in Sydney on October 23, 2019 and the Australian debut of the 3012-guest Carnival Splendor, which will sail into her new homeport of Sydney on December 10, 2019. Her arrival means that Carnival Cruise Line will now have two full-time ships based in local waters.
Meanwhile, Australia’s homegrown cruise line P&O Cruises will continue to reach holidaymakers around the country, with its three ships making more than 200 visits to local ports including 11 maiden ship visits. Among the inaugural calls are Pacific Aria’s first visits to Melbourne (February 9, 2020), Hobart (February 11) and Adelaide (March 11).
Other inaugural ship and cruise line visits over the summer include Carnival Cruise Line’s first call to Adelaide (Carnival Spirit February 29, 2020); Cunard’s first call to Esperance in Western Australia, (Queen Elizabeth on December 9, 2020); Seabourn’s first call to Portland (Seabourn Encore on March 14, 2020) and Holland America’s first calls to Moreton Island (Maasdam on December 1, 2019); Portland (Maasdam on January 2, 2020) and Phillip Island (Maasdam on January 3, 2020).
Another significant date will be Queen Elizabeth’s December arrival in Australia marking the first time one of Cunard’s modern fleet has spent Christmas Down Under.
Carnival Australia 2019-20 Summer Cruise Season Highlights:
- The Carnival Australia summer fleet of 19 ships will include eight full time ships and 11 visiting ships from its seven cruise lines.
- Carnival Australia ships will make 625 ship calls around Australia during the season.
- Ten years ago in 2009-10, the Australian ports of call for the company’s ships during the summer cruise season totalled 405 – this summer’s figure is 54 per cent more.
- Carnival Australia ships will make calls to 34 unique ports around Australia including 50 maiden cruise line/cruise ship visits to ports.
- The busiest month of the cruise season for Carnival Australia will be March when Carnival Australia ships will make 121 different calls to ports around the country.
- Queensland is once again the top state for Carnival Australia ship visits, accounting for 210 of all Carnival Australia calls around Australia over the summer. However, Sydney remains the top city with 142 visits, compared to 95 for Brisbane.
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