NEWS UPDATE: Princess Alters Aussie Cruises | Pacific Adventure arriving in September? Fiji Opens!

EDIT: 22 AUGUST CORAL CRUISE, NOT 22 JULY 🤦‍♂️ Join my private Facebook group for cruise deals, tips and advice - the more members we have, the better we’ll get! www.facebook.com/groups/CTGdeals Follow me on Facebook and Instagram: www.facebook.com/thecruiseandtravelguy www.instragram.com/thecruiseandtravelguy Head to my website for great cruise and travel deals: www.thecruiseandtravelguy.com.au Coral Princess completed its first guest sailing from Brisbane just days ago, and Princess released this image of the ship’s track. A capital P for Princess and a boomerang representing Australia of course. With around 1000 guests onboard, the ship sailed well under capacity and according to reports, it was a great success. Onboard capacity limits will increase over the coming months. As reported earlier this year, Genting Hong Kong, which owned luxury line Crystal Cruises filed for bankruptcy and as a result, Crystal’s two ocean going ships were held by authorities over non-payment of outstanding bills. Well, Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony will return to service under the Crystal brand with new ownership. Abercrombie and Kent Travel Group acquired the brand and the two ships and plan to extensively renovate both before returning them to service in 2023. The new owners have ample experience in the luxury space, having sold Silversea Cruises to Royal Caribbean in a deal worth over US$1.2 billion in 2020. It’s a great outcome for the crew and lovers of fine luxury cruising. The South Pacific is finally beginning to show signs of opening to cruise ships, with Fiji confirming last week that mass market cruise lines are now able to resume service to the islands. Entry requirements for cruise ship passengers will match those for air travel to the country, including vaccinations for all travellers aged 16 and over. As well, a RAT is required to be taken 24 hours before arrival into the country. Travel insurance specifically covering COVID is also required. Vanuatu is yet to set a date for the return of cruise ships, however it’s expected to be soon announced. According to reports, the country has used the pause in cruise ship traffic to work with the major cruise lines to drive further engagement with the local industry and culture in order to bring more economic benefit to the country. Likewise New Caledonia is still closed to cruise ship arrivals until further notice. Princess Cruises have announced changes to a series of its local and international voyages. First up, two longer cruises onboard Coral Princess have been broken down into several shorter segments. The 12 night cruise set to depart on July 10th has been split into a 5 night cruise to Sydney and Eden, and a 7 night Queensland coastal cruise. The next 12 night cruise to the Conflict Islands was set to depart on July 22nd, that has been split into a 3 night cruise to Eden, a 4 night Moreton Island cruise, and a 5 night cruise to Eden and Newcastle. Guests booked onto the 12 night cruises will be automatically transferred to the new shorter cruises, effectively experiencing 2 or 3 back to back voyages. They will also receive a $50 per person onboard credit. Alternatively, guests can choose a 100% future cruise credit or a full refund. The new short cruises will be available to book for the general public from 9am July 1st. Additionally, new cruises have been announced for Majestic Princess between February and April 2023 including the ever popular around Australia voyage, and a transpacific repositioning voyage from Sydney or Brisbane to Los Angeles or Vancouver. There’s also a new Northern Explorer cruise available on the Coral Princess in August 2024 sailing to Fremantle from either Auckland, Sydney or Brisbane. These new sailings will go on sale to the public on July 14th at 9am. Unfortunately as a result of the new voyages on Majestic Princess, her Sydney and Brisbane to Hong Kong repositioning cruise scheduled for March 2023 has been cancelled. In checking the Brisbane port schedule, I discovered that Costa Luminosa is set to arrive at Brisbane’s new international terminal as soon as October 2nd. Assuming this is correct, that means Carnival will likely begin operating its newest ship that same month. Sailings aren’t yet available to book but they should be announced very soon. Finally this week, I spotted a post on Instagram from a member of the entertainment team heading to Pacific Adventure later this year, indicating that they would be joining the ship in Australia this September 👀 Pacific Adventure’s first scheduled cruise isn’t until October 22nd so it looks like she may be arriving down under sooner than expected. Thanks for watching!