The P&O Cruises Australia team will have one more ship to play around with and agents will have thousands of new P&O beds to sell as Carnival moves Dawn Princess out of the Princess fleet and into P&O.
The move comes one month ahead of the arrival of the company’s highly anticipated two new ships – Pacific Aria and Pacific Dawn – which embody the line’s ‘No Place On Earth‘ tagline with new restaurants, activities and social spaces.
With a total of three new ships plus its existing three vessels – Pacific Jewel, Pacific Dawn and Pacific Pearl – P&O will have six ships in its fleet and some 10,888 beds sailing out of Australia.
Carnival Australia CEO Ann Sherry said adding to the P&O fleet is a reflection of increased demand for cruise holidays in local waters.
Dawn Princess crosses over to P&O.
“Australia is the world’s fastest growing cruise market, so as the biggest cruise operator Down Under we’re delighted to be expanding our local presence even further.”
Ann Sherry, Carnival Australia CEO
In addition to meeting growing demand for cruising, the extra ships will give the line the flexibility to spread its fleet out across the country and home port in various cities.
P&O has driven the trend of basing ships out of new Australian ports in recent months and giving Aussies more opportunities to cruise right from their doorsteps. Among the new cities for the line include Melbourne, which will be serviced by Pacific Jewel over Christmas and Adelaide, which has Pacific Aria for a season of short breaks. Brisbane will also receive a second ship, Pacific Eden, from next month.
The P&O fleet will grow by one.
More ships also means P&O can send its vessels to new destinations around Australia, the South Pacific and Asia.
“These fleet changes will help us further increase the range of exciting cruise options on offer to Australians and continue to meet local demand for holidays at sea.”
Ann Sherry, Carnival Australia CEO
Dawn Princess will be renovated and renamed before joining the P&O fleet in May 2017.
Meanwhile, the Princess fleet in Australia will gain Golden Princess (making her debut this wave season), which is set to remain in Australian waters through 2017, alongside Sun Princess and Sea Princess.
Golden Princess will stay in Australia through to 2017.
Princess Cruises Vice President Australia & New Zealand Stuart Allison said the cruise line was pleased to be able to offer its local guests more itineraries on its 2600-guest Golden Princess.
“One of Golden Princess’ key sailings for the year will be a 75-night Circle Pacific itinerary taking holidaymakers on a roundtrip cruise from Australia to Asia, Alaska and America,” Mr Allison said.
“This will be the first time we’ve offered a world cruise from Australia on a Grand-class Princess ship so we think it will be a winner.”
More details of P&O Cruises’ 2017 itineraries and the ship transfer will be announced at a later date.