How excited were you back in January this year when P&O Cruises announced it was giving Australia its first newbuild cruise ship?
Not like Royal Caribbean sending its recently launched Ovation of the Seas or Seabourn giving us Seabourn Encore for a couple of months (although both very exciting), but here’s a brand spanking new, straight from the factory vessel and it’s all yours Australia.
It was a good day not just for P&O Cruises, but the entire cruise industry because it really emphasised the fast-growing nature of the industry and the demand for a modern ship to sail around our shores year-round.
It was also going to be a game changer for P&O Cruises, as the largest vessel in the carrier’s fleet capable of carrying 4,200 guests – well above the 2,000 capacity of the line’s current ships.
However, things changed this week, when P&O Cruises revealed it would scrap, sorry defer, the newbuild vessel in favour of another hand-me-down from a sister Carnival brand.
So just like Pacific Eden and Pacific Aria will always be part Holland America and next year’s Pacific Explorer will forever have a little Princess in her, P&O is taking Carnival Cruise Line’s 3,000-passenger Carnival Splendor, renovating her, renaming her and introducing her into the Aussie market as a P&O vessel in 2019.
All while Australia’s precious newbuild heads to North America where she’ll join the Carnival Cruise Line fleet.
P&O Cruises Australia’s President Sture Myrmell described Carnival Splendor as “suited” for the Australian market because of her contemporary style and confirmed that despite the switch, the ship is still 50 percent bigger than P&O’s largest ship.
That’s nice, but what happened? Why did Australia lose its newbuild?
Well according to a global market review, a 3,000-passenger ship is “the right sized ship for the P&O fleet”.
And…
Australia (and the Pacific) is and will continue to lack the right infrastructure to accommodate a 4,000-passenger vessel by the time 2019 rolls around.
“It is increasingly apparent that the improvement of cruise ship infrastructure in Australia and across the Pacific is not moving as fast as we had hoped to support a ship the size of the new build we had intended for the fleet in 2019.”
Sture Myrmell, P&O Cruises Australia President
“We also look forward to greater certainty around costs, berth availability and infrastructure.”
Well, there you go.
But it’s not all bad. P&O Cruises will transform Carnival Splendor and she already has a range of great features that the line may or may not keep including comedy lounges, a Carnival Twister Waterslide, a pool with a retractable roof, an adult-only retreat (oh, keep that) and a Cloud 9 Spa.
“Welcoming a transformed and re-named Carnival Splendor to the P&O Cruises’ fleet in 2019 on the back of the addition of Pacific Explorer in mid 2017 cements our position as Australia’s leading cruise line and the only true home grown Australian brand,” Myrmell added.
“In four years P&O Cruises will have doubled capacity by welcoming four ships – Pacific Aria, Pacific Eden and Pacific Explorer as well as the additional ship in 2019 – as part of the remarkable evolution of the brand.
“As the Australian and New Zealand markets develop, we want to make certain that P&O Cruises is front-and-centre to capture growth with the addition of the biggest ship yet.
