She may not be stationed here year-round but it will be the longest deployment Down Under for any of Cunard’s current fleet of Queens, and that’s worth a royal celebration.
Come 2019 and Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth will spend two months sailing to and from our large island, giving locals plenty of opportunity to cruise on the liner and experience a fresh multi-million dollar refit to be completed a few weeks prior to her Aussie stay.
According to the cruise line, the deployment will double the number of Australians and New Zealanders travelling with the brand compared to any other year and it will meet growing demand for local cruising on the popular Queens.
“Whenever Cunard’s itineraries have included roundtrip options from Australian ports and visits to New Zealand, the demand has always been tremendous.”
David Rousham, Cunard Vice President International Deployment
“This will be the first time that Cunard has featured so many voyages to and from Melbourne in addition to Sydney, and will give Australians a much greater number of options to experience Cunard than ever before.”
Her two-month stay will start late February 2019 and will include seven different cruises from Sydney and Melbourne to New Zealand, South Australia and Tasmania. The official program will be released mid-March and itineraries will go on sale from 30 March 2017.
The announcement comes just days after Queen Elizabeth joined her sister Queen Mary 2 in Sydney Harbour for a rare royal rendezvous.
Click here to watch a video of the spectacular event.