For Jane Newson, taking a cruise every year has been her chance to see the world when other options were too expensive.
For months, she’s been saving for a much-anticipated trip next year from Auckland to Tonga aboard the P&O Pacific Explorer.
She would be joined by her partner and some of her closest friends, including two who are nearing their 80th birthdays.
“It is lovely to be away for a week and not to have to do any of the things you do at home,” she said.
“[These trips] offer a fantastic opportunity for people to cruise that don’t have high incomes.”
But on Tuesday, Ms Newson received an email advising her cruise had been cancelled, hours after P&O announced it was retiring the Explorer and folding operations into its parent company Carnival Cruises.
“It’s a shame, such a shame, and we are all so disappointed, especially because there was six of us going,” she said.
Social media has also been flooded with comments from disillusioned cruise ship passengers who had planned to take trips onboard the Pacific Explorer next year, while others have lamented the loss of the brand after 90 years on the water.
For Caitlin Dennis, the iconic cruise company shaped her life.
She took her first cruise onboard a P&O ship when she was 16 and would later go on to work on several cruise ship companies as a dancer and singer.
“It’s a really sad loss to the industry and to the wider public,” Ms Dennis said.
“That first cruise inspired me to go and seek out a career on a ship and I know a lot of other entertainers that work on that ship are going to be devastated about it.”
A sign of things to come
The Pacific Explorer, which travels through Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific and is known affectionately as “Dora” among the cruise community, will be retired on March 2 next year.
P&O’s larger cruise ships, the Pacific Encounter and Pacific Adventure will be rebranded and transferred to the Carnival Cruise Line fleet, along with their workforces.
P&O Cruises Australia issued its surprise notice to customers on Tuesday.
“As a result, all itineraries on Pacific Explorer scheduled to sail after 2nd March 2025 are being cancelled,” it said.
“If you are booked on one of these itineraries you will be contacted by guest services in the coming days with refund details.
“We are all immensely proud of P&O Cruises Australia’s 90-year heritage of dedicated operations in the region, and Carnival Cruise Line are honoured to carry forward its storied legacy and continue to deliver the same onboard experiences and itineraries.”
Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein said in a statement that the decision to retire the Explorer was made due to the South Pacific’s “small population” as well as “significantly higher operating and regulatory costs”.
The senior lecturer in tourism management at the University of South Australia, Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, said the cruise ship industry appeared to be moving away from the smaller cruise liners of 2,000 passengers.
“The major cruise companies are all moving towards ‘mega-ships’ so this could be the end of cruise companies like P&O that have a national character and serve a particular market,” Professor Higgins-Desbiolles said.
“They are decommissioning and part of the reasoning is the environmental consciousness of passengers. They want to be more environmentally responsive to changing technology.”
She said the cruise industry was also still recovering from the global pandemic, with high operating costs and port fees impacting on their bottom line.
The Explorer brought in tens of thousands of tourists to several Australian towns, including Airlie Beach and Cairns, on day trips.
Professor Higgins-Desbiolles said there will be fears about the effect on local economies.
“Some of the regional destinations will be wondering how the change in itinerary will impact on them and we won’t know that straight away,” she said.
“Places like Cairns, Airlie Beach and Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln could all be affected.”
Queensland Tourism Minister Michael Healy said he was “surprised” by Tuesday’s announcement and there may be “some impact” on coastal communities, where the Pacific Explorer docks.
“I have had correspondence from the company talking about strategic alignment and I look forward to investigating that,” Mr Healy said.
A spokeswoman for Carnival Australia told the ABC no-one from the company was available for an interview but did say “thousands” of passengers would receive refunds for cancelled Pacific Explorer trips.
Customers who had cruises booked on the Explorer after March 2 2025 have the option of a refund or credit for Carnival with extra onboard spending money.
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