Queen Elizabeth to instead operate year-round in North America.
Cunard has just announced that its Queen Elizabeth will not return to Australia for the 2025/26 season, as part of new deployment plans seeing the much-loved ship instead operate in Alaska and the Caribbean.
The Carnival Corporation brand will continue its local Cunard season in 2023/24 and 2024/25, but “from 2026 there will be no locally based program,” according to an update from the company.
“Australia and Asia will remain important destinations on our round the world voyages, and we look forward to welcoming guests from these regions wherever they choose to sale with us,” said Matt Gleaves, Cunard Commercial VP for North America and Australasia.
He promised that Cunard would continue to deliver exciting programs across its four-strong fleet. “The new deployments are an exciting development, and we look forward to releasing the full details of our future programs in early 2024,” he said.
More details in Monday’s issue of Cruise Weekly.