ONE of P&O Cruises Australia’s three ships has made its final ever call in Sydney ahead of the brand itself taking its final bow early next year (CW 04 Jun).
After 16 years sailing in Australia under two different Carnival Corp brands, Pacific Explorer sailed out of Sydney Heads for the last time earlier this month.
The 1,998-passenger vessel left on a four-night repositioning cruise to Auckland, its first of four home ports before it signs off for good from the Carnival Corp fleet.
Explorer is now offering round-trip cruises of between three-13 days to the New Zealand market, taking Kiwis to the South Pacific, as well as to Australia.
According to future scheduled itineraries, Explorer will be based in Melbourne, Adelaide, and Fremantle before an 11-night one-way sailing to Singapore via Indonesia and Malaysia brings down the curtain for good.
At one point in time under her former guise as Dawn Princess, the ship was due to become the largest ship sailing from Australia before being replaced by Sun Princess, in a testament to just how far the local market has evolved since.
P&O Australia is now in the process of notifying guests impacted by changes to bookings as a result of cancelled itineraries.
Cruises V515, V516, V517, V518 on Pacific Adventure have now been cancelled, along with I512, I513, I514 from Pacific Encounter, with both ships set to transition to the Carnival fleet. ML