The 2010-11 wave season has
officially ended, and in six
months, the region will
welcome its biggest-ever
changes.
AS THE LAST INTERNATIONAL SHIP DEPARTED
Sydney on Thursday (see page five), locals
bid farewell to our final season of 20thcentury
ships.
When the next season starts in October
2011, several more modern vessels will call
Australia home.
As previously announced, Celebrity
Cruises’ Celebrity Century is scheduled to
return, with departures from Sydney and
Auckland.
Two other cruise lines – Holland America
Line and Royal Caribbean Cruises – will
double their capacity in the region.
HAL’s Zaandam is joining Volendam to
offer voyages around Australia, New
Zealand, Asia and the South Pacific; and
RCC will add Radiance of the Seas to its
program alongside Rhapsody of the Seas.
Princess Cruises will home-port Sea
Princess in Brisbane, bringing the down-under
fleet total to four, including Sun Princess,
Dawn Princess and Diamond Princess.
Meanwhile, the new era of 21st-century
cruising is set to continue in 2012-13, when
the new home-ported ships will be even
newer: Celebrity Solstice, which debuted in
2008, HAL’s Oosterdam (2003), the soonto-
be-refurbished Celebrity Millennium
(2000), and Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival
Spirit (2001).
But Australia’s gains are other countries’
losses.
The shifting of ships to the Southern
Hemisphere is leaving some northern
passengers with less choice.
Celebrity Cruises, for example, has
revealed plans to pull out two vessels from
the Caribbean in 2012-13.
Four of its four Solstice Class ships and
two of its older Millennium Class ships will
sail in the region from November 2012 to
April 2013, while Celebrity Solstice and
Millennium are moved to Sydney.
