| Oceania cans Regatta’s local season

OCEANIA Cruises is the latest international operator to withdraw its cruises from Australian waters due to the ongoing border closure policies.

Regatta had been scheduled to operate a season visiting Australia, as well as Japan, Asia and New Zealand, with the cruise line confirming the cancellation of all scheduled voyage departures from 02 Oct through until 18 Feb 2022.

The itineraries included a highly anticipated 35-day circumnavigation of Australia which had been set to depart on 01 Dec calling at about a dozen regional ports along the way, as well as a series of trans-Tasman and South Pacific voyages.

Oceania has cited a “forecasted lack of port availability across the region,” saying that with guests having high expectations for immersive and enriching destination experiences, “we have not received the necessary assurances from our destination partners that we can deliver the experience that is expected”.

The cruise line said it waited as long as feasible before pulling the pin on the season.

“While we did not want to cancel prematurely, we also did not want to hold out false hopes to our guests and travel partners…we felt an obligation to make these cancellations in a timely fashion,” the line said.

Impacted guests are being provided with full refunds of all monies paid on their reservations, with Oceania suggesting if they wish to book on a future similar itinerary “we do suggest they do it quickly as many of these voyages are sold out or nearly sold out”.

Regatta had been scheduled to head to Polynesia after her Australian sojourn, and will operate her Tahiti itineraries as planned, with an additional three cruises added for Feb 2022, which will open for sale on 28 Jul.

Nautica is also scheduled to visit local waters as part of her upcoming world cruise, with Oceania saying it is continuing to monitor the availability of ports.

“Given the timing of Insignia’s arrival in the region is more than four months after Regatta’s first scheduled arrival, we are confident that we can deliver an extraordinary itinerary and destination experience for the Oceania Cruises Around the World 2022 sailing,” the cruise line said.

Oceania has been steadily announcing additions to its resumption (CW 25 May).