Today marks the end of an era as Carnival Corporation announces it will retire the 90-year-old P&O Cruises Australia brand in a major strategic shakeup
Effective from Mar 2025, all P&O Cruises Australia operations will be folded into Carnival Cruise Line, effectively doubling the brand's presence in Australia.
Pacific Encounter and Pacific Adventure will be rebranded as Carnival Cruise Line ships, with Pacific Explorer to exit the fleet.
Both ships will operate alongside Carnival Splendor and Carnival Luminosa, with no changes forecasted for either of the two existing Carnival Cruise Line ships.
The move does not impact P&O Cruises UK in any way,
Impacted guests will be notified in the coming days of any changes to future bookings
Farewell Pacific Explorer
When will Pacific Explorer leave the fleet?
Pacific Explorer will leave the P&O Cruises’ fleet towards the end of February 2025, with the last cruise being X508 – 11-night cruise to Singapore, departing Fremantle on 7th February 2025.
Which Pacific Explorer cruises have been cancelled?
Pacific Explorer cruises departing on or after 2nd March 2025 have been cancelled. This includes the following cruises by homeport:
Fremantle
2-Mar-25 to 28-Mar-25 (X510 to X514)
7-Mar-26 to 25-Apr-26 (X618 to X628)
Adelaide
29-Mar-25 to 10-Apr-25 (X515 to X517)
23-Nov-25 to 18-Dec-25 (X554 to X560)
4-Feb-26 to 6-Mar-26 (X610 to X617)
Auckland
11-Apr-25 to 10-Aug-25 (X518 to X533)
26-Apr-26 to 1-Jul-26 (X629 to X639)
Brisbane
11-Aug-25 to 26-Oct-25 (X534 to X546)
Melbourne
27-Oct-25 to 22-Nov-25 (X547 to X553)
19-Dec-25 to 3-Feb-26 (X561 to X609)
What will happen to my booking on these cancelled Pacific Explorer cruises?
For bookings where a deposit has been paid, guests will have the option to receive a Future Cruise Credit with bonus Onboard Spending Money, or a full refund. Guests booked on special concessionary rates, including casino offers, will automatically refund.
All guests impacted by these cruise cancellations will be sent an email from P&O Cruises with details of their cancelled cruise and what offers are available to them.
Future Cruise Credit, what is it and when does it need to be used by?
A Future Cruise Credit is like a store voucher or gift card that can be used to pay for the cruise fare on a new or existing booking with us where the full fare has not yet been paid.
Any Future Cruise Credits issued due to the cancellation of these Pacific Explorer cruises will need to be used on a future booking by 15th February 2025. The future cruise must depart on or before 30th June 2026.
My cruise has been cancelled, how do we let P&O know what we want to do with their booking?
If you would like to accept the offer of a Future Cruise Credit with bonus Onboard Spending Money, you will need to let us know by completing the online form. The online form will close on Sunday, 30 June 2024 at 11:59pm (AEST).
If you would prefer to receive a refund of your cruise fare, you do not need to do anything. P&O will automatically cancel your booking and process a refund back to the original method of payment. Please allow up to 20 business days after the closure of the online form on 30 June 2024 for the refund to be processed.
How long will it take to receive the refund for a cancelled Pacific Explorer cruise?
P&O are working to process all refunds as soon as possible. We ask that you please allow up to 20 business days after the closure of the online form on 30 June 2024 for their refund to be processed.
If you had also purchased any add-ons or packages, such as shore tours, these will be refunded separately back to the method of payment used.
How long will it take to receive the Future Cruise Credit for a cancelled Pacific Explorer cruise, if we chose this option?
Please allow up to 20 business days after the closure of the online form on 30th June 2024 for your Future Cruise Credit to be processed.
Do all people in the booking need to accept the Future Cruise Credit offer?
Yes, to receive the Future Cruise Credit and bonus Onboard Spending money, all guests in the booking must accept the offer, and only one submission of the online form will be accepted per booking.
If we accept the Future Cruise Credit offer, will all the guests on the booking receive a Future Cruise Credit with bonus Onboard Spending Money?
The Future Cruise Credit (FCC) will be set up for each guest on the original Pacific Explorer booking using the names provided, and each FCC will be for the cruise fare amount paid per person as shown on the booking confirmation. However, please note that the bonus Onboard Spending Money (OSM) will be set up for the first two guests only, with the total amount of the split between the two people.
What if I used a Future Cruise Credit to make the booking on the Pacific Explorer cruise that has now been cancelled. What will happen to this Future Cruise Credit?
If you used a Future Cruise Credit on your booking and opt for the offer with the bonus Onboard Spending Money, the amount used will be returned back to the original Future Cruise Credit to be used again on another future booking. If the Future Cruise Credit is due to expire prior to 15th February 2025, the expiry date will be extended. The bonus Onboard Spending Money part of the offer will be set up separately for the first two guests on the booking. If any other money was paid towards the cruise fare on the booking via a different payment method, this amount will be set up as an additional Future Cruise Credit for each guest on the booking that the money was applied for.
If you instead opts for a refund, any used Future Cruise Credit will still be returned back to the original Future Cruise Credit to be used on another future booking, and any other money paid towards the cruise fare will be refunded back to the method of payment.
What if I booked P&O CruiseAir for the Pacific Explorer cruise. Will these be refunded?
If the flights were booked seperately the airlines own refund policies and change fees will apply. If higher priced flights were booked via P&O Cruise Air, these will automatically be cancelled and a refund issued back to you via the method of payment used.
What is the bonus Onboard Spending Money and what can it be used for?
Onboard Spending Money (or onboard credit) is just as it sounds – onboard credit for you to spend onboard the ship during your cruise. For more information on what your bonus onboard credit can be used towards
Please bare with us as our team work through the affected bookings, we will be in touch as soon as possible
