Carnival Deals Blow to Australia Ending Deployment of Two Cruise Ships
In the latest blow to Australia’s already struggling cruise industry, Carnival Cruise Line announced it will redeploy permanently to North America two of the four cruise ships it has had in the market. While Australia is the fourth largest overall cruise market, a coalition formed earlier this year highlighted that the market is sagging under rising costs and a lack of regulatory certainty.
Carnival Cruise Line announced the Carnival Adventure (108,865 gross tons with accommodations for up to 3,150 passengers) will depart Sydney for its last cruise on March 20. 2028 and will not return as previously planned. Earlier in the year, Carnival had announced plans for the ship to split its year between the summer seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres. Carnival had recently announced that the ship, which had only joined the fleet in 2025, would start in May 2028, operate 7-day cruises from Seattle to Alaska, but planned for it to return to Australia in October 2028.
The Carnival Luminosa (92,720 gross tons with accommodations for up to 2,800 passengers) had been operating seasonally between Australia and Alaska since the cruise industry restarted operations after the pandemic in 2022. Carnival reports it will depart from Brisbane for the final time on March 15, 2028.
Carnival Cruise Line will continue to operate the sister ship Carnival Encounter (108,865 gross tons with accommodations for up to 3,150 passengers) from Brisbane. The Carnival Splendor (113,573 gross tons with accommodations for up to 3,012 passengers) will continue to operate from Sydney.
“As the only cruise line with ships dedicated year-round to Australia, Carnival has greater exposure to changes in local market and operating conditions than cruise lines with a seasonal or more limited presence,” said Carnival Cruise Line Country Manager Peter Little, explaining the decision to redeploy the two ships.
The line noted that Australia’s decision to extend the exemption for the cruise industry from Australia’s Coastal Trading Act was “a welcome but interim step while the long-term operating framework for the Australian cruise sector is developed over the next two years.” He said the company would continue to work with the Australian government.
Australia has been extending the exemption at two-year intervals from the cabotage act that would otherwise limit the ability to sail between two Australian ports. It has been one of several issues cited by the industry as a deterrent to operating cruise ships from Australia. The cruise industry is working on increasingly long planning horizons, with Carnival, for example, recently announcing programs for 2028 and into 2029.
The industry coalition that launched in August said it was trying to combat factors that were making Australia uncompetitive as a destination. They cited concerns over rising costs as well as the regulatory environment. Australia and New Zealand, for example, have some of the strictest biofouling regulations, which require costly steps for the cruise ships. Some lines, such as Cunard, Disney Cruise Line, and Virgin Voyages, have not continued homeporting in Australia, while many of the lines operate seasonally from Australia and source passengers internationally.
This latest step follows earlier moves by Carnival to retrench in the Australian cruise market. In 2024, the parent company, Carnival Corporation, announced it was sunsetting the storied P&O brand name in Australia and transferred the cruise ship Adventure and Encounter to the Carnival Cruise Line brand to lower operating costs and consolidate the marketing efforts.
“Given the strategic reality of the South Pacific’s small population and significantly higher operating and regulatory costs, we’re adjusting our approach to give us the efficiencies we need,” said Carnival Corporation CEO Joel Weinstein in 2024, announcing the change. Before that, the corporation had also cycled a series of older ships in and out of the Australian market.
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Australia’s Federal Transport Minister, Catherine King, said earlier this month that the exemption, which now runs until the end of 2028, for the cruise lines from the cabotage act would be the last extension. Australia had empaneled an independent review board to examine the cruise industry, and the minister said they were close to finalizing the new regulatory approach.
The coalition hopes to highlight the economic contributions of the cruise industry. They said they would be working to develop a more stable market for the cruise ships.
