NEWS UPDATE: Pacific Adventure Arriving Early! Extra Night for Splendor + Royal Aus Health Protocols

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Both Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean have this week announced the removal or amendment of testing and vaccine requirements for upcoming cruise departures from the US and Europe. With the biggest changes coming in to effect from September, the essential takeaway is that unvaccinated guests will be welcome onboard in unlimited numbers and that vaccinated guests will, in many cases, no longer be required to supply a negative covid test before their cruise.

The very nature of these changes, along with the fact that the specific requirements will vary between cruise lines, port of departure as well as itinerary, mean that its imperative you do your research and refer to your cruise line’s website for the most up to date information, or work with a good travel agent. These changes will most likely be adopted in other cruise markets around the world, even Australia, over the next 6 to 12 months.

And speaking of Australia, Royal Caribbean has released their long-awaited health requirements for their upcoming Australian summer season. Whilst the cruise line has referred to the protocols as preliminary, overall they fall in line with the local requirements of Princess and P&O. These include full vaccination being required for guests 12 years of age or over, pre cruise testing and masks onboard being optional for vaccinated travellers and recommended for unvaccinated guests. In line with government regulations, at least 95% of the total guests onboard must be fully vaccinated and as such, children 11 and under or adults with a medical exemption have to apply for approval to sail, to ensure that unvaccinated guests don’t exceed the mandated capacity cap.

Whilst Pacific Encounter is finalising preparations for the beginning of her maiden cruise season next week, sister ship Pacific Adventure is on her way and will be arriving much earlier than anticipated. The ship has sailed through the Suez Canal on her way south, and was originally set to arrive in Sydney on October 17th. According to the NSW Port Schedule, the ship will instead arrive on Friday September 9th. The updated arrival is an exciting development, and whilst details of her time in Sydney before her first scheduled guest cruise on October 22nd are scant, it means that come next month, P&O’s entire three ship fleet will be home.

Carnival this week announced a change to one of its upcoming voyages, with the addition of an extra cruise day to its first local cruise. Originally due to depart on October 2nd for a 3 night cruise to nowhere, the Carnival Splendor will now depart from Sydney on October 1st and take its guests for a 4 night cruise now including a stop at Queensland’s Moreton Island. The additional day comes at no cost to passengers, ah except in the case of a few people that have had to change flight and accommodation bookings to suit the new departure date. Of course, Carnival offered full refunds to those that couldn’t make the new sail date, but I imagine most people would have been excited to accept the new cruise schedule.

Also changing an upcoming cruise schedule is P&O. Special thanks to Les for letting me know about this one. The Pacific Explorer Christmas cruise will depart on December 19th as planned, but will no longer call in at Burnie. The order of the remaining ports has been changed as well, and the ship will now spend Christmas Day at sea, with the passengers enjoying an extended, overnight stay in Hobart.

P&O contacted agents and guests this week to remind them that many of the Future Cruise Certificates issued during the cruise shutdown are expiring this month, on August 31st. They will automatically refund any certificate worth over $25 if it hasn’t been used by the end of the month.

It seems that crew and labour shortage issues aren’t over yet. Princess have announced the cancellation of 11 cruises onboard the Diamond Princess. The voyages were scheduled to sail from San Diego and depart between September 1st and November 13th this year. With the complete cancellation of the cruise itineraries, it’s as yet unknown what, if anything, Diamond Princess will be doing during her downtime.

And finally this week, P&O have released some sneak peak images of the Pacific Encounter’s interiors, releasing shots of some her dining venues including Luke’s Bar & Grill, Dragon Lady, Angelo’s Italian and 400 Gradi. I’ll be bringing you lots of Encounter content from next week, so make sure you stay tuned and hit that subscribe button and notification bell to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

Thanks for watching!