Cruise lines are once again shelving plans to resume service in Asia and Australia as Covid continues to keep ports closed.
Carnival Cruise Line had planned to sail Carnival Spirit out of a brand new but still unused port in Brisbane. But it announced the ship will redeploy to Jacksonville, Florida, where she will begin cruising on March 7.
The 2,124 passenger ship was scheduled to sail from the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal that was completed in 2020 at a cost of $177-million Australian, but has remained empty because of the country’s continued cruise lockdown. Carnival Australia still has hopes that Carnival Splendor will sail in Australia when the country’s cruise pause ends at the beginning of June.
The shift of Carnival Spirit to Jacksonville replacing Carnival Ecstasy is part of a plan that will see two Carnival ships leave the fleet. Ecstasy is repositioning to Mobile, Alabama and will do its last sailing on Oct. 10 before leaving the fleet. Meanwhile, Carnival Splendor which had been due to sail from Mobile will not be returning to service. Carnival has not released details of plans for the 30-year old ships, but other former ships of the line’s Fantasy class have already been scrapped.
Diamond Princess is waiting out the Australian cruise pause–Princess Cruises
Meanwhile, Diamond Princess‘s return to service is postponed at least into June in Japan,’ Princess Cruises president John Padgett said, while at the same time affirming the line’s commitment to wider Asia.
“Our focus continues to be getting the entire Princess fleet back up into service in markets that are open, but that market is still not open. So when that market opens, we’re going to work to get Diamond Princess back there and operational as soon as possible,” he said in a media briefing at the beginning of February.
Princess is still committed to the Asian market, Padgett said. ‘We love that market and look forward to getting Diamond Princess back.’
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong cruising is also currently on hold due to restrictions to contain the omicron variant.
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