By
Rebecca Gibson |
P&O Cruises is to offer its largest ever Australian cruise season in 2015-2016, with a new five-ship fleet offering 250 itineraries.
P&O’s newly expanded fleet will offer additional sailing from Cairns and Singapore, as well as the cruise line’s largest presence yet in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Fremantle, Adelaide and Auckland.
The record season will open on 25 November 2015 when the line’s latest ships – Pacific Eden and Pacific Aria – join Pacific Dawn, Pacific Jewel and Pacific Pearl in Sydney Harbour for a five-ship display. The event will mark the first time Sydney, known as Australia’s cruising gateway, has hosted five cruise ships from one cruise line on the same day. It will also bring more than 15,000 interstate and local passengers and crew to the city.
“With five ships in our fleet we can now meet the growing demand for cruise holidays from around Australia, with extended seasons from existing homeports and the addition of new homeports such as Cairns,” said Ann Sherry, CEO of P&O Cruises. “Plus more ships means we can visit some wonderful new towns around Australia and the Pacific, on a fantastic range of itineraries which are looking more attractive than ever.”
Sailing her first season as a P&O vessel, Pacific Aria will spend eight months in Brisbane, alongside the city’s year-round ship Pacific Dawn. New cruises include an 18-night P&O Explorer itinerary visiting Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, as well as a seven-night New Year cruise visiting Hamilton Island, Cairns, and Willis Island. Pacific Aria will also offer voyages from Sydney.
In addition to homeporting in Sydney, Pacific Jewel will offer P&O’s first summer sailings from Melbourne between December 2015 and March 2016. Guests can opt for a 12-night Christmas Melanesian cruise, a New Year voyage visiting the south coast of Australia and Tasmania, and three four-night P&OSeabreaks visiting Kangaroo Island.
Meanwhile Pacific Pearl will sail P&O’s longest ever Auckland season with 18 roundtrips from the New Zealand port between February and June 2016. Options include four-night cruises with a day in Napier or Bay of Islands; a new 15-night cruise to Fiji, Tonga and the Cook Islands; and a ten-night roundtrip circumnavigating New Zealand with a maiden call to Stewart Island. Pacific Pearl will also offer voyages from Sydney.
P&O’s other new vessel Pacific Eden will offer cruises from Sydney and Melbourne, as well as five roundtrips from Adelaide, making it the city’s biggest cruise season. The Adelaide schedule includes three four-night P&OSeabreaks visiting Port Lincoln and Melbourne, and two three-night themed cruises.
Pacific Eden will also provide eight roundtrips from Cairns between September and November 2016, including four seven-night cruises to Papua New Guinea and two ten-night voyages to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Between April and July 2016, Pacific Eden will offer 13 cruises from Fremantle – the most the line has ever sailed from the port. Options include a new cruise to Indonesia with maiden calls to Jakarta, Probolinggo and Makassar, as well as four P&OSeaBreak cruises and a four-night cruise visiting Esperance in Western Australia.
In addition, Pacific Eden will sail the line’s first roundtrips from Singapore since 2006. Arriving in Singapore in July 2016, Pacific Eden will sail four cruises as part of P&O’s expansion into the fly-cruise segment.
“Singapore’s strong air connectivity and seamless transport network supports P&O Cruises’ new itineraries in enabling more travellers, especially Australian cruisers, to use Singapore as a hub to discover the amazing diversity of Southeast Asia,” said Neeta Lachmandas, assistant chief executive of Singapore Tourism Board.
Pacific Eden is scheduled to offer a seven-night South East Asia western itinerary visiting the Malaysian and Thailand towns of Sabang, Phuket, Krabi and Langkawi. Pacific Eden’s Singapore season also includes a 13-night itinerary from Singapore to Cairns with calls to Dili in Timor L’este, Indonesia and Darwin in Australia, as well as a seven-night South East Asia eastern itinerary. Guests on this voyage will call at Sihanoukville in Cambodia, as well as Ko Chang, Bangkok and Ko Samui in Thailand. Passengers can combine the two South East Asia itineraries to enjoy a 14-night cruise.
“This is a very exciting time for P&O Cruises and our guests because our fleet expansion has allowed us to broaden our cruising horizons to include a cruise programme from Asia to some of the world’s most fascinating destinations,” said Sherry. “None of this would have been possible without the expansion of our fleet which has allowed us to offer many more cruise holiday options over a wider geographic range.”