For nearly a century, P&O Cruises has been a part of Australian culture. And yet in early 2025 it will be no more. Gone. What happened? #p&o #cruiseship #carnivalcruise
You are 100% correct Rob! Australians are treated like second class citizens by Carnival. They are overcharging us while offering Americans free cruises and cash to come to Australia and sail. A drink package in Australia is $111 per day. In the US it’s $59.95 per day. We are being treated like mugs. I would not pay $12 for a can of beer in Australia and I’m definitely not paying that on a ship. $5 dollars for a can of coke!! Hell No!! Carnival are screwing Australians with the lowest quality cruising for the highest price.
@@Robert-xs2mv only on the drinks packages. $12 can of beer and $5 can of coke AUD. All products are also duty free when purchased by Carnival. Also the Australian drink package is $119 a day now.
Spot on! Have done 25 cruises on P&O and Princess from Australia. Was hoping the new Brisbane port terminal would mean more variety of cruises but now less. Lost two cruises next year as Princess cancelled to reposition the ship. All we get are the hand-me-down ships. Soon we won’t even have them. The Cruise and Travel Guy has some good RU-vid on the reasons why. Port fees here are killing the industry.
We did the Brisbane to Airlie Beach cruise back in 2017 on the Pacific Dawn. It was our first ever cruise and was to be our last. I know thousands and thousands people love cruising but it's just not our thing. I just didn't enjoy it. Still, it's a shame to see P&O, another Aussie icon, disappearing. 😔
You are dead right when you mentioned that we in Australia get treated poorly by Carnival, I have done several cruises with P&O, my first was the Pearl, then the Dawn, the Jewel x2 and the Explorer x2, last week I got back from sailing around Greece on a brand new Princess Sun, only 5 months old. Food, entertainment and ship were streets above anything I had on P &O. The ship was mostly filled with Floridians, from the USA, I guess you could say, they were a demanding bunch. I guess the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Went on my first P&O cruise in 2018. Loved it. Been wanting to go on another ever since. Might have to make it sooner coz later won't be there apparently 😢
Sorry to see you so sad Rob. Hope you get a positive experience on your next cruise. Loved the wale. I’ve never been on a cruise. 2 random questions.. were you ever in the S.C.A. The society for creative anachronism? Also, have you ever done a video on Springhill fair? I ask these 2 questions as I feel I may have fleetingly met you at the fair through a friend Chris who was in the SCA. Anyway, have a wonderful day. Sending you sunshine from Wellington Point 🌞
What a lovely love letter to P&O. We sailed on the Pacific Dawn in 2018. We loved everything about it. Whilst an old ship our penthouse cabin was one of the largest on the seas, even today. and for us, it and our balcony were great places to relax and retreat Sad days now that they have gone. We only have our memories. Can I please have comments from regular cruisers out there, what now is the best line to cruise with in Australasian waters? Thanks
As an ex Security Carnival employee when working on P&O cruise ships in Australia we referred to the ships with P&O as Poor and Old we always crossed our fingers our contract would be with another of carnival brands in saying that if you wanted a good party P&Os old Pacific Sun was the ship
my childhood memories are filled with memories of holidays in remote queensland locations exploring untouched Cape York in the 80's each to thier own, it's probably why you're petrified of deep bush mate
Agree on scraps - from Brisbane - it's down the coast, up the coast, out to Noumea etc, and NZ. That's it. Bugger all in terms of "Around Australia", PNG, Bali, Singapore. - many other options.
- My best friend and I just learned about you when our locksmith told us that he watches you! He said he had just watched your video about Windsor and didn’t see our house in it. We would love to invite you back to Windsor! We live in the small house on the corner of Rosemount Terrace., directly across from Windsor station. It’s considered the smallest house in the smallest block of land in the Southern Hemisphere and is historically listed! My best friend is the great great granddaughter of the man who owned it back it the day. The invitation is open, we give random tours of the house to people who have always wanted to know what it looks like inside. Hope to see you! It could be the addition to your Windsor history.
I loved that opening 😂 I have never been on a cruise (I'm 45 & get seasick just looking at water) but I remember watching The Love Boat in the 80s & also seeing all the Fairstar ads on tele & thinking I would for sure go on cruises lol. My friends used to go on the cheap weekend Shoppa Docket cruises a lot!
Thanks for doing the video, i had worked for a transport subsidiary of P&O in the 89s and 90s i wonder what happened to it and found the answers on Whicki. P&O was 167 years old (They produced a book on the company to celebrate 150 years which i have) when they started to wind down Australian operations. Basically Carnival got the Cruises DP World got the port operations and Maersk got the shipping containersI had previously commented on the Fisherman island video. I have seen Fairstar (both versions) and Sea Princess at the Hamilton wharf together many years ago. I wanted to go on a Cruise but my wife (Her parents were 10pound poms) didnt so it never happened. P&Os Brisbane office was located 482 Kingsford Smith Dve
Sadly there is no Australian Merchant Navy , all jobs for people from elsewhere .No longer any Australians ships . In my Grandparents day they had a wonderful time cruising on Australian ships .
We get ripped off for everything here and cruising is no exception. Geographically we live in a large country with only a relatively small population and sadly this comes at a cost. What makes it even worse is to book a cruise overseas only to be raped again by our worthless Australian dollar. We can't win...
We have had many happy cruises with P&O over the years Rob and still have a few more to go before they are no more. The children grew up with P&O cruises as holidays which holds a lot of memories for us (and some old video footage that we're trying to use somewhere). I do have concerns for the short-term future of cruising from Australia with recent events but am hopeful for a brighter recovery in the years ahead. Unfortunately, it will be without P&O. Very sad and it cuts deep to think of Australian cruising without P&O. Rob and Ali.
Plenty of excellent Aussies came out as ten pound poms. Farnham, Olivia Nuclear Bomb, Barnsie, Johnny Young, AC/DC, Billy Thorpe, Bee Gees….and my Uncle Ed, many mates of mine. Anyone got any other names ?
Hello Rob As always love your videos. I took my first overseas holiday on the Fairstar. Considering that there were only 18 million people living in Australia at the time of Fairstar's decommissioning in 1997, it is actually very amazing to think that over 1.1 million Australians had traveled on board her. In comparison to modern standards, the accommodations were really basic, but we didn't mind since we didn't know any better.
These big cruise companies want the synergy of larger ships and economies of scale. I suspect the P and O Brand with its smaller ships and value for money branding doesn't deliver the yield they are seeking. Over half the revenue is now received from when you are aboard. The modern larger ships offer lots of opportunities for the lines to get more of your money , like several speciality restaurants etc
……never been on an ocean cruise, as it’s never appealed to me. Have been twice cruising the Murray, & once on the Nile. Loved them both to bits’. Friend of ours’ was a Captain, on P&O back in the ‘50’s, & ‘60’s. Have friends’ who continuously go on ocean liners’. They did cruises’ back-to-back from May 2023 to November 2023. They’re millionaires’…………
I think so much of what happens in the cruise market in Australia is a reflection of the small size of the market. Companies like Carnival and rival Royal Caribbean look at the Australian market as being too small in terms of potential customers (both those who live in Australia and those who travel to Australia to cruise) compared to places like Asia and the Caribbean and the Mediterranean and don't see it making as much sense to invest heavily in that market.
R.I.P P&O you were awesome personally I never got on any type of cruise ship but I understand you (Rob) and others like you have very fond memories and are going to miss it very much let it be known that P&O did in fact exist once
I was wondering if you would want to do a video in the small suburb i am in, Lota wedged between Manly and Thornside, we have Historic Lota house in which the suburb was part of the ground for and also the waterfront which has part of a rock sea wall constructed for relief work in the 1930s
Thanks for including a picture of the old Arcadia on which I travelled to England back in 1967. In those days P&O was not really a cruise line. Those ships were called liners. I think the company was P&O Steamship Company. From memory the first cruise type ones were the Fairstar and Fairsky.
@JanCOSTIN Actually the Arcadia was both a liner and a cruise ship, in that she transported migrants generally from the UK to Australia, but also spent many years on cruise itineraries. The same goes for the Oriana. P&O stands for the Peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation Company. It was an amalgam of the Peninsula Steam Navigation Company, and the Orient Lines. The Fairstar was originally designed solely to transport military troops and only later became a liner, and also a cruise ship. P&O had been running cruise ships, from time to time, from Sydney, since the 1930's.
@@walkaboutwithrob Thanks for the info Rob. However, my trip on the Arcadia was nothing like today's cruises. For a start there were two classes and tourists were not allowed to enter the first class part. We did have some entertainment, and tours at ports of call. I have enjoyed your videos very much, and look forward to many more.
@@JanCOSTIN As your trip on the Arcadia was a 'migrant' journey it was not an actual 'cruise'. Therefore the services offered would be of a different nature to an actual cruise holiday.
Found a strange geographical anomaly that you might be interested in. About 2kms NE of Tamborine, two creeks intersect. Steele Creek and Blacksoil Gully. Not sure if there was human intervention involved.
Australia doesn't really have the population to support med or carribean cruise offerings. Cruise companies struggling to fill some sail dates. Doesnt help the most the population forced to take a lot of their annual leave at the same times.
Devvoed that P & O will be no more in March.I'd love to squeeze in 1 more cruise but other plans are in the way of this- my last 1 was exactly a year ago , just the 3 day out to sea one. Nice to do but definitely somewhat of a drop in expectations from previous cruises- less food options and more limited opening times, even at the buffet! And what's with Australia's cruises only getting half of a nightly show, when overseas companies can put on full 2 hour musical productions onboard? I had a Carnival cruise booked to New Caledonia mid 2020 which was cancelled for obvious reasons, but they were a NIGHTMARE at arranging refund- and sent a cheque all the way from the US (what's a cheque?!). They are really going to have to smarten up for the Australian market. And don't get me started on the beautiful, but absolutely atrociously located Brisbane cruise terminal! Diabolical if THAT'S an overseas tourists 1st impressions of Brisbane!!
Not unusual - I have been onboard Quantum of the seas (RCI) - 5000 passengers and about 2500 crew - yet there are lots of quiet places... Have met people day one of 2 week cruises, and not seen them until disembarking.
@walkaboutwithrob Sorry mate - watched the video soon after it was published, but haven't had the time to sit down and reply until now...Aside from a few short cruises overseas; one being a few nights cruising Ha long Bay, Vietnam; the 10 day cruise we took 8 years ago now, to Vanuatu / Noumea etc, was quite good! Onboard, we met some seasoned cruisers of many years, and they reckoned that P & O was “pretty ordinary” to say the least, compared with Royal Caribbean, whom we went with. I've heard a few people of late, saying the food wasn't that great on their cruises with other companies; one being a mate in the USA who just returned from a few weeks sailing from there - Personally, on Royal Caribbean; we thought the food and variety of all the different restaurants etc onboard, was very satisfying...Maybe P & O / Carnival Corporation, should take a look at such competitors, because AS you rightly say; there IS indeed a market HERE for quality.
Oh Rob, yeah dont forget Covid did allot of damage to the cruising industry it was the Pacific Dawn that really made the news. That ship looked quite empty and depressing the Pacific Encounter London, lets be bloody honest we should have our own ships here that we own not some mother country ships that provide us with their rubbish. I think we need to start Anew shipping company and its Wholey Australian own and learn from P&O mistakes don't do what they did. Thanks for the tour of the P&O
It's all about the numbers, yes Australians like the nice stuff, but we also don't like paying the high fees, if going by your video, it appeared like the ship was under half capacity, if you look at any of the overseas cruises, the ships are nearly always at capacity. Also remember P&O was originally a Pommy outfit, just like Ford Australia was just a subsidiary of Ford America. It's time to move on like so many other Aussie icons that have vanished.
