Over a year ago, I put a deposit on a 29 day cruise from Vancouver to Sydney, Australia. The reason I booked this cruise was because the Royal Princess is a nice ship that I've sailed before. It visits four ports in New Zealand and has some great ports in the South Pacific!
Australia and New Zealand have been closed to cruise ships for two years, then Australia released this:
My cruise isn't until the end of September so New Zealand should end their cruise ban by then too. Yesterday, I got this email from Princess:
Dear
Linda, our valued guest,
As we carry on
working with various government and port authorities to finalize our plans for
a return to cruising around the world, we continue to face uncertainty
regarding port access and ongoing international travel restrictions. It has
therefore been necessary to make several changes to our future deployments, and
regretfully we have cancelled your cruise.
There are two replacement cruises. One ship is 20 years old and both only go to Auckland in New Zealand. The Royal Princess was going to three more New Zealand ports! I've had another cruise booked from Sydney to Melbourne, and I cancelled it. I had a seven day trip from Sydney to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef and I will cancel it too. The coach tour from Melbourne to Adelaide along the great ocean road and Kangaroo Island will also need to be cancelled! I couldn't work any of these tours into the replacement cruises.
The Royal Princess will be based in San Francisco in September for the winter.
