On 15 March 2022, the Federal Government finally announced that they will not be extending the ban on cruise ships when it expires on 17 April.
On that same day, two separate cruise lines contacted me to notify that due to COVID related redeployment needs, they were both cancelling a cruise we were booked on - P&O cancelled a short cruise we were booked on from Brisbane to Airlie Beach and return in July, while Princess cancelled a cruise to New Zealand in October.
It's not all bad though. Our booking for the cancelled Princess cruise is hopefully being moved to a booking on an almost identical cruise a month or so later.
And, we are hoping to replace the P&O cruise with a slightly longer Brisbane to Cairns and return cruise in June. Bookings open on Thursday and no doubt their website will crash - just as it did last time they announced some new 'end of COVID cruises' (which of course never happened) - but I'm hoping that they carry out their promise to contact me before-hand to organise bookings.
