Carnival to Pull Two Cruise Ships Out of Australia in 2028 Over Costs and Regulations

Carnival Cruise Line announced it will withdraw the ships Carnival Adventure and Carnival Luminosa from Australia in 2028, cutting its local fleet in half and leaving only two ships operating there on a permanent basis.

Carnival Luminosa, which has sailed seasonally from Brisbane since the industry restarted in 2022, will make its final departure from Sydney on March 15, 2028, while Carnival Adventure will depart Sydney on March 20, 2028, and will not return to Australia as originally planned. Carnival Splendor and Carnival Encounter will continue operating year-round from Sydney and Brisbane, respectively.

The company attributed the move to regulatory uncertainty and rising costs, noting that itinerary planning several years in advance requires long-term certainty and globally competitive operating conditions. The Australian federal government recently extended, until the end of 2028, the exemption that allows international cruise ships to operate between domestic ports while it develops a definitive licensing regime. Carnival's country manager, Peter Little, described the extension as an interim step while the long-term operating framework for the sector is finalized.

Cruise Lines International Association Australasia said it had long warned that regulatory uncertainty and rising costs had seriously damaged Australia's ability to attract cruise ships, despite record levels of demand from both domestic and international passengers, and estimated that the departure of these ships will wipe hundreds of millions of dollars from the country's tourism economy.

The withdrawal adds to a broader exodus from the cruise sector in Australia, where Carnival had already discontinued the P&O Cruises Australia brand last year, and other lines such as Cunard, Virgin Voyages and Disney have also scaled back or ceased operations in the country. The situation is also hitting New Zealand, whose cruise tourism relies heavily on ships deployed from Australia: New Zealand cruise ship visits fell from 1,011 in 2023/24 to 860 in 2024/25, and the sector's economic contribution dropped from NZ$1.37 billion to NZ$1.23 billion.