Aussies' love of cruising reaches record high

AUSTRALIANS' love affair with cruising shows no sign of waning and is actually growing stronger despite hiccups like the global financial crisis.

Passengers on the new Carnival Dream get ready to slide down two waterslides onboard the ship / Reuters

AUSTRALIANS' love affair with cruising shows no sign of waning and is actually growing stronger despite hiccups like the global financial crisis.

A record 30,000 Australians and New Zealanders booked a P&O Cruises holiday in August, the largest number to book in a single month in the cruise line's history.

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The rush to walk the plank onto a floating resort holiday was a national phenomenon - compared to August last year, P&O's bookings rose by a miminum of 70 per cent (in the ACT), with the biggest growth occuring in Western Australian (203 per cent).

Meanwhile, greater capacity and value-for-money cruise deals meant bookings from Auckland on Pacific Sun increased 213 per cent in August over the same month last year.

Most of the bookings were people taking advantage of early bird specials for cruises in 2010 - and no doubt as the cold winds of August were whistling, many were dreaming ahead to the sunshine and warm waters of a tropical cruise.

Jenny Lourey, senior vice president of Carnival Australia which represents P&O Cruises, said the record bookings reflected a surge in overall demand.

“Passengers are booking earlier than ever to secure their berth,” Ms Lourey said.

“Travellers have been dreaming of escaping winter with a tropical cruise and are booking their winter holidays now to make sure they don't miss out.”

Bookings in August on ships sailing from Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Melbourne, Fremantle and Newcastle eclipsed Carnival Australia's previous best-selling month of January 2009 by almost 10 per cent.

The desire to get aboard a ship is shown in both hard figures and from unexpected sources. The hard figures come from places like the International Cruise Council Australasia whose data shows Australians taking a cruise holiday surged by 26 per cent last year to reach a record 330,949 passengers.

The unexpected comes from the `bucket list' survey commissioned by NSW Trustee and Guardian as part of its push to have people make or update their will.

The survey of more than 3000 people to find what they want to do before they kick the bucket was dominated by travel dreams.

“Travel non-stop for at least a year' ranked number one in the top ten, while “Take a luxury cruise” ranked number six.

For those who want to tick the luxury cruise box on their own bucket list, the choice has never been better.

If you like your cruises big, three of the biggest cruise ships ever built are about to come into service.

Oasis of the Seas, Norwegian Epic and Carnival Dream, the largest ships ever built for, respectively, Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruise Lines, are in their final stages of construction.

If river cruising is more your style the boom in demand for European river cruising has seen companies scramble to launch new, luxurious ships to ply romantic rivers such as the Danube.

If you prefer the sights closer to home Australia is getting record numbers of ships such as Rhapsody of the Seas heading Down Under, while on February 22, 2011 Cunard's Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth will have a royal rendezvous on Sydney Harbour expected to draw thousands of spectators to the foreshores.

Carnival Australia has announced that a record 190,000 passengers will sail on its ships locally during the next six months, up 13 per cent on last year's season and almost double the number of passengers carried by Carnival Australia five years ago.

The upcoming cruise season will feature a record 217 visits to ports around the country with highlights including the maiden Fremantle and Adelaide visits of Cunard's magnificent flagship Queen Mary 2, the debut of P&O Cruises' latest Australian superliner Pacific Jewel and the inaugural Australian visit of the world's newest luxury cruise ship, the elegant Seabourn Odyssey.

In all, 12 cruise ships from five Carnival Australia brands - Cunard Line, Princess Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia, P&O Cruises World Voyages and the Yachts of Seabourn - will cruise in Australian waters over the season.

The cruise season will see P&O Cruises' newest superliner Pacific Jewel begin cruising from her new homeport of Sydney, while sister ship Pacific Dawn moves to Brisbane and Pacific Sun begins her maiden season of cruises from Fremantle. Megaliners Star Princess and Diamond Princess will visit Australia, while Sun Princess will sail from Sydney and Dawn Princess will be based in Melbourne for the summer

Apart for the excellent deals now on offer, cruising also tempts with the convenience of unpacking once as destinations come to you, while the ticket price usually includes all on-board meals, entertainment and activities.