IT WAS the kind of news that makes an industry stop and read twice to make sure their mind wasn’t playing tricks.
Disney Cruise Line, a marquee name whose arrival in 2023 helped stamp some global authority into Australia’s return to cruising after the pandemic, will sail its last Australian and New Zealand season in 2025/26 before repositioning Disney Wonder elsewhere in the world.
For many in the sector, the decision was sadly not unprecedented but nonetheless was a symbolic setback. Disney’s seasonal deployment had brought a global spotlight to local shores, bolstering Australia’s family cruise market and drawing new-to-cruise customers. Its exit made it the third major cruise line in less than two years to call it quits Down Under, at least in terms of basing a ship in local waters for a season of sailings.
That trio includes Cunard and Virgin Voyages – four if you count the complete retirement earlier this year of P&O Cruises Australia, a beloved home-grown brand whose parent company Carnival Corporation said was sunset due to all-too-high operating and regulatory costs which got in the way of profitability and market efficiency.
“It is certainly disappointing to see Disney departing our shores at the end of the 2025-26 season, as it has been wonderful to have them in our market for what will be three years,” said Australian Cruise Association (ACA) CEO, Jill Abel.
“The [ACA] remains committed to working in partnership with governments, destinations, and suppliers to ensure Australia is an attractive and competitive destination, supporting jobs and businesses across the country. We hope to welcome Disney back in the near future.”
All told, it underscored what industry leaders have been fearing for months: the tide of capacity that flowed so strongly into Australia in the wake of COVID’s shutdown is now hitting seemingly insurmountable regulatory roadblocks, hamstrung by a complex mix of regulatory, operational, and geopolitical challenges.
Despite all these local problems, the numbers don’t lie – demand for cruising worldwide has never been higher, a message trumpeted by CLIA Australasia Managing Director, Joel Katz. But even the Australasian industry leader retained his pragmatism.
“However, without action, we risk losing valuable tourism revenue, jobs, and investment to countries with more competitive conditions,” he said.
Diplomatic words but for any fan of cruise, they hit hard. And they hurt.
From boom to slowdown
Rewind to the middle of 2023 and the mood was buoyant. CLIA’s annual State of the Industry Report consistently showed Australia as among the world’s top cruise markets per capita, with passenger numbers rebounding faster than many predicted. The talk was not so much about the excitement of all these amazing brands sailing locally, but where on earth they all go. Sydney’s capacity struggles have been well documented, of course.
Ships that had been mothballed during the pandemic returned to bustling homeports from Sydney to Fremantle, and new entrants like Virgin Voyages and Disney Cruise Line injected fresh energy.
The momentum was mirrored across the Tasman.
Jacqui Lloyd, the CEO of the New Zealand Cruise Association, told travelBulletin: “Our strongest season was 2023/24, when we had about 1,120 port calls across the country. The coming season is 665. So we are seeing a considerable reduction for New Zealand.”
Lloyd pointed to four main factors in New Zealand’s decline – some of which, she notes, have parallels in Australia. Chief among them are biosecurity protocols, rising port and government charges, and the timing of regulatory changes.
“When increased costs are made within the booking window – some people book cruises 18 months to two years ahead – there’s no way to pass that on to the passenger. That then comes off the cruise line bottom line.”
In this context, Disney’s redeployment is not an isolated event but part of a pattern.
The retreat of the Queens
For Cunard, the shift was strategic. On 3 November 2023, the line announced that from 2026, Queen Elizabeth would be repositioned to operate year-round from North America, dividing her time between Alaska and the Caribbean. While the ship completed her 2023/24 and 2024/25 homeport seasons in Australia, there will be “no locally based program” thereafter. Australia and Asia, the company stressed, would “remain important destinations on our round the world voyages.”
For Melbourne, which had benefited from Cunard’s consistent seasonal deployments, the news was a blow. Luxury cruise travellers who had planned their annual sailings on the Queen Elizabeth would now have to look further afield.
While it didn’t say so specifically, Cunard’s decision may have been influenced further by a 15% hike in port fees by Ports Victoria, a move which also cost them a homeported ship from Princess Cruises, which went elsewhere.
The decision echoed a broader reality for cruise: an industry with inventory that can move must be redeployed where they can maximise yield and minimise operational risk.
Virgin’s course change
Virgin Voyages’ situation was different again. The adults-only newcomer had based Resilient Lady in Melbourne for its 2023/24 season, with plans for a high-profile repositioning voyage to Europe. But rising tensions in the Middle East at the time and security concerns about transiting the Red Sea prompted a rethink.
There’s also industry scuttlebutt saying Virgin left because it couldn’t get the port space for the itineraries it wanted, but that’s not the official line.
“The safety of our passengers and crew is our number one priority,” a Virgin Voyages statement said at the time. Like other cruise brands – including Carnival Corporation, MSC Cruises, and Silversea – Virgin opted to reroute back to Europe around Africa’s west coast. The reimagined itinerary took the ship from Sydney via Eden and Fremantle, then across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, West Africa, the Canary Islands, and on to the Mediterranean.
While the move was driven by geopolitics rather than domestic policy, it still meant one less ship returning for a repeat season – and contributed to the perception of a tightening market.
Diagnosing the downturn
To most people and especially industry insiders, the core issue is not demand – which remains high both domestically and in inbound source markets – but the regulatory setting.
“CLIA has consistently warned that the complex regulatory environment and high operating costs in Australia and New Zealand are putting the region at risk of losing cruise capacity to other markets,” said Katz. “There is an urgent need for globally competitive policy settings that provide certainty for long-term planning – and recognise the enormous economic benefits that cruise delivers – to secure the full potential of this vital sector of tourism.”
Lloyd agrees, particularly on the timing and predictability of policy changes.
In New Zealand’s case, she said, “there was a perception that New Zealand wasn’t interested [in cruise] and definitely that is not the case.”
She pointed to recent engagement between cruise executives and five government ministers covering tourism, hospitality, biosecurity, customs, and regional development.
“There is a really strong push from government to support the sector, which has been well received by cruise lines,” she said.
Work continues behind the scenes on several key actions by both CLIA, NZCA and other partners, including the ACA.
These include modernising border processes with digital, risk-based systems; supporting scalable facilitation for regional and remote ports; establishing a clear national cruise policy framework; and coordinating reform through a whole-of-government approach.
Such reforms, industry leaders argue, would remove friction points, give cruise lines certainty, and strengthen the case for long-term investment in the region.
Charting a course forward
For Michael Bettridge, Chief Commercial and Operations Officer at Cruise Guru – which won the 2025 CLIA Award for Online Cruise Agency of the Year – the focus must be on making Australasia an easy and attractive place for cruise lines to deploy their ships.
“We remain optimistic about homeport cruising, best illustrated with Royal Caribbean’s announcement of Lelepa in the South Pacific,” he said. “However, to be as attractive as possible for the cruise companies to deploy and invest here, we strongly support CLIA Australasia and their approach.”
The sun on the horizon
Even with reforms, recovery in deployment will take time.
Lloyd noted that cruise lines plan itineraries years ahead, so significant shifts in capacity allocation won’t appear overnight.
“We’re not expecting to see a significant change over the season in 2026/27,” she said. “We are pushing for 2027/28 and beyond.”
The optimism is not unfounded. Demand for cruising, both globally and locally, is at record levels. New destinations, such as Royal Caribbean’s Lelepa and expanded South Pacific offerings, could help give Australians more reasons to sail closer to home again and for more ships to be based in the region.
But without competitive policy settings, Australia and New Zealand risk being seen as too hard – or too costly – a proposition compared with the Caribbean, Mediterranean, or Asia.
The departures of Disney, Cunard, and Virgin Voyages are a timely reminder that in the high-stakes game of global cruise deployment, goodwill and natural beauty are not always enough.
The tide can still turn – but it will take coordinated effort from industry, government, and ports to ensure the next wave is one of growth, not retreat.
