Cunard has just announced that its Queen Elizabeth will not return to Australia for the 2025/26 season. Instead, as part of new deployment plans beginning in 2026, Queen Elizabeth will sail year-round from North America, spending the summer sailing in and around Alaska and in the winter sailing an exciting new Cunard Caribbean programme from Florida.
The Carnival Corporation brand will continue its Australian Cunard season in 2023/24 and 2024/25, but “from 2026, there will be no locally based programme,” according to a company update. Queen Elizabeth is already on her way to Australia, where she will begin her 2023/2024 homeport season on 27 November.
“Australia and Asia will remain important destinations on our round-the-world voyages, and we look forward to welcoming guests from these regions wherever they choose to sail with us,” said Matt Gleaves, Cunard Commercial VP for North America and Australasia.
Cunard, he vowed, will continue to provide interesting programmes across its four-ship fleet. “The new deployments are an exciting development, and we look forward to releasing the full details of our future programmes in early 2024,” he added.
