Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth deployed down under

Cunard has revealed its plans to bring the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship down under for not one or two nights, but 54 nights.

Yep, the cruise line has committed to its Aussie market in a very real way, bringing its popular ship to Australian and New Zealand waters for two months, offering seven different cruises to NZ, South Australia and Tasmania.

The ship will be basing itself out of Sydney and Melbourne between February and April 2019, making it the longest stint any of Cunard’s current fleet has ever had down under.

A small bunch of Aussie trade media were the very first to hear the news, which comes just a few days after Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 met in Sydney Harbour over the weekend.

Speaking to local trade media, Cunard’s vice president of international development, David Rousham said the move was evidence of the brand committing to the Aussie market as well as trying to grow it further.

The ship will make two roundtrips to New Zealand, departing from both Sydney and Melbourne, three voyages to Tasmania (two departing from Melbourne and one from Sydney), and two cruises to South Australia, with the shortest cruise around five nights.

“It’s a complete world away from the traditional world cruises,” Rousham said. “And it will be just post [Queen Elizabeth’s] refit, so she’ll be as sparkly and new as she can be.”

More details of the refit for the liner will be released later, while the cruises themselves will be released on March 14 and on sale from March 30 in Australia.

Rousham said Cunard had already hit its 2018 targets, off the back of an 11 per cent growth for all programs in the 2016/17 period.

But it’s not all pretty pictures for Cunard, with Rousham admitting there’s a very big problem with Sydney’s cruise infrastructure.

“The NSW market is our biggest market, and we would like more space in Sydney,” he said. “Ultimately there’s real problems in Sydney, for example we don’t fit under the bridge.

“But there’s no easy answer to the problem. We’re one of many ships with the same problem.”

Rousham said its loyal repeat customers identify a certain elegance with the brand, but it’s “not a brand that throws its doors open to families,” although they do offer family-related facilities.

For newcomers to the brand, the stint down under – in particular the shorter cruises – will be the sell for those wanting to “sample the brand”. The average age of Cunard customer remains at around 62, he added, which is a figure that remains, for the most part, unwavering.

Rousham said he expected strong interest in the 2019 local cruises, which will double the number of Aussies and Kiwis travelling on Cunard compared to previous years.