| Queen Elizabeth down under

CUNARD will base its Queen Elizabeth in Australia for almost two months in early 2019, with the vessel to undertake a series of seven round-trip voyages out of Sydney and Melbourne over the period (Cruise Weekly breaking news).

The move was revealed in Sydney yesterday by Cunard’s vice president of international development, David Roushan, who described the down under deployment as a “major highlight of Cunard’s 2019 world voyage program”.

Rousham said the plan was an evolution of Cunard’s traditional world cruise program which is likely to see similar extended deployments in other markets in the future.

There will be two round voyages to New Zealand: one from Sydney and one from Melbourne, along with three return voyages venturing to Tasmania and two to South Australia.

“Whenever Cunard’s itineraries have included round-trip options from Australian ports and visits to New Zealand, the demand has always been tremendous.

“In Feb 2019, Queen Elizabeth will have recently undergone a refit, so our youngest Cunard ship will be looking her most luxurious best as she starts this new chapter in Cunard’s long and illustrious 179-year history,” Rousham said.

The 2019 world voyage program will be formally unveiled on 14 Mar, with sales to open at the end of the month.

As well as the Australian deployment of Queen Elizabeth, Rousham hinted at an “iconic circumnavigation” voyage also featuring in the 2019 Cunard world cruise brochure.

Rousham confirmed that the local Cunard team was likely to expand to assist with sales of the new itineraries which were expected to attract new cruisers.

In particular some of the shorter voyages in the Australian program would appeal to “new to cruise” travellers as an introduction to the Cunard brand, he said.