Carnival Corporation has quietly reshuffled two of its most recognisable cruise ships, and the changes will ripple through three of its best-known brands by the end of the decade.
The headline move: Queen Anne, Cunard's newest and largest ship, will leave the line just five years after her glitzy May 2024 launch. She'll finish her 2028/29 World Voyage, then transfer to sister brand P&O Cruises. After an extensive refit and a rename, she enters service for P&O in May 2029, where she's billed as an entirely new class of ship for the fleet. Before that, fans can still see her at Cunard's Four Queens celebration in Liverpool in May 2028 — likely the last chance to catch her sailing under the Cunard pennant.
Why move a brand-new flagship? Carnival says guest tastes are shifting and ships work best where they fit. Queen Anne's contemporary design, flexible public spaces and long list of dining and entertainment options apparently suit P&O's more casual, modern holiday style better than Cunard's formal, heritage-driven experience. After she leaves, Cunard becomes a tighter three-ship line built around Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth.
There's a swap heading the other way, too. Arcadia, sailing for P&O Cruises since April 2005, will run a farewell season ending 21 August 2029, then move to Holland America Line in late 2029. The roughly 2,000-guest ship will get a drydock renovation and rebrand before joining HAL's Vista-Class quartet of Oosterdam, Zuiderdam, Westerdam and Noordam, taking that fleet to 12 ships. Holland America's president Beth Bodensteiner framed it as part of 'Holland America Evolution', the line's biggest guest-experience overhaul in its 153-year history.
What does this mean if you've got a cruise booked, or you're eyeing one? All voyages already on sale before the transfer dates will run as planned, so no itinerary surprises. But if you want to sail Queen Anne as a Cunard ship or Arcadia as a P&O ship, the clock is ticking — book within the next couple of years or miss the chance entirely.
For Cunard loyalists, the loss of the fleet's boldest ship might sting, though the remaining three Queens keep the brand's classic transatlantic identity intact. P&O guests get a genuinely new class of ship in 2029, and Holland America fans get a mid-sized Vista-Class addition that fits its push towards immersive, less-crowded sailing. Either way, 2029 is shaping up as a big year of change across Carnival's UK-facing cruise brands.
