Cruise Ship P&O Pacific Explore June 2023

The cruise ship P&O Pacific Explore is due to visit Norfolk Island on Wednesday 28 June 2023. This cruise is a six-day voyage, one-way from Cairns, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand, stopping at Norfolk Island. The passengers depart Cairns on Saturday, 24 June, four days later they arrive here on Norfolk Island on Wednesday, 28 June, and later in the day the cruise ship will depart our shores for their final leg to New Zealand, scheduled to arrive in Auckland on Friday 30 June.

Pacific Explorer was also known as Dawn Princess, the former name of the P&O Cruise Ship. I have read that the Pacific Explore is able to carry up to 2000 passengers and let’s hope the weather is kind this week so these travellers can come ashore and enjoy a day exploring our beautiful Norfolk Island. The island population would almost double for the day, bring $$$ into our local tourist industries, local shops, and cafes.

It will be interesting to see which side of Norfolk Island the cruise ship will anchor, Kingston or Cascade? The new passenger ferries will be set up at Cascade Pier, ferrying the travellers from ship to shore and returning back to their P&O cruise ship at the end of the day.

This web page has information and updates of the current position of the vessel.

Pacific Explorer Itinerary, Current Position, Ship Review | CruiseMapper

Since Covid-19 closed our Norfolk Island borders, only three cruise ships have been able to unload passengers during their Norfolk Island visits. The Lindblad Expedition Cruise ship visited Norfolk Island on 27 December 2022. This was the first cruise ship passengers to visit Norfolk Island since the M/S Maasdam anchored at Kingston on the 23 January 2020 and the visitors came ashore, then within two months Covid closed borders on 16 March 2020.

The next cruise ship which was able to unload passengers was on 3 March 2023. The National Geographic Orion, passengers disembarked at Kingston on zodiacs and had a lovely afternoon exploring Norfolk Island hosted by Baunti Tours. This was the first cruise ship to successfully come ashore this year, with approximately thirty passengers.

The cruise ship Heritage Adventurer visited Norfolk Island on 24 March 2023. The passengers were able to disembark on tenders, the ship’s zodiacs, at

Cascade Pier and the cruise ship sat out in the bay as the travellers enjoyed their day on Norfolk Island. This was the third cruise ship to disembark since Covid 19 closed our borders.

Safe travels to the passengers on the Pacific Explorer P&O Cruises and let’s hope everyone will get a chance to enjoy a great day exploring Norfolk Island when the cruise arrives on Wednesday.

The next scheduled cruise ship I have listed is next month on Tuesday 18 July 2023, P&O Pacific Encounter with up to 2600 passengers.

Checking out my cruise ship photos, I found images of the Pacific Explorer from October 2018, and October 2019. I look forward to capturing more photos this week.

Betty Matthews

June 2023