No cancellations on Pacific Dawn
By: Katrina Archer and Bruce Piper, Cruise Weekly

Officially declared free of swine flu, the P&O ship will sail as scheduled to the South Pacific on Thursday with every cabin booked out.

All passengers were allowed off the Pacific Dawn when it docked yesterday morning at Sydney's Darling Harbour after onboard testing found that none had the virus.

While some disembarking passengers told the awaiting media that they were upset to miss visits to the Whitsundays, Cairns and Port Douglas, others enjoyed the cruise and were happy with the compensation offered - a 75% refund and a 25% credit for a future cruise.

No home quarantine was needed, but strict hygiene and screening measures would still be enforced to ensure the ship remained free of swine flu, said Ann Sherry, CEO of Carnival Australia, which owns P&O Cruises.

"Despite the fact that they have not had the holiday they planned, our passengers have been incredibly understanding about the situation and aware that this situation has been out of P&O Cruises' control," she said.

For the past two weeks, Pacific Dawn has been the focus of the nation's swine flu fears, with 51 cases linked to the ship's previous cruise; but it was NSW Health that came under fire for allowing those 2000 passengers to disembark when there were suspicions that four people had the virus.

This weekend, however, no chances were taken when three crew tested positive.

After the ship skipped three scheduled visits in Queensland, a NSW Health doctor and 25 nurses boarded in Brisbane and tested the other crew members and all passengers during the two-day voyage back to Sydney.

"No evidence of any additional cases of human swine influenza has been found on board the Pacific Dawn, and most importantly, there has been no person-to-person transmission onboard the ship," NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said.

Australians do not appear to have been scared off by the health scare, with Carnival reporting that the next cruise on 04 June will go ahead as scheduled. "Every cabin is booked and we have 2000 passengers who are now eagerly awaiting their South Pacific holiday," Sherry said.

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