Can you sail a luxury line for the price of a Princess cruise? You’ll be surprised

• Princess Cruises will sail just two ships in Australia for the 2025/26 season.
• Meanwhile, cruise lines like Viking, Azamara, Silversea, and more are increasing their presence in Australia.
• You might be surprised to find that some Princess sailings and smaller cruise lines have almost identical pricing.

Australia’s 2025/26 cruise season will be dominated by the arrival of small boutique and luxury vessels. As Princess drops its capacity to just two ships for the season, there will be more vessels from the likes of Viking, Azamara and Silversea.

This, though, leaves loyal Princess and mid-tier cruisers in a conundrum – small and luxury ships will mean Australians will have to pay higher prices to sail locally.

Other lines like Oceania Cruises, Crystal, and Regent Seven Seas have also signalled they will bring multiple ships to the region to service the luxury sectors.

But with cruise lines like Regent Seven Seas or Crystal, that comes at a much higher price point – a far cry from what the average Princess cruiser puts towards a voyage around Australia.

A Cruise Passenger analysis found that upper premium and smaller ship operators like Oceania Cruises and Azamara’s fare prices come surprisingly close to a Princess itinerary.

Australians, though, are huge fans of Princess. In 2023/24, Australia had four Princess ships homeported –Majestic Princess, Royal Princess, Grand Princess, and Coral Princess that had a capacity of 11,770.

But the capacity halves this year, with just space for 6740 passengers at one time.

In 2026/27, Australia will see the return of three Princess ships. But the missing ship leaves a void for Princess cruisers for the upcoming season.

Who to pick instead

If you’re struggling to find a cabin on a Princess ship, Azamara and Oceania Cruises’ price point comes close.

These cruise lines offer a slightly more upscale and intimate experience on much smaller ships and more inclusions, such as some alcoholic drinks built into the cruise fare and butler service.

A previous Cruise Passenger investigation revealed that for the 2025/26 cruise season, Discovery Princess will be the most expensive large ship to be sailing here, which makes sense, as she’s also by far the newest and most modern.

However, is it possible that cruises with Princess could even have a similar price to some of the smaller cruise lines and ships sailing in Australia that are generally considered to be a tier above in terms of luxury and service?

Price comparison 

If we look at prices for a couple of Azamara cruise in Australia, a 21-night Australia intensive voyage aboard the 702-capacity Azamara Pursuit, which visits ports all over Australia like Eden, Kangaroo Island and Margaret River, as well as Bali and Singapore, starts from $7229, which comes out to $344 per night.

A 16-night Australia and New Zealand voyage that includes an immersive dive into New Zealand comes out similarly, with the voyage starting from $5629, or just $351 per person.

Azamara also has some key inclusions in the base fare which Princess does not, such as unlimited self-service laundry and beer, wine, and spirits 24/7.

If we look at another upper-premium line that’s on its way to Australia, there’s Oceania Cruises. 

A 14-night Sydney to Bali cruise with Oceania starts from $5850, which comes out to a slightly steeper $417 a night, admittedly, this is on the cheaper side for an Oceania cruise. However, it also has a host of inclusions.

The fare wraps in specialty dining, unlimited Starlink WiFi, group fitness classes, laundry services, specialty coffees, and more, however, it does not include alcoholic beverages.

Now, if we cast our eyes towards Princess, we’ll see some surprising results. One thing to note is that due to the reduced number of ships this season, many cruises are already sold out. The majority of Crown Princess’s longer voyages for the 25/26 season are already completely sold out. 

If we look at Discovery Princess, a 14-day New Zealand cruise starts from $5309, and a 12-day South Australia cruise starts from $4630, starting from $379 and $385 a night, respectively. 

Surprisingly, this is actually more expensive than both of the Oceania Cruises analysed and only a bit below the $417 per night figure of Oceania. 

Furthermore, Princess doesn’t quite have the inclusions that the other two lines have wrapped up in their base fare; no alcoholic beverages are included, nor WiFi or laundry. 

Will we see more big ship cruisers looking at small ships?

This raises the question that for those who aren’t finding the usual amount of options for their yearly Princess cruise, they might be surprised that even by jumping up a category in luxury, they might find prices similar to what they’ve been paying anyway. 

Furthermore, as Cruise Passenger has noted, Royal Caribbean prices have been shooting up as well.

Next season should provide some relief on Princess pricing as there will be three ships in Australia and pricing won’t be inflated by demand for the shiny-new Discovery Princess. However, as Australia continues to lose cruise capacity for its big ships, yet small ships appear to be on the rise, we could continue to see the continued shrinking of what used to be a significant price gap between ships and smaller ones. 

Another factor could be the demand of Aussies for new cruise destinations and itineraries. Smaller ships can reach more remote and underdeveloped locations than large ships can, offering Aussies the chance to visit brand new places rather than re-sailing itineraries that they’ve already experienced.