Set to arrive on Aussie shores October 26, the 113,561-tonne Crown Princess will be the largest ship that Princess Cruises have ever sent to Australia to sail fulltime. Throughout her debut season she’ll 78 visits across 21 ports in the country, another record for a Princess ship in Australia.
Crown Princess will also become the biggest ship to ever host a world cruise when it leaves Australia on a 113-night world cruise in May 2025.
The ship packs in more than 200 suites and min-suites, specialty restaurants like Sabatini’s and Crown Grill, endless activities and its special Movies Under The Stars screenings.
The new-to-Australia ship will be headlining a huge Princess Cruises season in Australia, with Diamond Princess and Royal Princess also set to sail out of Australia. The three ships will offer a total of 117 departures between October 2024 and September 2025.
The ships will be sailing out of a record seven ports, across Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle, Hobart and Auckland.
Princess Cruises Senior Vice President Asia Pacific, Europe and UK Stuart Allison says: “As the biggest Princess ship ever based in Australian year round, Crown Princess’ capacity is 50 per cent more than any other Princess ship based full time in our waters.
“Her deployment is a major milestone which reflects Australians’ enduring love of cruising and loyalty to Princess in Australia.”
Allison also says the accomodations on Crown Princess as the biggest ever princess ship in Australia will be a step up.
“Plus with almost 900 of her staterooms featuring private balconies – more than any other ship ever based here full-time – Crown Princess will give more Australians the chance to cruise in style.”
When will Princess realise that bigger is not necessarily better! Many more ports around the world are objecting to the large numbers of passengers from big ships. Princess’s strategy of replacing its smaller ships with large ships will backfire when they find it increasingly more difficult to offer diverse port options.
According to the Port of Melbourne web site, there will be no more Princess ships home ported in Melbourne from next year. P&O Australia are still porting and so are Disney, but all Carribean attached lines have stopped home porting due to increased costs. The big question is, as passengers pay the port costs anyway, what is the REAL reason Princess and Cunard have pulled out of Melbourne home porting?
Was sad to see the Coral princess leaving Australia. She is a lovely ship and will miss her. On the Crown in Oct/Nov and then again Dec/Jan so hopefully she will be our next favorite Princess Ship.