How to choose between Discovery Princess, Celebrity Edge and Oceania Riviera

• Premium and luxury cruisers are going to be spoilt for choice this season.
• So we’ve put the three ships in these categories head-to-head so you can compare.
• Our verdict: These ships all offer terrific value, great food and entertainment. You can’t go wrong.

Australians are trading up when it comes to their local cruises, perhaps parlaying airfares into better suites on more upmarket ships. And lines are responding with better vessels.

Princess is a hugely popular line amongst Australian cruisers, and is fielding its newest ship Discovery Princess, which has fans very excited.

But Celebrity Cruises is on the rise here as well, with Celebrity Edge its flag bearer.

With two ships – Celebrity Edge and soon-to-be re-imagined Celebrity Solstice – the line has a major commitment to Australia and New Zealand.

Then there are also many Aussies who are glancing at another tier of luxury above, and looking at cruise lines like Oceania Cruises. Here, you can expect a larger cruise fare, but on a smaller ship with more close-knit service and wide-ranging itineraries. 

Oceania has committed Oceania Riviera to the region for five months this season, and as exclusively revealed by Cruise Passenger, the next season as well.

Trying to pick between whether Celebrity or Princess offers better value can be tricky, particularly when considering extras and packages. Then Oceania serves as a bit of a wildcard with its famous “best cuisine at sea”, while cruise fares are higher, many Aussies might be surprised to find out that the inclusions can sometimes mean Oceania offers even better value than the likes of Princess or Celebrity.

If you’re looking to jump on one of these lines for the 2025/26 season, here’s everything you need to know to make your decision based on value, itineraries and onboard experience.

What to expect on board

• Celebrity and Princess have a similar vibe onboard, with Celebrity offering a slightly more modern experience, whereas Princess is steeped in the traditional cruising experience. Both put a similar emphasis on dining, entertainment and quiet and relaxing spaces around the ship. Celebrity Edge is probably more photogenic due to its more modern furnishings and layout, but Princess’s medallion system offers a great advantage, smoothing out the cruise experience and creating a system where food and drink can be ordered to any point on the ship.
• A sailing with Oceania would be something a bit different for most Aussies, but we are seeing more and more Aussies tend towards luxury sailings, enjoying the more all-inclusive nature and upscale experience. 
• Oceania offers a great middle ground between all-out luxury, which commands a much higher price tag, and the big-ship experience of lines like Celebrity and Princess. You can expect a more intimate and tranquil experience with Oceania, and the cruise line puts a very heavy focus on dining. Your entertainment options and list of things to do won’t be quite as expansive as Celebrity or Princess, but you can expect better service, a more premium experience in general and the bonus of sailing on a smaller ship that can visit a wider variety of ports. 

Ship facts

	Year launched	Capacity	Guest-to-staff ratio	Last refurbishment
Crown Princess	2006	3080	2.6:1	2022
Discovery Princess	2022	3660	2.7:1	N/A
Celebrity Edge	2018	2900	2.5:1	2023
Oceania Riviera	2012	1250	1.5:1	2022
Oceania Regatta	1998	670	1.7:1	2019

Takeaways 

• As you would expect, Oceania ships are smaller and have much higher guest-to-staff ratios, offering a more intimate experience.
• Discovery Princess is the newest ship of the bunch, only a couple of years into service. We’ll see later that this modernity commands a premium price-wise. 
• Celebrity Edge is quite a bit newer than Crown Princess, and does offer a more modern feeling onboard. 

Prices

Below you can find the cheapest available prices for the Princess and Celebrity ships sailing for the 2025/26 season in Australia. All prices all for interior cabins unless otherwise specified.

Prices can change based on how booked voyages are, which creates irregularities this close to booking time, so if you’re looking for future seasons, expect to see very different numbers. However, for the season ahead, here’s the best of what’s on offer.

	New Zealand	Great Barrier Reef	South Australia	Tasmania
Crown Princess	$293 per night	$253 per night	$204 per night	$350 per night
Discovery Princess	$250 per night	$349 per night	$404 per night	N/A
Celebrity Edge	$334 per night (Veranda room)	$197 per night	$263 per night	$263 per night

Oceania Prices 

Oceania sails very different itineraries to Princess and Celebrity, so here are some of their best value cruises that are still available for the season ahead.

• Sydney to Bali 14-days, $5607 (approx), $400 per night, on Oceania Riviera
• Bali to Sydney 21-nights, $8487 (approx), $404 per night, on Oceania Riviera
• Papeete to Bal 24-nights, $8112 (approx), $338 per night, on Oceania Regatta

Inclusions 

An interesting twist to consider when deciding on your cruise for this summer is that Oceania sailings in Australia currently fall under the “Your World Included” offer. This means all specialty dining and unlimited Wifi are included, and furthermore, guests can choose between complimentary wine and beer, or excursion shore credit, generally from about USD$800 – 1200, depending on the length of the voyage. 

This is different to Celebrity Cruises and Princess Plus, where extra perks, such as drinks packages and Wifi, have to be purchased as add-ons. 

Princess offers two packages, Princess Plus and Princess Premier, which cost $79 per day and $129 per day. Princess Plus offers basic Wifi, a beverage package and four ‘casual dining meals’. Princess Premier has more inclusions, with more comprehensive wifi and drinks packages, a shore excursion credit and most notably, unlimited casual and specialty dining.

Celebrity Cruises offers a package price on its sailings to add a wifi and drinks package, which changes in price, but generally costs around $90 per night of sailing. 

Specialty dining packages can be purchased for Celebrity Cruises, with cruises generally offering options of three-day packages, five-day packages, and unlimited packages. Prices can also jump around quite a bit for these packages depending on your cruise, but for a 10-night cruise, if cruisers are hoping to enjoy specialty dining throughout their entire cruise of say 10-nights, they can generally expect to spend about $700 each on a package. 

Therefore, the advantage of an Oceania Cruise for this summer is that your inclusions are already wrapped into the fare, whereas with Celebrity Cruises and Princess, you’ll have to add something extra, below we crunch the numbers on how much a cruise will cost with each of these lines if you’re looking to indulge.

Prices for an indulgent cruise (drinks/wifi/specialty dining)

These prices below reflect your final cruise fare for those who know they like to indulge at sea, with a wifi package, a drinks package and as much specialty dining as they please. 

For Oceania, this will only involve the same base fare, as the inclusions are already included in the fare. For Celebrity, this will include the package Wifi and drinks prices, as well as a specialty dining package, and for Princess, it will be the base fare, combined with the cost of a Princess Premier package. 

Prices for Celebrity and Princess ships will be based on an average of the cheapest fares (for interior rooms only) for New Zealand, the Great Barrier Reef, South Australia and Tasmania, as outlined above, and average out over a 10-day cruise.

The average price for a Discovery Princess interior is $334 per night, the average price for a Crown Princess interior is $275 per night, and the average price of a Celebrity Edge interior is $241 per night. 

The Princess cruises both need to pay $129 per night extra to get the Princess Premier benefits, and the Celebrity cruises require an extra $90 per night for drinks and wifi, and an extra $700 over a 10-day cruise for specialty dining. 

	Total cruise fare – including drinks package, wifi and unlimited specialty dining	Price per night
Oceania Riviera	$5607 for 14-nights	$400
Oceania Regatta	$8112 for 24-nights	$338
Celebrity Edge	$4010 for 10-nights	$401
Discovery Princess	$4630 for 10-nights	$463
Crown Princess	$4040 for 10-nights	$404

Key considerations 

• The Oceania drinks package, which is already included, isn’t a full drinks package; it’s only beers and wine, so if you’re looking to drink spirits, it won’t be the best deal. However, if you’re not a drinker, you can also exchange this for about USD$1000 in shore excursion value.
• The Celebrity prices are variable, especially that of the unlimited specialty dining package, so make sure to double-check the price for your own cruise.
• Oceania cruises generally aren’t round-trips out of Australia, so you will likely require a one-way flight as well.
• Princess Premier has a few extra perks that Celebrity doesn’t, including shore excursion credit from $100 – $200, depending on voyage length and unlimited professional photos. 

Takeaways

• Perhaps the most surprising takeaway is that if you’re looking for a cruise this summer and know you want the perks, Oceania can provide some of the best value on the market, despite it being a more upper-premium brand that sails with smaller ships and more upscale facilities. However, it’s crucial to note that to get the great value of a line like Oceania, you have to spend big in the first place; the cruises are generally longer, and the base fares are much higher than lines like Celebrity and Discovery. However, once you pay that initial fare, you can expect to get great value.
• Celebrity Edge and Crown Princess offer extremely comparable value, but if you want to get on the newer and shinier Discovery Princess, you’ll have to pay a premium to do it. 
• It’s all about what you want from your cruise. Consider what kind of amenities you’re after onboard, where you want to visit and for how long, and then you can determine which cruise line and itinerary is for you.

Itineraries and destinations

• The key thing to note when comparing the itineraries and destinations between Celebrity, Princess and Oceania on offer for the 2025/26 cruise season is that you can generally expect more varied and exotic itineraries with Oceania, and more standard destinations with Princess and Celebrity. However, Oceania doesn’t offer many round-trips out of Australia, so you should consider that you’ll generally need to purchase a flight as well.
• Celebrity Cruises will offer a range of sailings across the Great Barrier Reef, Tasmania, South Australia, New Zealand and to the South Pacific. Highlight itineraries include a 14-night South Pacific cruise, which visits Vanuatu and Fiji, as well as nine-night ‘Australia Wine cruises’ which visit some of Australia’s best wine cities like Adelaide and Hobart. Most itineraries are generally about seven to 12 nights.
• Princess runs itineraries to more or less the same locations, across GBR, Tasmania, South Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. Princess is also known for its circumnavigations of Australia, which are often run over about a month; however, they’re already all sold out for the season ahead. For those looking for longer sailings, their best bet would be longer repositioning cruises between Australia and Hawaii. Princess also has a bit more variation in its itineraries than Celebrity, offering lots of short cruises and quick escapes for those who are only looking for a few days away, or want to get a feel for the ships before booking a longer cruise.
• If you’re a regular cruiser who feels that the classic Aussie itineraries are getting a bit stale, then Oceania is a great option to mix up the destinations that are worth visiting. For example, a 19-night Sydney to Papeete cruise will visit plenty of ports where you might not have been before, such as Nuku’alofa and Vavu in Tonga and Apia and Pago Pago in American Samoa. A Bali to Sydney cruise also offers a unique exploration of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as more expected ports such as  Port Vila. Oceania also offers sailings to New Zealand and round-trips out of Sydney, which visit more traditional ports. A definite highlight is a 35-day Sydney round-trip, which visits ports all over Australia, Indonesia, PNG, Vanuatu and Fiji.