About Princess Cruises Australia

Princess Cruises Guide

• Princess Cruises offers luxurious cruises in Australia, focusing on diverse itineraries and unique experiences.

• For 2025/2026, three ships—Discovery Princess, Crown Princess, and Grand Princess—will operate in Australia. Royal Princess will swap with Discovery for 2027/27.

• Popular destinations include the Great Barrier Reef, Hobart, and New Zealand, with cultural and wildlife experiences onboard and ashore.

• Princess is arguably the #1 cruise line in Australia, known for exceptional service and entertainment. It also sells out many of its intineraries.
  
  Background to Princess Cruises Australia
  
  Princess Cruises, established in 1965 and based in Los Angeles, has become a household name, partly due to its appearance in the iconic 1970s TV show "The Love Boat," filmed on ships like Pacific Princess and Sun Princess. This show significantly boosted the cruise line's popularity, introducing cruising to millions. In Australia, Princess Cruises has been operating since the 1980s, known for its extensive itineraries, fantastic ships, exceptional service and a huge variety of high quality dining options.

  In Australia, Cruises from Brisbane and Cruises from Sydney are most of the Princess cruise program. However, you will find a small number of cruises from Adelaide, Hobart, Perth, Melbourne and also in New Zealand with cruises from Auckland.
  
  For the 2025-2026 season, Princess Cruises will deploy three ships in Australian waters: Discovery Princess, Crown Princess, and Grand Princess. This deployment includes 75 itineraries visiting 78 destinations across Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji, and beyond. The Discovery Princess, making her maiden voyage to the region, is the largest ship to ever sail in Australian waters, with a capacity of 3,660 guests and 145,000 tons, offering 22 itineraries, including 11 departures from Sydney. Launched in 2022, it is also one of the newest and features the Princess 360 dining immersive dining experience and the new speciality Catch by Rudi restaurant.

  The Crown Princess is noted for its epic world cruises with roundtrips from Sydney, Brisbane, and Auckland, covering 48 destinations across six continents. However, Crown Princess also sails shorter itineraries including some taster short sailings of 2 nights between Sydney and Brisbane and Brisbane to Sydney. The Grand Princess complements the fleet with additional itineraries, to New Zealand and the South Pacific, ensuring a great program across all Australia, New Zealand and the pacific has to offer for all cruisers. Royal Princess returns in 2026-27 replacing Discovery Princess for cruises from Sydney and the wider region.
  
  The cruises are designed to immerse passengers in Australia's vast treasures, culture and scenery. Ashore, highlights include snorkelling among technicolor fish at the Great Barrier Reef, accessible from Airlie Beach, and exploring the outback with activities like camel rides along the shore in Broome or learning pearl farming secrets. Cultural experiences include visiting the Rainforestation National Park in Cairns, tasting tours in the Margaret River region for wine, beer, and chocolate, and exploring museums celebrating native and colonial history, such as in Hobart with 19th-century National Trust buildings and former penal colonies.
  
  Wildlife encounters are a major draw, with opportunities to see Tasmanian devils, wombats, and kookaburras at locations like Australia Zoo (from Brisbane), meet a Koala at Lone Pine (Brisbane), Healesville Sanctuary (Melbourne), Featherdale Wildlife Park (Sydney), and Perth Zoo. Architectural wonders include the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower (320m tall), and Melbourne's Federation Square, while UNESCO sites like Port Arthur penal colony and the Blue Mountains add historical depth.
  
  Onboard, Princess Cruises excels with a broad variety of food and entertainment options. Dining ranges from international cuisines in main dining rooms with daily rotating menus to gourmet meals in specialty restaurants like Sabatini's Italian Trattoria and Crown Grill, prepared by world-renowned chefs with unbeatable views. Entertainment includes Broadway-style shows in the Princess Theater, live music, and dance performances, with activities like cooking classes and fitness centers. The Sanctuary, an adults-only sun deck above the Lotus Spa, offers a tranquil retreat.
  
  Princess Cruises Tips:

• Princess Cruises offers various promotions, when booking early, early booking can secure better rates and cabin choices, Princess often sell out many cruises in Australia.

• We highly recommend the Princess Plus or Princess Premier packages, they are best value packages of the major cruise lines. These include drink packages, Wifi and other dining benefits. Current price is Aus$65 for Plus and $100 for Premier. Read my blog post on the differences between Princess Standard vs Princess Plus vs Premier.

• Excursions - if there is something you really want to see or do then it is likely others will as well, so book that dream excursion before you board.

• Speciality dining, as the Premier plus package includes unlimited speciality dining, there will be less availability than other cruise lines on-board so book before you embark.

• If you are sailing on Discovery Princess in 2025 or 2026, you will need to book early the 360 dining experience.

  
  Why cruise with Princess Cruises Australia?
  Princess Cruises caters for families but is definitely more traditional than the other cruise lines operating from Australia. The food is high quality and has excellent speciality dining boosted by the great value drinks / wifi package of Princess Plus and Princess Premier. The ships from Australia whilst older in the fleet are still high quality and the range of destination around Australia including the world cruises far exceed the other local cruise lines. Perfect for those seeking a more relaxed cruise to see the sights, with or without family.

  Why not to cruise with Princess Cruises Australia?
  The entertainment can be for an older crowd, think 60s to 80s music v 90s to 00's. This isn't exclusively and there is entertainment on board for all the family but overall will be less of a party zone compared to Royal Caribbean or Carnival. The ships don't have all the high tech flow riders or dodgem cars or huge slides.

Princess Cruises Australia

Discover stunning ports, exciting destinations, and unforgettable onboard experiences with Princess Cruises Australia.