Grand Princess pulled from Australia 2025/26

[azbirdmom]

So what's happening with the Crown?  That ship is apparently being pulled from Australia cruises after December 2025, folks got notices yesterday about the "redeployment".  Right now the Discovery is the only ship that is cruising Australia in January and February 2026 until the Crown reappears on the schedule in late March 2026.  Will be interesting to see what Princess ultimately announces.

Edited May 8 by azbirdmom

[Coral]

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

So what's happening with the Crown?  That ship is apparently being pulled from Australia cruises after December 2025, folks got notices yesterday about the "redeployment".  Right now the Discovery is the only ship that is cruising Australia in January and February 2026 until the Crown reappears on the schedule in late March 2026.  Will be interesting to see what Princess ultimately announces.

It seemed excessive with 3 ships. Especially a lot of short cruises.

[Coral]

Here is a flyer:

 

SanJuanCaribbeansailings_2024_0508.pdf

[Dunchues]

11 hours ago, pauon said:

Us too, 30 day LA to Sydney, canceled !  

Ditto, and very miserable about it too. I hope the alternative is very similar, but not really expecting it to be.

[cr8tiv1]

2 minutes ago, Dunchues said:

Ditto, and very miserable about it too. I hope the alternative is very similar, but not really expecting it to be.

 

A 30 day LA to Sydney cruise is still possible.  They will probably send a Princess ship to Australia to replace the Grand.  

[Astro Flyer]

57 minutes ago, Coral said:

It seemed excessive with 3 ships. Especially a lot of short cruises.

I’ve seen a lot of great deals particularly for shorter cruises.
 

However most passengers would likely be from Australia because few around the world would be willing to pay the ever increasing airfares for a long international flight just for a short cruise. We’re flying one-way to cruise around Australia for 28 days and then 22 days back to LA. 🙂

 

[Jim_P]

I think the New Zealand situation has really screwed us in Australia. I know thats the reason Cunard pulled out of the region completely (I was told that by the Captain of the Queen Elizabeth). Its no surprise to me to see other Carnival owned lines also reducing their presence here. Theres also been issues with some of the pacific islands closing themselves to cruise ships. I doubt its anything to do with demand, the Australian cruise industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and all the ships are sailing at capacity. I think its more to do with the lack of cruise itineraries in this part of the world. 

[Cruise Junky]

3 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

So what's happening with the Crown?  That ship is apparently being pulled from Australia cruises after December 2025, folks got notices yesterday about the "redeployment".  Right now the Discovery is the only ship that is cruising Australia in January and February 2026 until the Crown reappears on the schedule in late March 2026.  Will be interesting to see what Princess ultimately announces.

I don’t believe crown is being pulled I just think they’re switching dates, itineraries. Crown. Is doing the WC out of Sydney.  

[Cruise Junky]

5 minutes ago, Jim_P said:

I think the New Zealand situation has really screwed us in Australia. I know thats the reason Cunard pulled out of the region completely (I was told that by the Captain of the Queen Elizabeth). Its no surprise to me to see other Carnival owned lines also reducing their presence here. Theres also been issues with some of the pacific islands closing themselves to cruise ships. I doubt its anything to do with demand, the Australian cruise industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and all the ships are sailing at capacity. I think its more to do with the lack of cruise itineraries in this part of the world. 

What’s happening with NZ?

[Jim_P]

Just now, Cruise Junky said:

What’s happening with NZ?

Very strict bio-security laws that have seen a lot of ships not turned away (including Princess and Cunard) for not passing the hull inspection on entry. Ships need to have their hulls cleaned before entering NZ and there's just not the infrastructure there to make that viable. They've tried using diving teams in the open ocean before entering NZ, but thats dependent on ocean conditions and availability. 

[warthog2608]

I'm looking forward to this redeployment. (sorry Aussies). Sailed on the Grand several times pre-covid, thought she had the best crew in the fleet. Due to scheduling conflicts we've gone on 2 Western Caribbean cruises, but have yet to visit east and south. Looks like dong a B2B on the Grand will cover a lot of new ports for us.

[Coral]

10 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

I’ve seen a lot of great deals particularly for shorter cruises.
 

However most passengers would likely be from Australia because few around the world would be willing to pay the ever increasing airfares for a long international flight just for a short cruise. We’re flying one-way to cruise around Australia for 28 days and then 22 days back to LA. 🙂

 

Wow - what a cruise. A friend just did the Grand Princess back from that area (stopping in Tahiti and Hawaii) and was sort of bored with all the sea days (and he likes sea days). And he likes sea days.

 

I have looked previously at cruises there and found a ton of 5 night cruises. It turned me off.

[pauon]

Can't wait to see what happens; we had a GREAT cabin.  Fingers crossed they figure this out.

[Cruise Junky]

11 minutes ago, pauon said:

Can't wait to see what happens; we had a GREAT cabin.  Fingers crossed they figure this out.

Check out HAL. They have some fantastic Transpacifics.  

[pauon]

34 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

Check out HAL. They have some fantastic Transpacifics.  

Thanks.  They do and we did look.  We are in an S1 on the Grand and similar on HAL was over 10 grand more than Princess.  The room on HAL was better... but that is a lot more.

[Coral]

19 hours ago, warthog2608 said:

I'm looking forward to this redeployment. (sorry Aussies). Sailed on the Grand several times pre-covid, thought she had the best crew in the fleet. Due to scheduling conflicts we've gone on 2 Western Caribbean cruises, but have yet to visit east and south. Looks like dong a B2B on the Grand will cover a lot of new ports for us.

I like the Grand and may do one of these. I haven't found the schedules yet - will try to dig for them.

[Gitmo]

Just got our notice that it was can cancelled.  Can't wait to see if they really do "find" another ship.  Sad, we could have booked another ship for that time, now all the best rooms are gone.

 

 

 

[arxcards]

On 5/9/2024 at 7:54 AM, azbirdmom said:

So what's happening with the Crown?  That ship is apparently being pulled from Australia cruises after December 2025, folks got notices yesterday about the "redeployment".  Right now the Discovery is the only ship that is cruising Australia in January and February 2026 until the Crown reappears on the schedule in late March 2026.  Will be interesting to see what Princess ultimately announces.

The Grand is being pulled from Brisbane in 25/26. I have noticed this morning that Crown has been taken out of Sydney from 21st December till 21st March and relocating to Brisbane to somewhat replace the Grand season that was cancelled.

 

Unless the game of musical chairs has ended, it does seem strange to only having one ship in Sydney during the summer. We had four ships in Australia this past summer (Royal, Majestic, Coral, Grand), three next season (Diamond, Crown, Royal), and now only Crown & Discovery in 25/26. The word I keep hearing is yield, and there are more dollars to be made in other markets.

[arxcards]

On 5/9/2024 at 9:42 AM, Coral said:

It seemed excessive with 3 ships. Especially a lot of short cruises.

It was 4 ships this past season, and they sailed predominately full.

[Coral]

9 hours ago, arxcards said:

It was 4 ships this past season, and they sailed predominately full.

The prices were incredibly inexpensive at the sailings I looked at. I have no doubt they were full though.

[Coral]

Grand Princess itinerariesCaribbeanRef_FlyerUpdates25-26May2024_Release_BK.pdf

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

The prices were incredibly inexpensive at the sailings I looked at. I have no doubt they were full though.

Nothing cheap for us down here. You get all the good deals, but they are reliant on international passengers getting on expensive long flights to make up their numbers, and that makes us a less attractive place to cruise from.

[arxcards]

On 5/9/2024 at 7:54 AM, azbirdmom said:

So what's happening with the Crown?  That ship is apparently being pulled from Australia cruises after December 2025, folks got notices yesterday about the "redeployment".  Right now the Discovery is the only ship that is cruising Australia in January and February 2026 until the Crown reappears on the schedule in late March 2026.  Will be interesting to see what Princess ultimately announces.

A handful of the cancelled Grand cruises are being replaced like for like with the Crown (those in bold). Brisbane gets a shorter season, and the relocations are only 3 nights instead of a month across the Pacific. It is all confused by the lack of any announcement, but pieced together from new port bookings.

21st December 2025 Sydney (3 nights) to Brisbane

24th December Brisbane (11 nights - Pacific Islands, probable)

4th January 2026 Brisbane (8 nights - Pacific Islands)

12th January Brisbane (10 nights - Tasmania)

22nd January Brisbane (11 nights - Pacific Islands) 

2nd February Brisbane (14 nights - New Zealand)

16th February Brisbane (14 nights - New Zealand)

2nd March Brisbane (8 nights - North Queensland Coastal)
10th March Brisbane (8 nights - North Queensland Coastal)

18th March Brisbane (3 nights - Newcastle, Sydney

21st March Sydney - resume original schedule

[spencercoop]

7 hours ago, Coral said:

Grand Princess itinerariesCaribbeanRef_FlyerUpdates25-26May2024_Release_BK.pdf

 

Do you have the reference flyers for Panama Canal and West Coast?

[Coral]

39 minutes ago, spencercoop said:

 

Do you have the reference flyers for Panama Canal and West Coast?

One of these maybe old.

 

PC_CalCoast_2025-2026_At_a_Glance_Flyer_Nov2023.pdf2024-2025_WestCoast_ReferenceFlyer_NE_2023_0713.pdfPC_Panama Canal 2025-26_Reference Flyer_2023_1129.pdf