Princess Cruises has unveiled details of its 2025-26 Australia and New Zealand program, including the "Down Under" debut of the flagship Discovery Princess, as well as the longest-ever World Cruise to sail round-trip from Australia—a 114-night voyage onboard Crown Princess.
The 2025-26 Australia/New Zealand season will encompass three ships—Discovery Princess, Crown Princess and Grand Princess—visiting 78 destinations in 18 countries on 120 departures (across 75 unique itineraries). The 3,660-guest, 145,000-ton Discovery Princess will be the biggest Princess Cruises ship to ever sail in Australia waters and offer 22 itineraries during its four-month deployment, which will include 11 departures from Sydney.
Plus, the longest-ever World Cruise to sail from Australia offers round-trip departures from Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland onboard Crown Princess’ 2026 global odyssey, scheduled to visit 48 destinations in 31 countries across six continents.
Additional highlights of the 2025-26 Australia & New Zealand season include:
- Two- to 37-day departures from seven Australia and New Zealand homeports, including Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Melbourne, Perth (Fremantle), Adelaide and Hobart (Tasmania).
- Access to over 20 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Great Barrier Reef from either Yorkeys Knob or Port Douglas and the Ningaloo Coast in Western Australia from Exmouth, home to one of the world’s most important nesting grounds for green and loggerhead sea turtles.
- Late-night stays in eight ports, including Auckland, Melbourne and Darwin with opportunities for evening exploration where guests can roam Darwin’s Waterfront for local food and drinks or stay overnight in Hong Kong on a "Southeast Asia & Japan" sailing between Tokyo (Yokohama) and Sydney.
- Holiday sailings that include the 14-day "Fiji Holiday" on Crown Princess and a 14-day "New Zealand Holiday" on Discovery Princess, both round-trip from Sydney.
- A wide range of cruise durations and itineraries on Discovery Princess and Crown Princess sailing out of Sydney, joined by Grand Princess sailing out of Brisbane:
- One can explore New Zealand with five- to 15-day departures from Sydney, Brisbane or Auckland, including many round-trip options, or circumnavigate the continent on 27- to 29-day "Round Australia" voyages, which include scenic cruising of the Kimberley Coast region with voyages round-trip from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Fremantle (Perth) or Adelaide.
- Visit Tasmania—one of the southernmost islands in the world and home to a variety of unique wildlife, including the Tasmanian devil and the orange-bellied parrot—on five- to 12-day round-trip voyages from Sydney or Brisbane.
- Experience the South Pacific with eight- to 37-day voyages with calls to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, Tahiti and Fiji, round-trip from Sydney, Brisbane, and Hobart.
- One can also enjoy immersive experiences in Southeast Asia’s iconic destinations like Port Kelang (Kuala Lumpur), Bali (Benoa) and Singapore on voyages that sail between Australia and Asia, along with Pacific adventures of up to 32 days sailing between popular North American homeports (Los Angeles, Vancouver, Honolulu, Seattle) and Australia and New Zealand.
Complementing these sailings are two unique cruisetours, Australian Outback and Ultimate Australia, where guests can learn more about Aboriginal culture and visit two UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru National Park with its iconic Ayers Rock—as well as sites such as Darwin and Cairns.
World Cruise Highlights
This global voyage departs in May 2026, sailing to Southeast Asia, across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. From there, the ship will explore the Baltic Sea and then journey to Iceland before making way across the Atlantic to the St. Lawrence River on the way to an overnight in Quebec, Canada. Following a Panama Canal transit that includes the new Agua Clara and Cocoli locks, the cruise will cross the South Pacific back to Australia, sailing by Pitcairn Island, known as the refuge of the HMS Bounty mutineers.
In addition to stopping briefly by Easter Island for a scenic cruise of Rapa Nui, home to the iconic 800-year-old monolithic statues, Crown Princess’ itinerary will give access to 50 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including two newly designated sites: The Viking-Age Ring Fortresses in Treeleborg and Bogring, constructed in the 10th century (and accessible from Copenhagen, Denmark) and the Funeral and Memory sites of the First World War on the Western Front from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
Two inaugural stops for the Australian World Cruise include Alexandria (for Cairo and Giza), once home to the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and Patmos, Greece, home to the Monastery of St. John and the Cave of the Apocalypse. The cruise also includes overnight visits to New York, Lima and Quebec and late-night stays in a range of exotic destinations, including Reykjavik in Iceland and Papeete in Tahiti.
Visit www.princess.com.
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