Circumnavigation Australia 2024

[anjo]

Morning everyone, just wondering if anyone knows which Princess ship will be doing the Circumnavigation in October/November? Thought it was the Coral, but looks like it's off to Asia.Also, when will it go on sale and be available for bookings. Thanks, Anjo.

[paul929207]

Have you checked Princess.com?

[Aus Traveller]

3 hours ago, anjo said:

Morning everyone, just wondering if anyone knows which Princess ship will be doing the Circumnavigation in October/November? Thought it was the Coral, but looks like it's off to Asia.Also, when will it go on sale and be available for bookings. Thanks, Anjo.

If you mean October/Nov 2022, it will be the Coral Princess. This cruise is on sale now and it always sells well.

[anjo]

Sorry. 2024.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I'm fairly certain it will be Coral. She has replaced Sea Princess as the Australian long cruise ship during our off seasons. Long cruises being the World Cruise, the two Hawaii/Tahiti cruises and the two Round Australia cruises each year. Then she homeports in Brisbane for our peak season.

Edited May 2, 2022 by OzKiwiJJ

[Fletch1]

10 hours ago, anjo said:

Sorry. 2024.

 

It is the Coral Princess........https://www.ozcruising.com.au/cruise/pc24-6407

[sunsetme]

wow nothing left but guarantee ocean view

 

[1965]

I SO want to do this. But so far can't sell my DH on the long flight from Texas & the long cruise. Maybe some day. Have a great cruise. ♡

[anjo]

Thanks everyone. I think I may be confusing everyone, including myself🤣I am trying to find out details for the October 2024 Circumnavigation of Australia  Cruise  on Princess. When will it be released for bookings, what ship, etc. Thanks Anjo.

[capriccio]

6 hours ago, anjo said:

Thanks everyone. I think I may be confusing everyone, including myself🤣I am trying to find out details for the October 2024 Circumnavigation of Australia  Cruise  on Princess. When will it be released for bookings, what ship, etc. Thanks Anjo.

All I can tell you is that the April 2023 Circumnavigation of Australia cruise departing Sydney on the Coral Princess opened in mid-March 2021.  We (group of 4 siblings and spouses) requested 4 cabins in a specific section (covered mini-suites on Dolphin Deck aft).  My TA was on the phone as soon as Princess opened for elites and was able to reserve 3 cabins (not contiguous as we had hoped for) on Dolphin Deck and 1 guarantee on Caribe Deck.  It was amazing how quickly they sold out.  It has stayed that way for the past year!

[OzKiwiJJ]

11 hours ago, anjo said:

Thanks everyone. I think I may be confusing everyone, including myself🤣I am trying to find out details for the October 2024 Circumnavigation of Australia  Cruise  on Princess. When will it be released for bookings, what ship, etc. Thanks Anjo.

It will be Coral Princess.

 

They might not release that itinerary until later this year - October or November.

[phoenixxx]

On 5/3/2022 at 8:35 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

It will be Coral Princess.

 

They might not release that itinerary until later this year - October or November.

Does anyone know if the October 2024 circumnavigation has been released yet, I can't find it on Princess website, the dates to filter for Oz cruises only go up to Aug 2024?

Thanks

[sunsetme]

some of the reviews indicate the Coral Princess is old and tired. I would hate to spend 20 plus days on a ship with issues.

[Thrak]

7 minutes ago, sunsetme said:

some of the reviews indicate the Coral Princess is old and tired. I would hate to spend 20 plus days on a ship with issues.

 

Haven't sailed Coral Princess since 2018 but did do two full canal transits on her - 2015 and 2018. Love the ship. We have a cabin we love even though it's an OV cabin. Coral also has our favorite show that is tailored for the revolving stage in the Universe Lounge. We would have no issue with sailing on Coral. In fact, we have a B2B2B in Australia and New Zealand scheduled for this fall on Grand Princess and were disappointed that it isn't on Coral Princess.

[phoenixx]

Oops I just realised I earlier logged in and posted under an old account with a defunct email so just posting here again to place mark.

[jwattle]

Just for additional information, Majestic Princess does some lovely Oz itineraries!😍

[capriccio]

7 hours ago, sunsetme said:

some of the reviews indicate the Coral Princess is old and tired. I would hate to spend 20 plus days on a ship with issues.

We.will be on the Coral for the circumnavigation in April.  I have been following all postings about the Coral on the Australian and New Zealand cruisers board since she resumed sailing and haven’t seen any comments to give me any concerns.  She is one of our favorite ships (along with the Sapphire Princess which we will be on for 32 days in April 2024).  This will be our 3rd cruise on her but the others were Alaska in 2007 and 2012 so it has been awhile. 
 

@Thraki absolutely agree about On the Bayou!  We can’t wait to see it again.

[AE_Collector]

We love Coral Princess as well. Island Princess was the same until they added something like 125 cabins on the back where the theatre used to be. We haven’t personally been in island since then but I can’t imagine it being as nice as Coral Princess is. These were the two “PanaMax” ships built for the Panama Canal prior to the new locks opening which are wide enough for the new larger ships.

 

We have looked at doing this Around Australia cruise too but we are never organized enough to book years in advance. With such a popular cruise it is hard to figure why they don’t squeeze in another few sailings unless government limitations are the reason.

[Thrak]

53 minutes ago, AE_Collector said:

We love Coral Princess as well. Island Princess was the same until they added something like 125 cabins on the back where the theatre used to be. We haven’t personally been in island since then but I can’t imagine it being as nice as Coral Princess is. These were the two “PanaMax” ships built for the Panama Canal prior to the new locks opening which are wide enough for the new larger ships.

 

We sailed Island Princess as the next cruise after one of our Coral Princess sailings. That really put things in perspective. I definitely didn't care for Island. I kept "running out of ship" when I headed aft inside the ship and having the Promenade cut off as we headed aft outside was a major bummer. Sailing Island right after sailing Coral just emphasized the downside of the changes. (I did see On The Bayou on Island Princess but they did it in the main theater and it just wasn't at all the same.)

[Thrak]

13 hours ago, capriccio said:

@Thraki absolutely agree about On the Bayou!  We can’t wait to see it again.

 

We go early and get a seat near the front. Then when the show starts I can turn around and look at all of the amazed expressions on the faces of everybody else since, as you know, it has an unusual intro. The surprised expressions on people's faces is great.

[AE_Collector]

On 1/21/2023 at 10:54 AM, Thrak said:

 

We sailed Island Princess as the next cruise after one of our Coral Princess sailings. That really put things in perspective. I definitely didn't care for Island. I kept "running out of ship" when I headed aft inside the ship and having the Promenade cut off as we headed aft outside was a major bummer. Sailing Island right after sailing Coral just emphasized the downside of the changes. (I did see On The Bayou on Island Princess but they did it in the main theater and it just wasn't at all the same.)

We used to do the Island Princess from Vancouver to Whittier then stay on and do it all again in reverse back to Vancouver but that was before the major renovation. Ran into a couple having a major reno to their house in Vancouver who did that all summer long living on the cruise ship and every se line week they were home for a few hours to check in the progress!
 

The last time we were in Coral was a last minute Panama Canal cruise that we could have booked on either Coral or Island for the same price and there was 1 or 2 days difference in departure dates. There was no doubt which one we were booking. We book lots of deck 8 obstructed OV cabins and had one just around the corner from the aft stairwell so I could run out the cabin door, down 1 flight of stairs and into the back of the aft theatre to catch the comedian or whomever was on. Being a two level theatre an entrance to the theatre off 8 could be possible but I don’t think it is…too long ago now.

Edited January 23, 2023 by AE_Collector

[Thrak]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:04 PM, AE_Collector said:

Being a two level theatre an entrance to the theatre off 8 could be possible but I don’t think it is…too long ago now.

 

The Universe Lounge is indeed 2 levels but it's on Decks 6 and 7. The viewing from Deck 7 seating isn't the best in my opinion. The railing gets in the way. I like maybe the third row downstairs for watching On The Bayou. Deck 6 is where the entrance and exit happen for the show itself.

[AE_Collector]

Thanks for the reminder, I remember that now. I guess I ran down two flights of stairs to the lounge!

[phoenixx]

Does anyone know if it is better to do the Australia circumnavigation clockwise or anti-clockwise and the reasons? 

I read something about this years ago and thought I'd saved it but didn't.

It seems some cruises do clockwise and some anti.

Google brings up nothing related to this on a cruise ship.

TIA for any help

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

10 hours ago, phoenixx said:

Does anyone know if it is better to do the Australia circumnavigation clockwise or anti-clockwise and the reasons? 

I read something about this years ago and thought I'd saved it but didn't.

It seems some cruises do clockwise and some anti.

Google brings up nothing related to this on a cruise ship.

TIA for any help

 

Anticlockwise for October itineraries. The weather systems mostly come from the west across the Great Australian Bight. It's much more comfortable having following seas than head-on seas. We did this cruise last October and experienced some "interesting" seas around the south-west corner of Australia but Coral handled them very well. It's usually very calm across the top of Australia at that time of year.

 

However sometimes the March/April ones go clockwise which is OK at that time of year. Up north it's still the tail end of our cyclone season.