Princess ships for 2024-2025

[arxcards]

10 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

I'm less and less interested in flying to join a cruise at another Australian port than my own home port so I'm going to start booking with whoever will sail from Melbourne. I plan to book Virgin for December this year for exactly that reason (and it looks like it could be good fun).

 

That 2025-2026 looks a bit light-on so far. No Cunard at all. No Virgin.

 

Virgin has only added bookings for 24/25 in the past month or so, lots of time yet for them to add bookings for 2025/26. Apart from a single embarkation for Azamara, the only other Melbourne departures at this early stage are Diamond Princess (early season) and Pacific Explorer.

[Ondine]

I noticed the update the other day for 2025/26.  Originally Grand Princess was listed for a complete 5-6 months and now they have pulled her and put Diamond in with the same length itineraries as in 2024/25.  This is 3 New Zealand and 4 SA cruises (to pick up SA passengers).  Unless someone else comes along then it is slim pickings for Melbourne with only Pacific Explorer staying until mid Feb and she doesn't get here till mid Nov.  She only does short cruises also which don't interest me.

 

It seems crazy that Princess is giving us a ship from late Sept until mid Dec and then nothing for the rest of the season which is our mid summer and better weather.  I assume that Diamond will then go to Brisbane for the rest of her Australian season.

 

Hope Virgin will come again for 2025/26 to at least give us some options.  I am waiting for her itineraries for 2024/25 to come out.  Resilient is staying a little longer then than this coming season.  Takes years to build up clients.  Hope the government drops the vaccine and mask requirements as as happened in other countries.  I am sure this is a drag on bookings.  I am vaccinated so not a problem there.

 

It strikes me that the companies are short of ships after selling the smaller ones off and bringing the larger ones out.  They may have more cabins overall but they have fewer ships to share around and we seem to be the ones to miss out.

[arxcards]

16 minutes ago, Ondine said:

It seems crazy that Princess is giving us a ship from late Sept until mid Dec and then nothing for the rest of the season which is our mid summer and better weather.  I assume that Diamond will then go to Brisbane for the rest of her Australian season.

When Diamond Princess heads to Brisbane, Pacific Explorer arrives. It isn't a co-incidence that they are not putting the two sister brand ships in direct competition with each other. If there are enough butts for bunks in Sydney for P&O, Explorer would spend the summer there and Princess would have a full Melbourne season. It would seem that our Aussie market has gone soft for the first time since the Brimble years. This is Aussie wide, and departures are being reduced in all of our ports in 2024/5 & 2025/6. That is masked a bit by Disney and Virgin arriving and larger ships being based here, but one would think that interest rates are taking away a lot of people's pocket money for the next couple of years.

 

As a aside, we booked 1/2 the world cruise in 2025. It looked expensive, and on today's terms it is. I get the feeling that in 2 years time, the price will look really attractive. Price increases are already starting to show through for 2025/6.

[LittleFish1976]

5 hours ago, arxcards said:

When Diamond Princess heads to Brisbane, Pacific Explorer arrives. It isn't a co-incidence that they are not putting the two sister brand ships in direct competition with each other. If there are enough butts for bunks in Sydney for P&O, Explorer would spend the summer there and Princess would have a full Melbourne season. It would seem that our Aussie market has gone soft for the first time since the Brimble years. This is Aussie wide, and departures are being reduced in all of our ports in 2024/5 & 2025/6. That is masked a bit by Disney and Virgin arriving and larger ships being based here, but one would think that interest rates are taking away a lot of people's pocket money for the next couple of years.

 

As a aside, we booked 1/2 the world cruise in 2025. It looked expensive, and on today's terms it is. I get the feeling that in 2 years time, the price will look really attractive. Price increases are already starting to show through for 2025/6.

 

In Australia it seems we're being slugged by huge prices for cruises, relative to say the US and UK. Heard on a youtube channel that I follow that Virgin in the UK are offerring huge OBC such as GBP1,000-2,000 per cabin. Here the offer is AUD100 per cabin and cruise prices seem really steep - as you say, at the rate they're rising today's prices may look attractive in 2 years. I think they might find that the pent-up demand from the no-travel years of covid lockdowns will burn out and they won't be able to overcharge here the way they currently are.

 

Would Diamond Princess and P&O Explorer attract the same customer?

[reeves35]

In Australia, prices tend to include gratuities as P&O/Princess know that is what Australians like.  US pricing rarely if ever includes gratuities so headline pricing will be very different from what you end up paying.

Edited June 5, 2023 by reeves35
Spelling

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, reeves35 said:

In Australia, prices tend to include gratuities as P&O/Princess know that is what Australians like.  US pricing rarely if ever includes gratuities so headline pricing will be very different from what you end up paying.

And US headline pricing usually doesn't include port fees and taxes either, they are added on at the end of the booking.

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

In Australia it seems we're being slugged by huge prices for cruises, relative to say the US and UK. Heard on a youtube channel that I follow that Virgin in the UK are offerring huge OBC such as GBP1,000-2,000 per cabin. Here the offer is AUD100 per cabin and cruise prices seem really steep - as you say, at the rate they're rising today's prices may look attractive in 2 years. I think they might find that the pent-up demand from the no-travel years of covid lockdowns will burn out and they won't be able to overcharge here the way they currently are.

 

Would Diamond Princess and P&O Explorer attract the same customer?

If they have committed to having the ship on that itinerary, then they need to do what they can to fill it. We should see some sweet deals next summer, including last minute deals for Resilient Lady. Three years of compounded inflation means they won't be overcharging, and they are taking away some of their capacity so they can operate at a profit. They are not inclined to put multiple brands in a port to sail them at a loss or 2/3 full. If they thought they could fill them both, they would sell full seasons for both.

 

Heck no, Diamond Princess for me any day. Give me the better dining room and a plus drinks package any day. But wait, we have also been on Explorer for 3 cruises. Both are doable for us knowing the difference, and there are a large number that are just going on a big white boat and don't know there are different brands let alone a different experience aboard. If you want Princess out of Melbourne, you go early in the season; late if you want P&O. If you want later in the season on Princess, you fly to Sydney (or Brisbane) as was the norm 10 years ago.

[MMDown Under]

14 hours ago, icat2000 said:

I wanted to cruise on Disney, but Pete said no. It was for kids and did I want to be around all those kids. . . 

Our family are big Walt Disney World, Orlando, fans.  My elder daughter is currently planning another trip to stay in the WDW Resort on her own.  Her dog is named Fig, short for Figment of Your Imagination from WDW.  I imagine the Disney magic would be similar on the ship.  

[OzKiwiJJ]

10 hours ago, arxcards said:

If they have committed to having the ship on that itinerary, then they need to do what they can to fill it. We should see some sweet deals next summer, including last minute deals for Resilient Lady. Three years of compounded inflation means they won't be overcharging, and they are taking away some of their capacity so they can operate at a profit. They are not inclined to put multiple brands in a port to sail them at a loss or 2/3 full. If they thought they could fill them both, they would sell full seasons for both.

 

Heck no, Diamond Princess for me any day. Give me the better dining room and a plus drinks package any day. But wait, we have also been on Explorer for 3 cruises. Both are doable for us knowing the difference, and there are a large number that are just going on a big white boat and don't know there are different brands let alone a different experience aboard. If you want Princess out of Melbourne, you go early in the season; late if you want P&O. If you want later in the season on Princess, you fly to Sydney (or Brisbane) as was the norm 10 years ago.

We're probably going to have to cruise out of Brisbane in the future. We do not like the bigger Princess Royal class ships especially Majestic. 

[arxcards]

42 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We're probably going to have to cruise out of Brisbane in the future. We do not like the bigger Princess Royal class ships especially Majestic. 

Majestic will be making way for Royal & Discovery, but I get the point. We weigh that up all the time. Majestic is different to us too, but not about size. It just feels "hollow". The bigger the ship, the less areas we frequent. We pick our dining spaces, our favourite couple of bars, a couple of hangout spaces and are selective about when to be in the theatre.

 

For the moment, OPT, Coral, Plus is about as good as it gets, but I would rather OPT, Majestic/Royal, Plus than any other option out of Sydney this summer. We are also looking at Diamond for 11 nights out of Brisbane in Feb 2025. Let us know how she shapes-up. Awesome ship for us, but last time was a loooong time ago.