Golden Princess is coming to Australia in 2015!!

Just received this Press Release from Princess:

Golden Princess to Debut in Melbourne as Princess Cruises Expands to Five Ships in Australia

 

Princess Cruises has announced it will base a record five ships in Australia next year, with the 2600-guest Golden Princess debuting down under as the biggest ship ever to homeport in Melbourne.

 

Golden Princess’ maiden summer deployment, which will increase Princess Cruises’ capacity in the Victorian capital by more than 20 per cent, is a highlight of the cruise line’s new Golden Anniversary 2015-16 program which reaffirms the cruise line’s leadership in the Australian market.

 

Released today, the program also features Princess Cruises’ first summer season of cruises from Fremantle, doubling the cruise line’s Western Australian offering to give the State its first year-round cruise program, as well as Princess Cruises’ biggest ever presence in Brisbane, with Queenslanders set to enjoy nine months of sailings in 2015-16.

 

As part of the record five-ship program, the 108,000-tonne Golden Princess will join the 116,000-tonne Diamond Princess in Australian waters for the 2015-16 summer, while the 77,000-tonne Sun Princess will remain in Australia next winter, joining sister ships Dawn and Sea Princess in providing cruises year round.

 

Launching the program, Princess Cruises Vice President Australia & New Zealand Stuart Allison said the record fleet would increase the cruise line’s local capacity by 35 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014. The move further consolidates Princess Cruises’ position as Australia’s biggest cruise line with Australians now spending more nights onboard Princess Cruises’ ships than on any other line.

With five of its 18-strong fleet cruising down under, Princess Cruises ranks Australia as its biggest market outside the United States.

 

For the first time, all ships will offer $AUD pricing onboard as they deliver a program of more than 80 cruises from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Fremantle and Auckland.

 

Mr Allison said Golden Princess would be making her maiden visit to Australia when she arrived in Sydney in October 2015 before moving to Melbourne to become the biggest cruise ship ever to be based outside Sydney. Her five-month season will include holidays to New Zealand, the South Pacific and Tasmania, with fares starting from $1849*pp for a 13-night New Zealand cruise.

 

“Golden Princess’ larger size means she has a host of wonderful features. More than half her staterooms have private balconies, while she also offers a beautiful spa, four swimming pools and 10 restaurants and cafes, so we think she’ll be very popular with Victorians,” Mr Allison said.

 

The program also cements Diamond Princess’ position as the cruise line’s flagship in Sydney, with the stunning superliner offering a record 11 roundtrip itineraries from the city over the 2015-16 summer. Fares will start from $1799*pp for a 13-night Fiji and South Pacific cruise.

 

Meanwhile Fremantle will enjoy its first ever summer of premium cruises, with Sun Princess sailing on a program of 11 cruises to and from Western Australia between October 2015 and March 2016, including the return of the cruise line’s popular 46-night itinerary to India and South Africa, priced from $8839*pp . This means Princess will now offer year round cruising from both the east and west coasts.

 

Brisbane will experience its biggest year of Princess Cruises’ offerings, with Sun Princess sailing from the city from August to November 2015 and Sea Princess offering cruises from November 2015 to April 2016. Both ships will sail on a range of cruises to Papua New Guinea, the South Pacific, Queensland and New Zealand with fares starting from $1119*pp for a seven-night Queensland cruise.

 

For more information and bookings see a licenced travel agent, call 13 24 88 or visit princess.com

*Prices are per person twin share. Subject to availability, conditions apply.

thats great news

Cant see nothing on princess site past sept 2015. Will be interested in the repo.

Excellent news.

I hope the Golden Princess comes out via Hawaii as Princess does not seem to do the West Coast (USA) to Sydney at the moment. Whichever way it comes the repositioning cruise sure will be tempting.

All the five ships in Australian dollars, how good is that?

Karryl

This is fantastic news! However, it's quite an aggressive move on the part of Princess. With 5 x Princess ships, 2 x Carnival ships, 2 x Celebrity ships, 3 (potentially 4) x RCI ships, do people honestly think there is going to be room for P&O after awhile...?

I wonder if its to counter rcl push into Australia. I think po cruises will do itineraries where the princess ships may not go.

Excellent news.

I hope the Golden Princess comes out via Hawaii as Princess does not seem to do the West Coast (USA) to Sydney at the moment. Whichever way it comes the repositioning cruise sure will be tempting.

 

All the five ships in Australian dollars, how good is that?

 

Karryl

Totally Agree Karryl.

Have already emailed our TA for a heads up in the Transpacific Cruise out to Aus..

Woohoo We were on the Golden for 7 nights Alaska and very excited to have her out here.:)

We are excited.

I wonder if its to counter rcl push into Australia. I think po cruises will do itineraries where the princess ships may not go.

You are probably right with RCL and Celebrity sending down Solstice and Voyager. Princess may be sending down another big ship to keep up with the competition.

I love the Sun class ships but my husband prefers the larger Diamond. We have been on the Diamond twice now and I want to go on a different ship for our next cruise. Without Princess sending another large ship down it was only a matter of time before we tried another cruise line in Australia our Captain Circle privileges will only go so far in keeping us on Princess Saying that I do love cruising on Princess so I am glad that they are sending a new ship down here.

One day we will try a different line who knows we may becomes hooked on that one too.

Karryl

Its an outstanding choice and a good ship for Australia. I just did 31 nights on that ship around South America and it was certainly a great and memorable trip for me. I cant wait to see that ship down here.

Despite its age I would rather have that ship down here than any of the Crown class variants of that design.

I could definitely cruise on that ship when it is based here and may have to do a few cruises out of Melbourne on it.

While it is excellent news for the local market lets not get too carried away.

Princess are not bringing the ships down here , just for the benifit of Australians and NZers.

They market to the world , and the world is responding by saying ..

Yes please ,we want to cruise Au and NZ.

Expect a large number of overseas passengers on board .With Diamond also homeporting in Asia , I will be expecting a big Asian content in the passenger mix. It will be interesting to watch the bookings as several cruises will sell out quickly as this will be a new destination for some markets.

I would also expect many South and Central Americans, a well as North Americans of course, and its not far for the "new money" in Russia to pop on down for a holiday.:)

Yes , there will a lot of ships down here.

Yes , they will be sailing FULL

....full of Local ..... and International Guests.

Great news for us and all of NZ and Australia, more tourism and more itineraries. Hopefully everyone can win from this.:D

While it is excellent news for the local market lets not get too carried away.

Princess are not bringing the ships down here , just for the benifit of Australians and NZers.

They market to the world , and the world is responding by saying ..

Yes please ,we want to cruise Au and NZ.

Expect a large number of overseas passengers on board .With Diamond also homeporting in Asia , I will be expecting a big Asian content in the passenger mix. It will be interesting to watch the bookings as several cruises will sell out quickly as this will be a new destination for some markets.

I would also expect many South and Central Americans, a well as North Americans of course, and its not far for the "new money" in Russia to pop on down for a holiday.:)

Yes , there will a lot of ships down here.

Yes , they will be sailing FULL

....full of Local ..... and International Guests.

Anything wrong with that?? :confused:

While it is excellent news for the local market lets not get too carried away.

Princess are not bringing the ships down here , just for the benifit of Australians and NZers.

They market to the world , and the world is responding by saying ..

Yes please ,we want to cruise Au and NZ.

Expect a large number of overseas passengers on board .With Diamond also homeporting in Asia , I will be expecting a big Asian content in the passenger mix. It will be interesting to watch the bookings as several cruises will sell out quickly as this will be a new destination for some markets.

I would also expect many South and Central Americans, a well as North Americans of course, and its not far for the "new money" in Russia to pop on down for a holiday.:)

Yes , there will a lot of ships down here.

Yes , they will be sailing FULL

....full of Local ..... and International Guests.

 

 

 

There is nothing wrong with the international passenger list in my opinion. It makes the ship a whole lot better having many nationalities on board. Personally I could not bare to be on a ship full of Australians. The last cruise I had on Golden Princess there were about 300 Australians, 300 British, well over 1000 Americans, Canadians had made a significant impact this time around as well as Spanish, German, Japanese and Chinese.

A little off topic but your comment about Russians above reminded me of something on that trip I did. There was also a Russian man on the Buenos Aires to Los Angeles sector of Golden Princess who had his voyage cut short in Valparaiso after a disgraceful drunken outburst on tour. He was on my tour bus and it was so bad at the end of the day they had to take him back to the ship on a tender all by himself in peak period.

Also the recent cruise had announcements in Spanish also due to the large amount of local South American natives on board who speak Spanish.

Great news for us and all of NZ and Australia, more tourism and more itineraries. Hopefully everyone can win from this.:D

the best news is all 5 ships will have AUD for onboard purchases....that a big bonus ...i know lots of people will only sail ships with AUD

col:)

Anything wrong with that?? :confused:

Nothing wrong with that at all......just stating it so people will know what to expect on board. It will be the same on Royal Caribbean ships as well.

Nothing wrong with that at all......just stating it so people will know what to expect on board. It will be the same on Royal Caribbean ships as well.

 

I enjoy the mix of nationalities as well.:D

Golden Princess to Debut in Melbourne as Princess Cruises

Expands to Five Ships in Australia

Golden Princess would be making her maiden visit to Australia when she arrived in Sydney in October 2015 before moving to Melbourne to become the biggest cruise ship ever to be based outside Sydney.

Well done Princess. Melbourne has at last been acknowledged as an important cruise market. Earlier this year, I embarked on a campaign to convince cruise companies to give Melbourne extra ships. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to do so.:)

Great news. We will be looking into the repo cruise or one out to the islands. Does anyone know when these itineraries will be available?

Great news. We will be looking into the repo cruise or one out to the islands. Does anyone know when these itineraries will be available?

I recall reading elsewhere that the 20 May was the scheduled date.

Great news. We will be looking into the repo cruise or one out to the islands. Does anyone know when these itineraries will be available?

Neither the website ot Princess (Australia) have any details at this point.:D

It will be nice to have a Skywalkers lounge on an Australian based ship. We have been waiting down under for a long time. Barry :)

It will be nice to have a Skywalkers lounge on an Australian based ship. We have been waiting down under for a long time. Barry :)

Have you been on the Diamond Barry? Skywalkers on there, but I agree it will be great to have some extra amenities.

Will be good to have a choice for longer transpacific cruises, either the Diamond to/from Asia or the Golden to from US.

I also noticed the Golden arrives in Sydney 28th Oct 2015 and departs from Sydney as well on the 14th April 2016 I think it was, might be a chance of 2 nighters between Syd/Mel.

Bring it on I reckon:p

Chez

xx

Thanks for that, 20th May that's far too long to wait!

I love skywalkers on the diamond I love sitting out to the side where you can see down the full length of the ship and to the bridge, especially in large seas. I think that is my favourite place in the world to read a good book. :)

The Skywalkers on the Golden Princess looks to be different, I wonder if it casts a shadow on the back pool? I love the aft of the ship so much.

I'm very excited about the Golden being based in Melbourne. She's hardly a new build but did have a refit a couple of years back and now has many of the latest Princess trademarks such as Crown Grill, Vines Bar and the International Café.

And if anyone from Princess is reading this thread then PLEASE! Don't do what you did with the Sun, Dawn and Sea and remove Anytime Dining from the Golden. I seem to remember that the reason given with the Sun class ships losing Anytime was to bring them more inline with Australian tastes, whatever that means!

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to trying the Golden in the near future.

cheers

Stu

Thanks for that, 20th May that's far too long to wait!

 

I love skywalkers on the diamond I love sitting out to the side where you can see down the full length of the ship and to the bridge, especially in large seas. I think that is my favourite place in the world to read a good book. :)

 

The Skywalkers on the Golden Princess looks to be different, I wonder if it casts a shadow on the back pool? I love the aft of the ship so much.

Golden Princess has the famous shopping trolley Skywalkers it does overshadow the rear pool but offers a unique perspective and really defined the Grand class when it was created. I think only Golden, Star and Caribbean still have the trolley handle since Grand had it's removed due to a structural defect.