A Brisbane bound Crown to replace the Grand pull

[arxcards]

Crown Princess itineraries have been withdrawn from sale from 21st December 2025 till 21st March 2026. All affected passengers should have been notified of the cancellation of those cruises. As already posted on this board last week, Grand Princess has also been withdrawn from Brisbane for the scheduled 2025/26 season.

 

Replacement itineraries have not yet been announced by Princess, but port bookings have been updating in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, Port Douglas, Newcastle & Eden. An extra date has been added to Sydney to coincide with a port visit. These bookings all point to Crown Princess being based in Brisbane for a 3 month season, and Sydney having only Discovery Princess for much of the summer.

 

The dates are per Brisbane terminal bookings, and those in bold match the previous Grand Princess itineraries. This confirms why only some of the passengers on the Grand's cruises have been notified, as others will get an email advising them of their swap-over to the Crown.  I have guessed the remaining itineraries based on the number of days and/or port bookings:

21st December 2025 Sydney (3 nights - "Seacation") to Brisbane

24th December 2025 Brisbane (11 nights - Islands) probable, Fiji maybe, as it is a Chrissy/NY cruise, and some of the Sydney cancellations might get to switch to a modified itinerary and salvage their Christmas holiday.

4th January 2026 Brisbane (8 nights - 3 x port Islands) direct replacement for cancelled Grand Princess cruise, passengers swapped?

12th January Brisbane (10 nights - Tassie) direct replacement

22nd January Brisbane (11 nights - Pacific) direct replacement

2nd February Brisbane (14 nights - NZ) direct replacement 

16th February Brisbane (14 nights - NZ) direct replacement

2nd March Brisbane (8 nights - Qld Coastal) direct replacement
10th March Brisbane (8 nights - Qld Coastal) based on port bookings in Cairns, Port Douglas

18th March Brisbane (3 nights - "Seacation") Newcastle, Sydney

21st March Sydney - resume original schedule

 

The updated itineraries will be available on the 14th of whenever, unless Princess still have another trick up their sleeve. Hopefully, some of these cruises will make-up for those who lost their cruises when the Grand was pulled from Brisbane.

 

[MicCanberra]

Is a Crown better than a grand pull.?

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

Is a Crown better than a grand pull.?

It depends on your dentist.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

It depends on your dentist.

A Crown would cost more than a grand.

[arxcards]

Just now, MicCanberra said:

A Crown would cost more than a grand.

Indeed.

And on cost, I have a hunch that the identical itineraries on Crown will also cost a grand more than the cancelled ones.

[icat2000]

Thank goodness it doesn't effect my cruise booked out of Sydney on the Crown. Already had the Grand Princess cruise cancelled on me.

[MicCanberra]

Yeah, having cruises cancelled is not a nice feeling at all.

[CountessCookie]

Isn't that such a truth. 

[Muffinz]

On 5/12/2024 at 3:29 PM, icat2000 said:

Thank goodness it doesn't effect my cruise booked out of Sydney on the Crown. 

Same - we're on the Crown Dec 14th from Sydney... have already booked non refundable airfares from Auckland return, so we will be a tad upset if they cancel that cruise

[arxcards]

53 minutes ago, Muffinz said:

Same - we're on the Crown Dec 14th from Sydney... have already booked non refundable airfares from Auckland return, so we will be a tad upset if they cancel that cruise

The ones they have cancelled are 19+ months away, so at least nobody is out of pocket for airfares. If something was to happen similarly for cruises in 2024, Princess will usually refund out of pocket expenses such as non-refundable hotel, airfares, transfers.