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Crown Princess itineraries have been withdrawn from sale from 21st December 2025 till 21st March 2026.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 As already posted on this board last week, Grand Princess has also been withdrawn from Brisbane for the scheduled 2025/26 season.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.

[arxcards]

I noticed these itineraries were available online yesterday, but I had forgotten to check for a couple of days prior. Now that we have locked in our rather unique cabin, I thought I would share.

 

How close were the guesstimate itineraries above? 10/10

 

The 21st & 24th December itineraries are also available as a combined 14 night Sydney to Brisbane cruise, which would offer similar ports to the original Syd-Syd cruise. Alas, there is heaps of cabins available, so there must have been plenty of existing passengers jumping over to Discovery Princess or cancelling. Syd-Brisbane-Noumea-Lautoka-Suva-Dravuni-Brisbane.

 

All those in bold have swapped over from Grand to Crown with the same itinerary. These are still unavailable for booking yet until they have sorted the current swap-over passengers. The 2 x NZ itineraries are yet to be uploaded.

 

10th March - Airlie-Townsville-Yorkeys-Port Douglas-Willis

18th March - Newy-Syd

 

I am curious that Diamond Princess docks in Cairns in 2024/25, yet Crown Princess is at Yorkeys in 2025/26. The QLD itineraries also show Townsville as being berthed, and that surprises me.

[SinbadThePorter]

52 minutes ago, arxcards said:

The QLD itineraries also show Townsville as being berthed, and that surprises me.

 

Encounter is also visiting Townsville next January, on its way to Conflict and then back to Brisbane. An interesting choice of ports I thought.

[arxcards]

5 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Encounter is also visiting Townsville next January, on its way to Conflict and then back to Brisbane. An interesting choice of ports I thought.

I had thought the terminal would only handle the smaller ships. I recall it was designed in the days of Pacific Sun/Star, yet Brisbane had already scored Pacific Dawn by the time it was completed, and she was too large to dock there. 

 

But good news - last month they announced an upgrade to the Quayside terminal. Really, this is awesome for an itinerary that is loaded with tender stops.

https://www.townsville-port.com.au/quayside-terminal-transformation/

[SinbadThePorter]

9 minutes ago, arxcards said:

I had thought the terminal would only handle the smaller ships.

 

I just looked up the schedule and Queen Elizabeth seems to be in Townsville the week before Encounter. It looks like some lines are testing the water, so to speak.

[resordanis]

4 hours ago, arxcards said:

I noticed these itineraries were available online yesterday, but I had forgotten to check for a couple of days prior. Now that we have locked in our rather unique cabin, I thought I would share.

 

How close were the guesstimate itineraries above? 10/10

 

The 21st & 24th December itineraries are also available as a combined 14 night Sydney to Brisbane cruise, which would offer similar ports to the original Syd-Syd cruise. Alas, there is heaps of cabins available, so there must have been plenty of existing passengers jumping over to Discovery Princess or cancelling. Syd-Brisbane-Noumea-Lautoka-Suva-Dravuni-Brisbane.

 

All those in bold have swapped over from Grand to Crown with the same itinerary. These are still unavailable for booking yet until they have sorted the current swap-over passengers. The 2 x NZ itineraries are yet to be uploaded.

 

10th March - Airlie-Townsville-Yorkeys-Port Douglas-Willis

18th March - Newy-Syd

 

I am curious that Diamond Princess docks in Cairns in 2024/25, yet Crown Princess is at Yorkeys in 2025/26. The QLD itineraries also show Townsville as being berthed, and that surprises me.

We are on Crown February 2025 and it is my understanding we will be docked in Cairns. If not, we cancel!