In what will be its biggest ever deployment in Australia, Princess Cruises will base five ships there during 2015-16, with the 108,865gt Golden Princess joining the growing fleet for the first time. She will use Melbourne as her home port. Dawn Princess and Sea Princess, already providing year-round cruises, will be joined by Sun Princess (all three 77,000gt) when she remains in Australia for the winterof2016.
The fifth ship is the larger Diamond Princess, with a gross tonnage of 115,875. Golden Princess will start her season in Sydney in October 2015 before moving to Melbourne for five months, while Diamond Princess will be based in Sydney for the full summer season. Sun Princess will operate 11 cruises from Fremantle, while Brisbane will be her home between August and November 2015.
She will be replaced in Brisbane by Sea Princess, with both ships operating cruises taking in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, the South Pacific and Queensland. In all, the five ships will offer more than 80 different cruises, firmly positioning Australia as Princess Cruises’ second largest market after North America.