Princess Cruises will base three ships in Australia for the 202627 season. Grand Princess will initially sail from Sydney, before repositioning to Brisbane. Royal Princess will sail from Sydney, and Crown Princess, the current long-term Australian ship, will complete a 28-night roundAustralia cruise in October 2026 and then head for a new deployment in the Caribbean.
In the meantime, however, Regal Princess has had problems. She arrived in Galveston on 27 October 2024 after a long crossing from Europe, during which she appears to have suffered an engine room fire, leading to power outages. Following generator repairs, a second generator is said to have failed. The various problems caused the cancellation of three cruises, and Regal Princess eventually sailed from Galveston on 17 November 2024.
Regal Princess recently suffered from mechanical problems.
WILLIAM MAYES