I'm looking at a cruise to Australia in November on the Sun Princess. According to the Princess cruise atlas, the Sun Princess "returns to" P&O cruise lines for Australia cruising during the winter to spring months. What does this mean? Will the passenger profile be different as P&O markets to British and European countries? This is a longer cruise, either 28 or 42 days, and I'm concerned that the Princess I've come to know will feel different under the P&O umbrella. Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone had an experience of sailing on a Princess ship under the P&O banner?
I can't speak from experience not having been on a Princess ship while cruising for P&O, but the fact that it, like Pacific Princess, goes back and forth between the two would lead me to believe you wouldn't see much difference in the ship itself.
But it would no doubt have a different "feel", being sold to a different market--especially a long cruise like you mention.
Personally, I think it would be a wonderfully different cruise experience. I'm sure there will be a high percentage of Australians and New Zealanders and they are just the warmest, friendliest people I've encountered in my travels.
AFAIK, the repositioning cruises to Oz in Nov, and back to US in March are under the Princess banner ( You can book these cruises via Princess website) Pacific cruises ex Sydney are being handled by P&O and cannot be booked via Princess website.
We are cruising on SP in December and are looking forward to the better class of ship. Even though our cruise is handled by P&O the ship, facilities and crew are still Sun Princess.
Is the transfer of the Sun Princess going to be a permanent thing? We love the Sun P & they usually heavily discount it on their fall & spring cruises from Ft Lauderdale.
RichC, according to Princess' Cruise Atlas Sun Princess goes to P&O Australia in October of this year and back to Princess in April of 2008 with a trans-pacific cruise--31 days Sydney to San Francisco. The atlas dosen't go beyond that.
Sorry for a slow response in this thread, as I had mislaid details for this forum.
Found my info from another source. Even though P&O and Princess are not selling these 08\09 cruises yet, Sun Princess has berths booked in Sydney Harbour for 12 departures between 26th Oct '08 and 7th March '09. Sydney Ports Page
Till recently, the Pacific Princess was shared between P&O OZ and Princess. Sun Princess is now doing this shared role for at least the next 2 OZ summers.
[quote]Originally posted by polygon:
...Pacific cruises ex Sydney are being handled by P&O and cannot be booked via Princess website....
QUOTE]
This has also recently changed. P&O Australia cruises can now be booked via Princess in North America. This includes Sun Princess while it is being used by P&0.
Apart from the repositioning cruises, you can now book Australian, New Zealand & SW Pacific (Vanuatu, New Caledonia) cruises as well.
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