PRINCESS Cruises has revealed
it will redeploy Sun Princess to
homeport in Fremantle in Oct
and early Nov next year.
Sun Princess will operate five
departures including a mix of
short breaks and longer cruises,
with program details and
itineraries to be released and go
on sale on Thu.
The announcement follows the
West Australian Government’s
commitment to carry out
dredging at Broome Port next
year, which will enable cruise
ships all-tide access.
Princess Cruises vp for Australia
and New Zealand, Stuart Allison,
said the works were expected
to allow the safe berthing of the
line’s larger Australian-based
ships in Broome in the future.
“Having recently announced
that two of our largest ships – the
3,000-guest Ruby Princess and
the 3,600-guest Majestic Princess
– will be based in Australia, our
ambition is to make Broome a
marquee port on their itineraries
from 2019,” he said.
Last year Princess’ parent
company, Carnival Australia,
warned it would no longer home
berth its P&O Cruises or Princess
ships in WA if problems at
regional ports weren’t fixed, and
in Apr, P&O pulled its ships from
WA for upcoming seasons.
The WA govt said in a statement
“it is understood Carnival
Australia is considering further
commitments to WA for 2019-20”.
A spokesperson for Princess
Cruises told CW “there are no
further commitments for WA
at this stage” and P&O Cruises
confirmed it had no plans to
homeport from WA.
Sun Princess’ redeployment
next year means there will be 31
calls to WA ports in 2018 across
Princess Cruises and Cunard.
