Crown Princess sailed into Fremantle on 18 October, officially kicking off Western Australia's 2026/27 cruise summer. Her arrival delivered an instant hit of around 3,080 passengers and 1,200 crew to the port, part of a 28-day round-Australia voyage that also calls at Albany, Busselton, Broome, the Kimberley Coast, Darwin, Adelaide and Brisbane before wrapping up in Sydney.
But the bigger news is what happens a year from now. From October 2027, the 2,680-guest Sapphire Princess will homeport in Fremantle for the 2027/28 season — the ship's inaugural residency in WA. She'll make 41 port calls across the state, and Princess Cruises pegs the economic impact at $142 million for Western Australia.
The headline feature is overnight stays in Broome. Instead of a rushed daytime call, passengers will get a full evening to enjoy Cable Beach at sunset, dig into Broome's pearling history, try local restaurants and even book locally run excursions deeper into the Kimberley. For regional operators, those extended visits could mean a meaningful spread of cruise money beyond the port gates.
Princess has history here: the line has sailed from Fremantle since 2008 and claims the honour of being the first cruise line to seriously base ships in Western Australia. Sapphire will sit alongside Royal Princess and Grand Princess in the wider Australia and New Zealand deployment.
In the meantime, Crown Princess is already proving the local value of a port call. While docked in Fremantle, she loaded 150 tonnes of Australian produce — fruit, veg, meat, dairy, seafood, wine and beer — a tidy win for local suppliers. Princess reckons its 2026/27 Australian season will generate roughly $350 million in economic activity nationally, against a backdrop where cruising contributed $7.32 billion to the Australian economy last financial year, supporting more than 22,700 jobs.
More is coming down the pipeline: Royal Princess returns to Sydney for a third local season, Grand Princess goes year-round in Australia, and Coral Princess brings around 2,000 international passengers on her 2027 World Cruise. The 2028/29 Australian summer program lands on 28 October 2026, with bookings opening 11 November.
Why it matters for travellers: a Fremantle homeport means West Australians can step onto a major ship without flying to Sydney first, and everyone else gets a fresh fly-cruise route into Broome and the Kimberley — one of Australia's most spectacular and hard-to-reach corners. With a year's notice and overnight Broome calls confirmed, there's plenty of time to plan ahead.
