Princess Repositioning Cruises 2026-2027: Panama Canal, Pacific and Atlantic Routes

Princess repositioning cruises are the biggest program of any line we track. Of the 517 one-way sailings in our finder, 77 are Princess voyages departing between October 2026 and December 2027, each checked on princess.com in late September 2026. The core of the program is the Panama Canal, with 21 coast-to-coast voyages of 15 to 18 nights, but Princess also runs more long Pacific voyages than almost anyone, plus a steady set of Atlantic crossings in spring and fall.

That spread is the main reason to look at Princess first. Whatever direction you want to travel and whatever month you can get away, there’s usually a Princess ship going that way. The full, current list sits below this guide, and you can filter it in the repositioning cruise finder.

Princess repositioning sailings by route

This is how the 77 sailings in our finder break down. Counts cover departures from October 2026 through December 2027.

The median Princess repositioning voyage in our data is 16 nights. Los Angeles is the busiest port, with 22 departures, followed by Fort Lauderdale with 16. Sixteen different Princess ships appear in the list, so this is not one or two ships shuttling around: most of the fleet moves at some point in the year.

Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale: the Panama Canal season

The Panama Canal is where Princess concentrates. The canal voyages run from fall through spring, with departures in our data in every month from October to April and again from September 2027. Island Princess carries 12 of the 21, sailing back and forth between Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles or San Diego roughly every two weeks from December 2026 through April 2027. Coral Princess, Star Princess and Crown Princess cover most of the rest.

The typical routing is 16 nights: Fort Lauderdale, Aruba, a full transit of the canal, Puntarenas in Costa Rica, Puerto Chiapas in Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, then Los Angeles. A full transit through all three sets of locks takes 8 to 10 hours, according to Princess’s Panama Canal page. Our Panama Canal repositioning guide covers which side of the ship to book and how the transit day works.

Strictly speaking, Island Princess’s back-and-forth runs are a seasonal canal program rather than a one-time move, but they sell and feel the same: one-way, two weeks, mostly at sea on the Pacific side. If you want the canal plus a genuine season change, look at the spring sailings that end in Los Angeles and connect to a Pacific coast run north to Vancouver.

The Pacific coast runs before and after Alaska

Fourteen Princess sailings in our finder are short coastal moves between Los Angeles and Vancouver, 4 to 7 nights with stops such as San Francisco, Victoria and Astoria. They cluster in April and May, when ships head north for the Alaska season, and in September and October, when they come back. Crown, Royal, Star, Discovery, Island and Emerald Princess all appear.

These are the cheapest way to try a Princess repositioning cruise, and they pair well with the Panama Canal season. Our guide to repositioning cruises from Los Angeles lists the other lines that use the port.

The long Pacific voyages: Sydney, Tokyo and Hawaii

Princess keeps ships in Australia and Japan, and moving them produces some of the longest repositioning voyages sold by any mainstream line. The nine transpacific sailings in our finder include:

• Los Angeles to Sydney: 27 to 36 nights via Hawaii and the South Pacific (Hilo, Honolulu, Papeete, Fiji, New Caledonia), on Grand, Coral and Royal Princess.
• Sydney to Los Angeles: 26 to 30 nights in March, June and November, often via New Zealand, Fiji and Tahiti.
• Los Angeles to Tokyo: 19 nights via four Hawaiian ports on Sapphire Princess in November 2026.
• Tokyo to Vancouver: 19 nights on Coral Princess in April 2027, via Alaska ports.
• The outlier: a 50-night Grand Princess voyage from Los Angeles to Sydney in July 2027 that goes by way of San Francisco, Tokyo, Taiwan and Brisbane.

These voyages include long runs of sea days, especially between California and Hawaii. If you’re weighing one, our guides to Hawaii repositioning cruises and repositioning cruises to Japan and Asia explain the routes, the date line and the weather. Princess also moves ships within Asia and Australia, for example Tokyo to Singapore in 12 to 14 nights and Singapore to Sydney in 15, which suits travelers who want long voyages without a full ocean crossing.

Atlantic crossings: fewer, and often longer than other lines’

Princess has 17 transatlantic sailings in our finder, fewer than its Pacific program but enough for a choice of dates in both seasons. Westbound crossings leave in late October and November, and again in August 2027 on two northern routings: Southampton to New York via Kirkwall, Iceland and Halifax, and Copenhagen to Boston via Reykjavik. Eastbound crossings mostly leave Fort Lauderdale or Port Canaveral between February and April, with one early-season exception in October 2026.

Several are longer than the standard 13- or 14-night crossing. Island Princess runs 25-night voyages between Fort Lauderdale and Athens in October 2026, and Majestic Princess links Buenos Aires and Southampton in 22 nights. Most of the shorter crossings route south via the Canary Islands, Madeira or the Azores, which is the calmer way across in spring and late fall.

Which Princess ships reposition

Because so much of the fleet moves, the ship matters as much as the route. The newest are the Sphere-class Sun Princess and Star Princess, which in our data cross the Atlantic between Barcelona and Fort Lauderdale (Sun Princess) and run the Panama Canal and Pacific coast (Star Princess). Royal-class ships such as Sky, Enchanted, Regal, Majestic and Discovery Princess handle many Atlantic and coastal moves. The smaller Island Princess and Coral Princess do most of the canal work and several of the longest Pacific voyages, and Grand Princess and Crown Princess cover the Australia runs.

On a voyage of three weeks or more, a smaller, older ship is not a downgrade for most passengers. It means fewer people at the buffet and in the lounges on sea days. On a 13-night spring crossing, the newer ships have more indoor space for weather days.

When Princess repositions: the 2026-2027 calendar

Princess has at least one repositioning sailing in every month of our data, which is unusual. Most lines go quiet in summer and midwinter. The busiest months are April 2027 (11 departures), November 2026 and September 2027 (nine each), and October 2027 (eight).

If you’re searching for a Princess repositioning cruise in spring 2026, those sailings have already gone; the next spring season in our data is March to May 2027.

Linking two Princess sailings

Because Princess ships often go straight from one one-way voyage into the next, you can stay aboard for a much longer trip. These pairs in our data start the second sailing on the day the first one ends, in the same port, on the same ship:

• Florida to Australia, 51 nights: Coral Princess, Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles on January 6, 2027, then Los Angeles to Sydney on January 21.
• Australia to Florida, 46 nights: Crown Princess, Sydney to Los Angeles on November 4, 2026, then Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale on December 3.
• Florida to Japan, 35 nights: Sapphire Princess, Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles on November 6, 2026, then Los Angeles to Tokyo on November 22.
• Florida to Vancouver, 23 nights: Island Princess, Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles on April 19, 2027, then Los Angeles to Vancouver on May 5.

Book both legs together and ask Princess or your travel agent to keep you in the same cabin, so you don’t have to move on the turnaround day.

What a Princess crossing costs on board

Princess adds crew appreciation to every guest’s account daily. The current rates on the Princess crew appreciation policy are below. On a 16-night voyage in a standard cabin, that’s $288 per person before you buy anything else.

The Plus and Premier packages both include crew appreciation, which changes the math on a long voyage. Plus covers up to 15 drinks a day priced up to $15 each, one device of MedallionNet Wi-Fi and four casual dining meals per voyage. Premier adds unlimited drinks up to $20 each, Wi-Fi for four devices, unlimited specialty dining and shore excursion credits. Princess raised the prices in 2025 and charges more on the Sphere-class ships, according to its July 2025 announcement, and onboard purchase costs $5 a day more.

Take the $18 a day crew appreciation out of the $65 Plus price, and you’re paying about $47 a day for drinks and Wi-Fi. On a crossing with six or seven sea days in a row, that’s a fair deal if you’d otherwise buy three or four drinks a day. If you drink little, skip the package and pay crew appreciation on its own. Our sister site has a fuller breakdown of whether cruise drink packages are worth it.

How Princess compares on a crossing

Princess sits in the upper mainstream, close to Holland America in crowd and price, with a larger and more varied fleet. Its ships have self-service launderettes, which matters more than it sounds on a 25-night voyage. For a side-by-side look at fares and onboard style across all the main lines, see the best cruise lines for repositioning cruises.

The practical tip: if you’re flexible on direction, start with the date, not the route. With 77 sailings spread across both oceans, the cheapest Princess repositioning cruise in a given month is often on a route you weren’t considering, and a one-way flight from Los Angeles or Fort Lauderdale is usually easier to price than one from Sydney or Singapore.