Princess Cruises

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Princess Cruises is a American cruise line, with offices in the Valencia section of the city of Santa Clarita, California, and operating cruise ships. The Company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index: however Princess Cruises and Cunard Line are now both owned by Carnival Corporation & plc with whom they share the same offices. The company was made famous by The Love Boat TV series, in which two of its ships, the Island Princess and Pacific Princess were featured.

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Princess Cruises

Type	Public
Founded	1966
Headquarters	Santa Clarita, California, United States
Industry	Travel
Products	Cruises
Website	www.princess.com

Princess Cruises headquarters in Santa Clarita

Princess Cruises began in 1966, when founder Stanley MacDonald chartered Canadian Pacific Limited's Alaska cruise ship Princess Patricia for Mexican Riviera cruises from Los Angeles during a time when she would have usually been laid up for the winter.^[1] However, Princess Pat, as she was fondly called, had never been designed for tropical cruising, lacking air-conditioning, and Princess ended her charter in favor of a more purpose-built cruise ship Italia.

The Italia had originally been ordered in 1963 and was one of the first to implement modern design elements, such as lifeboats mounted lower on the ship, allowing for uncluttered upperdecks, and engines placed far in the rear, allowing for spacious public rooms amidships. Gustavo Finali and Romano Boico had designed the ship's interiors, designers whose résumés included such ships as the Augustus and Raffaello (of Italian Line) and the Oceanic and Homeric (of Home Lines).

Construction proceeded slowly, and accordingly, the Italia was not launched until the spring of 1965, and during the fitting out, both the owners and the builder were declared bankrupt. The Italia was passed onto a bank who created a company to charter or sell the ship, and consequently, the company chartered the Italia to Princess.

Princess, who marketed the ship as Princess Italia but never officially renamed her, used the ship to inaugurate their Mexican Riviera cruises out of Los Angeles, and did not even receive the Princess logo on her funnel until 1967.^[1]

In 1969, the Princess Italia was used on Alaskan cruises from San Francisco, but by 1973, the charter was canceled, and the Italia returned to Europe on charter to Costa Cruise Line.^[1]

Princess's third charter ship was none other than Costa's Carla C. Originally, Compagnie Generale Transatlantique's Flandre, the ship had been purchased by Costa in the late sixties and given a major rebuilding. Almost immediately after completion, the ship was chartered to Princess, and it was onboard the ship, which was marketed as, but again not officially renamed, Princess Carla, that Jeraldine Saunders wrote the first chapters of 'Love Boat.'

Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) which by 1960 was the world's largest shipping company with 320 ocean going vessels 'acquired Princess Cruise Lines in 1974 and their Spirit of London (originally to have been Norwegian Cruise Line's Seaward) was transferred to the Princess fleet, becoming the first Sun Princess.^[1]

The two ships that were to be featured heavily in the television series 'Love Boat' were built in 1971 at Nordseewerke for Flagship Cruises and originally named the Sea Venture (for the original Sea Venture, the 1609 wreck of which resulted in the settlement of Bermuda) and Island Venture. In 1974, P&O purchased them for their Princess division, and they served as the Island Princess and Pacific Princess respectively.

A part time addition to the Princess fleet was the former Swedish transatlantic liner Kungsholm, purchased by P&O from Flagship Cruises in 1978, and then restyled and rebuilt in Bremen as the Sea Princess. She was initially based in Australia as a P&O ship until 1981 when her role there was taken over by the Oriana. After that, she alternated between P&O and Princess colours as she moved between fleets. The Sea Princess returned to the P&O UK fleet permanently and in 1995 and was renamed Victoria to allow a then new Princess ship to be named Sea Princess.

The first P&O Princess Cruises purpose-built cruise ship was the Royal Princess in 1984, the largest new British passenger ship in a decade, and one of the first, if not the first, ships to completely dispense with interior cabins.^[1] The ship now serves in P&O Cruises fleet as the Artemis. A new Princess ship, Royal Princess, is set to debut sometime in spring 2007.

In 1986, P&O Princess Cruises acquired Tour Alaska which operated on the Alaska Railroad. Based in Anchorage, Alaska, Princess Tours now operates ten luxury railcars with full-service scenic tours of Mount McKinley and can accommodate over 700 passengers per day.

P&O Princess Cruises acquired Sitmar Line in 1988 and transferred all of its major tonnage to Princess, including three cruise ships then under construction.^[1] The Dawn Princess and Fair Princess were both ex-Cunarders, and the former Sitmar Fairsky became Princess's Sky Princess. The first of the three new Sitmar ships came into the Princess brand in 1989 as the Star Princess, the largest British exclusively cruising ship. Two 70,000 grt cruise ships entered service in 1990 as the Crown Princess and Regal Princess, bringing Princess's fleet up to ten deluxe cruise ships.^[1]

On October 23, 2000, P&O Princess Cruises demerged from Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), to become an independently traded company.^[2] Then, on April 17, 2003 the Miami-based Carnival Corporation merged with P&O Princess Cruises at US$5.4 billion, to form Carnival Corporation & plc as the world's largest cruise company.^[3] Besides Princess Cruises, Carnival owns 11 other brands.

On 3 April 2008 Mickey Arison, the chairman of Carnival Corporation & plc, stated that due to the low value of the US dollar, inflation and high shipbuilding costs, the company would not be ordering any new ships for their US-based brands (Princess, Carnival Cruise Lines and Holland America Line) before the economical situation improves.^[4]

Current fleet

Grand Class

Ship	Tonnage	Length	Passengers	Passenger Decks
Grand Princess/Star Princess/Golden Princess	109,000	951 feet	2600	14
Diamond Princess/Sapphire Princess	116,000	951 feet	2670	14
Caribbean Princess	113,000	951 feet	3100	15
Emerald Princess/Crown Princess/Ruby Princess	113,000	951 feet	3070	15

Note: Strictly speaking, Diamond Princess, Sapphire Princess, Emerald Princess, Crown Princess and Ruby Princess are "Gem" class ships but are usually grouped under the "Grand" class for marketing purposes.

Grand Princess

Grand Princess is a large cruise ship owned by Princess Cruises. Built in 1998 by Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani in Monfalcone (Hull Number 5956), Italy, at a cost of approximately US$450 million, she was the largest and most expensive ship ever built at the time, a distinction now carried by Royal Caribbean International's Freedom of the Seas and the newest RCI ship, Oasis of the Seas which is to debut sometime 2009. Grand Princess primarily operates in Europe during the summer to early fall, and then operates in the Caribbean during winter to late spring.

Grand Princess was the first of the Grand Class ships, and has a different decor scheme to her sister ships, using darker woods, and the interior decor is more similar to the smaller (77,000 grt) Sun Class ships. The cabin layout is also marginally different in the arrangement of the bathroom and the walk-in wardrobe. At a recent refit, the Movies under the Stars feature was added.

She is the sister ship of the Star Princess and the Golden Princess. The Grand Princess was the setting for a task in the second series of the UK version of the reality TV show The Apprentice.

The Grand Princess has two large theatres and a large central performance lounge. The inaugural season featured performances by artists including Lorna Luft, Al Martino, Bob Anderson, Red Buttons, Rita Moreno and showbands including Dominic Halpin with his swing band and Canadian band the Mud Sharks.

Sun Class

Ship	Tonnage	Length	Passengers	Passenger Decks
Sun Princess/Sea Princess/Dawn Princess	77,499	857 feet	1950	10
Coral Princess & Island Princess	91,627	964 feet	1970	12

MS Sun Princess

The Sun Princess is a Sun class cruise ship built in 1995 and operated by the Princess Cruises line.

Sun Princess is the lead ship of the Sun class, and at the time of her construction, was one of the largest cruise ships in the world. Her sister ships are the Dawn Princess, Sea Princess and the former Ocean Princess.

From November 2007, Sun Princess has been seasonally based at Sydney, Australia. Cruises offered from that time circumnavigations Australia, circumnavigations New Zealand,and visits to New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Commencing from April 2008, Sun Princess will be permanently based in Australia operating out of Sydney during the Winter months, and from Melbourne during the Summer months. For the 2008/09 season the cruise program includes Australian circumnavigations, Fremantle - Malacca Straits return, Melbourne - New Zealand / South Pacific. She will also be sailing from Sydney as for Melbourne plus Whitsundays return, a Japan return itinerary, and an epic 75 night Grand Pacific trip. During Summer whilst Sun Princess is operating out of Melbourne, she will be joined by Dawn Princess operating out of Sydney. Dawn Princess will also be permanently based in Australia from this time which is a change from Princess' original plans.

The Sun Princess was the ship on which the television show The Love Boat: The Next Wave starring Robert Urich was filmed. She made the news in October, 2007 as the largest ship to ever cross beneath the Sydney Harbor Bridge while entering the harbor for the first time, with a vertical clearance of approximately 2.5 meters to spare at low tide

Explorer Class

Ship	Tonnage	Length	Passengers	Passenger Decks
Tahitian Princess/Pacific Princess/Royal Princess	30,277	593.7 feet	688	9

Royal Princess

MS Royal Princess is an R class cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises. She was built in 2001 by Chantiers de l'Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France for Renaissance Cruises as MS R Eight. Between 2003 and 2007 she sailed for Swan Hellenic as MS Minerva II, before being transferred to Princess Cruises.

She was built as R Eight as part of 8 identical cruise ships originally ordered by Renaissance Cruises. As such, she is a sister ship to two of Princess's other vessels, Tahitian Princess and Pacific Princess, which were bought when Renaissance Cruises collapsed in 2001.

Former Fleet

• Island Princess (1972—1999) - Since 2003 sailing for Discovery World Cruises as Discovery.
• Sun Princess (1974—1989) - Since 2004 sailing for Cruise Elysia as New Flamenco.
• Pacific Princess (1975—2002) - Since 2008 sailing for Quail Cruise as Pacific.
• Sea Princess (1979—1995) - Since 2008 sailing for Lord Nelson Seereisen as Mona Lisa.
• Royal Princess (1984—2005) - Since 2005 sailing for P&O Cruises as Artemis.
• Fair Princess (1988—1997) - Scrapped in Alang, India 2005.
• Dawn Princess (1988—1993) - Scrapped in Alang, India 2004.
• Star Princess (1989—1997 ) - Since 2003 sailing for Ocean Village as Ocean Village.
• Golden Princess (1993-1996) - Since 2005 sailing for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines as Boudicca.
• Regal Princess (1992—2005) - Since 2007 sailing for P&O Cruises Australia as Pacific Dawn.
• Crown Princess (1992—2002) - Since 2004 sailing for Ocean Village as Ocean Village Two.
• Sky Princess (1983—2000) - Since 2006 sailing for Pullmantur Cruises as the Sky Wonder.
• Ocean Princess (2000—2002) - Since 2002 sailing for P&O Cruises as Oceana.
  

Mona Lisa (ship)

MV Mona Lisa is a cruise ship owned by Leonardo Shipping^{[citation needed]} and operated under charter by Peace Boat (as of January 2009).^[2] She was built in 1966 by the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland as the combined ocean liner / cruise ship MS Kungsholm for the Swedish American Line.^[5] She was later rebuilt as a full-time cruise ship. She has also sailed under the names MV Sea Princess, MV Victoria and MV Oceanic II.