Caribbean Princess

Caribbean Princess at St. Thomas, USVI on May 2, 2011
History
Name: Caribbean Princess
Owner: Carnival plc
Operator: Princess Cruises
Port of registry: Bermuda Hamilton, Bermuda[1]
Builder: Fincantieri (Monfalcone, Italy)[2]
Cost: US $500 million[1]
Launched: 2004
Christened: April 2, 2004 by Jill Whelan in Fort Lauderdale[3]
Maiden voyage: April 3, 2004[4]
In service: April 2004[1]
Identification:
Status: In service
General characteristics
Class & type: Caribbean Class cruise ship
Tonnage: 112,894 GT
Length: 951 ft (290 m)
Beam: 118 ft (36 m)
Draft: 26.2 ft (8.0 m)[1]
Decks: 17 total, 15 passenger[1]
Installed power: 2 diesel-electric propellers (42,000kW each)[1]
Speed: 22-knot (41 km/h; 25 mph)[1]
Capacity: 3,080 passengers
Crew: 1,200 crew

MS Caribbean Princess is a modified Grand Class cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises, with a capacity of over 3,600 passengers, the largest carrying capacity in the Princess fleet up until June 2013 when the new Royal Princess, another Princess ship superseded its record. She has 900 balcony staterooms and a deck of mini-suites. She was the first modern cruise ship with an outdoor theater, which Princess bills as "Movies Under The Stars".

Caribbean Princess is slightly larger than the other ships in her class (Star Princess, Golden Princess, and Grand Princess), due to the addition of an additional deck of cabins called the Riviera deck. Another difference is that, being initially designed to cruise the Caribbean year-round, there is no sliding roof over the pool area for shelter in poor weather.

Incidents

On March 12, 2012, Caribbean Princess suffered an issue to her port side propulsion engine, which required her to return to her home port of San Juan, Puerto Rico after a stopover in St. Maarten. The problem caused Princess Cruises to cancel the next two trips (scheduled for March 18 and 25).[7]

In November 2013 a scheduled Thanksgiving week cruise departure was delayed from the Houston cruise port due to inclement weather conditions. Above average winds combined with safety concerns related to the narrow and extremely busy Houston ship channel were cited from the ship's bridge as the main reasons for the delay. Further complications with pilot boat scheduling were also announced over the ship's public address system. The Caribbean Princess finally departed on the next day, however two of the exotic ports of call (Belize and Roatan) were cancelled. An unscheduled stop at Costa Maya was added to the itinerary, but the advertised 7 night sailing with 3 stops ended up as 6 nights of actual sailing with only 2 stops. Princess cruise lines did not openly offer its passengers credits, discounts or compensation for the inconvenience and changed itinerary.[8]

The Caribbean Princess experienced a norovirus outbreak in January 2014 sickening approximately 200 people on board. The scheduled cruise ended two days early.[9]

During March 2014 the Caribbean Princess had to wait at the Houston port and was delayed about two days after a bulk carrier ship and oil barge collided in Galveston Bay. The crash spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the water. Houston ship channel traffic was stopped, with thousands of cruise passengers stuck.[10]

Current/Future Cruises

Caribbean Princess sailed her maiden European season from Southampton, England. She later repositioned back to New York City, New York sailing to Canada/New England as well as Bermuda. She then moved to Ft. Lauderdale to sail to 7-Day Southern Caribbean cruises. In April 2013 and April 2015 she moved once again back to Europe, sailing out of Southampton, where she sails various cruises around the British Isles & Northern Europe and the Mediterranean during the summer and fall months. In November 2013, she began sailing out of Houston, Texas and will return there for the 2015-2016 season. For the 2016-17 season, she will reposition to Fort Lauderdale for a whole series of Caribbean cruises, which is what she did in the 2013-14 and the 2014-15 seasons.

Gallery

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ward, Douglas (2005). Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships. Singapore: Berlitz. ISBN 981-246-510-3.
  2. ↑ "CARIBBEAN PRINCESS". Vessel Assessment System. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  3. ↑ "Caribbean Princess Arrives in Ft. Lauderdale". Goliath (PR Newswire). 2004-03-31. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  4. ↑ Stieghorst, Tom (2004-10-24). "Cruise lines add big, bold features to entice travelers.". Access my Library (Tribune Business News). Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  5. ↑ "Caribbean Princess (9215490)". Equasis. French Ministry for Transport. Retrieved 2013-05-20. (registration required (help)).
  6. ↑ "MV Caribbean Princess (IMO: 9215490)". vesseltracker.com. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  7. ↑ Sloan, Gene (2012-03-16). USA Today http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2012/03/caribbean-princess-cruises-ship-cancel/649463/1. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ Cruickshank, T., personal communications, November 25, 2014
  9. ↑ Haiken, M., "Is it Safe to Take a Cruise? 8 Virus Outbreaks in 3 Months", Forbes, P.1-2, http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/04/12/8-cruise-ship-outbreaks-in-2014-is-your-cruise-safe/
  10. ↑ Harris, R.L., "Oil Spill Delayes Cruise Departures," New York Times, March 24, 2014, retrieved from http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/oil-spill-delays-cruise/departures/

Bibliography

External links

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