ORLANDO, Fla. — Princess Cruises was the first cruise line to shut down operations as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in 2020, and it doesn’t plan to sail from Florida until November. But when it does get back, it will have its newest ship on hand to lead the way.
The Enchanted Princess, a sister ship to the Sky Princess, arrived to Port Everglades on Sept. 2 as the cruise line gets its hardware in place to return to Caribbean sailing.
The ship is the fifth in the line’s Royal Class of ships, and it's set to make its inaugural voyage one year later than planned with a 10-night trip to the Southern Caribbean on Nov. 10. When it sails, it will be the first of five ships in line to begin voyages from Fort Lauderdale that month.
Enchanted Princess will join Sky Princess, Regal Princess and Caribbean Princess sailing three-, five-, seven, 10- and 14-night cruises on a variety of Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries. Crown Princess will also sail from Fort Lauderdale on Panama Canal cruises.
Just like 2019′s Sky Princess, the 143,700-ton, 3,660-guest ship will feature two Sky Suites with what the line calls the largest balcony at sea and will be the second ship with the cruise line’s interactive Ocean Medallion technology built-in from the beginning. It’s a system similar to Disney’s MagicBand that acts as a room key, credit card and wayfinder.
Enchanted Princess will also have its own version of the escape room that debuted in Sky Princess, the second ship with the new Take Five jazz lounge, and the gelateria with the Italian seal of approval. Also on board will be similar offerings from other Royal Class ships including Alfredo’s Pizzeria with hand-made Italian-style pizzas, French venue Bistro Sur La Mer from 3-star Michelin recipient Chef Emmanuel Renaut, Crown Grill steakhouse, Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria and Ocean Terrace Seafood Bar.
The new Multi-Flex Tailgate offers six different functions designed to help improve loading, unloading and accessing the cargo bed.
The cruise line has already begun to sail Majestic Princess out of Seattle for Alaska cruises, but has held off plans for Florida business until the start of the traditional fall/winter sailing season. It also has started sailing ships in the United Kingdom.
Elsewhere, the line plans to move Majestic Princess to Los Angeles and join Grand Princess for California Coast, Mexico and Hawaii voyages and Ruby Princess from San Francisco.
The first ship in the Royal Class was Royal Princess in 2013 followed by Regal Princess in 2014, Majestic Princess in 2017 and Sky Princess in 2019. A sixth ship, Discovery Princess, is on order, with all built at Fincantieri Monfalcone shipyard.
Farther down the line, Princess Cruises has two ships on order that will use the cleaner liquefied natural gas for fuel. Those two ships will be much larger at 175,000 tons, but won’t sail until 2023 and 2025.
The cruise line was the first major line to announce it was shutting down because of COVID-19, initially halting operations on March 12, 2020.
Its ship Diamond Princess was home to a deadly COVID-19 outbreak and had to be quarantined in Japan in February 2020 with more than 700 cases including 13 fatalities. In the U.S., Grand Princess also had an outbreak off the coast of California with nearly 3,500 passengers and crew taken off the ship and either sent to U.S. military bases to last out a 14-day quarantine or flown back to their home countries.
While other lines like Carnival, Celebrity, MSC Cruises and Royal Caribbean have several ships back to business in the U.S., Princess took a slower approach to its return.
“Following our successful restart in Alaska and the UK, we look forward to welcoming our guests back on board as we continue our return to cruise operations, keeping the health and safety of our guests and teammates our top priority,” said line President Jan Swartz.
For its U.S. sailings, including those from Florida, the line has a policy that requires all passengers that are able to be fully vaccinated.
———
