Princess Cruises Celebrates Major Milestones For Three New Ships

Princess Cruises has celebrated significant milestones to mark the construction progress for each of its three ships currently under construction Sky Princess, Enchanted Princess and a sixth Royal-class ship yet to be named.

Sky Princess

Launching in October, a ‘Madrina’ ceremony was held for Sky Princess. The ceremony saw Kerry Ann Wright, a Glasgow-based second officer for Princess Cruises, wish the ship a safe onward journey with a blessing at the shipyard.

Enchanted Princess

A keel laying ceremony took place for Enchanted Princess.  Following a traditional blessing, executives from Princess Cruises and Fincantieri kicked off the countdown to completion of the fifth Royal-class ship by ceremoniously lowering a 500-tonne keel into position in the drydock. Representatives and invited guests then participated in a traditional ‘good luck’ coin ceremony, which comprised welding an Ocean Medallion into the ship.

Enchanted Princess is due for completion next year and will launch in Southampton in June 2020.

Royal-class ship

Finally, a steel-cutting ceremony was held for the final Royal-class ship. The ceremony took place during a live broadcast from Naples, Italy, and marked the cutting of the first plates of steel. These signalled the beginning of construction of the ship scheduled to launch in 2022.

Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises and Carnival Australia group president, said:

The number of people enjoying cruise holidays has increased, on average, by more than one million every year over the last decade, an increase of more than 68 percent. As we continue to grow our fleet with five new ships arriving by 2025 – maintaining our position as the fastest growing premium cruise line in the world – we’re proud to not only celebrate these three major construction milestones in the same day but also to continue to innovate our product with cutting-edge technology and elevated guest experiences that will be offered on all of these ships.

Following the launch of both Sky Princess and Enchanted Princess in 2019 and 2020 respectively the ships will spend a short season in the Mediterranean. They will be the first new ships to join the Princess Cruises fleet fully-activated with Ocean Medallion.

Recently-announced features to appear on Sky Princess and Enchanted Princess include:

• Two ‘Sky Suites’, the largest balconies at sea, which will be centrally located on the ships’ top decks. The suites will provide a private vantage of the ships’ top deck Movies Under the
• Stars cinema screen, offering 270-degree panorama views and sleeping up to five guests. They will feature two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a dining area with skylight
• The Ocean Medallion which offers enhancements to the guest experience such as a streamlined embarkation process, keyless stateroom access, on demand beverage delivery and OceanCompass, which provides interactive directions throughout the ship and allows guests to easily locate friends and family
• New entertainment such as jazz lounge Take Five, a re-designed Vista Lounge and an enhanced Princess Theatre
• More than 25 dining venues and bars including the World Fresh Marketplace and speciality restaurants the Crown Grill Steakhouse and Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria
• A redesigned Sanctuary area, the spa-inspired top deck retreat reserved