All Aboard: Reviewing the Princess Cruises Fleet

What follows is a thumbnail sketch of Princess Cruise Line – one of the premier cruise line offerings in the world.

Princess is the world’s fifth-biggest cruise line by passenger capacity.  The fleet features 17 vessels that collectively offer more than 45,000 berths.

While Princess traditionally operates big ships, they are typically smaller than those operated by Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises — three lines that are well known for their giant ships. The biggest Princess vessels – specifically, the line’s four Royal Class ships – measure approximately 145,000 tons, making them approximately 35% smaller than the largest ships operated by Royal Caribbean.

In addition to their larger size, Princess’ Royal Class ships feature more amenities than their 13 other vessels. In addition to the four existing ships, two more Royal Class ships — Enchanted Princess and Discovery Princess — are on order for delivery by the end of 2021.

Slightly smaller are Princess’ eight Grand Class vessels. Their smaller size allows them to operate a wide range of itineraries, while still being large enough to have a considerable number of onboard venues. The Grand Class vessels carry between 2,600 to 3,100 passengers at double occupancy.

Smaller still in the Princess fleet are the Coral Class of two ships that carry around 2,000 passengers at double occupancy, and the Sun Class of two ships that also carry around 2,000 passengers at double occupancy.

Lastly, there is the outlier of the Princess fleet: the significantly smaller, 670-passenger Pacific Princess. It’s only a fifth the size of the largest Princess ships and is used for exotic itineraries around the globe that appeal to a small subset of Princess passengers.

Destination-wise, Princess Cruises sails to more than 100 countries on seven different continents.  Offering a wide range of itineraries — around 170 in a typical year – the line’s ships visit more than 380 different ports and destinations and take passengers to more than 100 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Princess is particularly known for its Alaska cruises, a segment it dominates along with its sister line Holland America. In a typical year, Princess will deploy seven or eight ships to Alaska in the summer months, considerably more than most other lines. It also operates its own wilderness lodges in the state, as well as tourist trains and buses, and uses them to offer a range of 10- to 17-night Alaska “cruise tours” that combine a cruise with land-based touring.

With over 20 years of dedicated service in the travel industry, Cruises-N-More, a Virtuoso member, offers select benefits for our clients. Cruises-N-More is pleased to announce being recognized as a winner of the 2019 Online Travel Partner Excellence Award of Carnival Corporation & plc brands Carnival Cruise Line, Cunard, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn. Contact a Cruises-N-More cruise specialist at 800-733-2048 (toll-free USA/Canada), +1-407-771-4454, 0-808-189-1292 (toll-free U.K.), or 800-076-002 (toll-free Australia).