Royal Princess is a Royal-classcruise ship operated by Princess Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc, and is the third ship to sail for the cruise line under that name. The largest ship to have been built for Princess at the time of delivery in 2013, she became the flagship of Princess. As the lead vessel of the Royal class, she lends her name to the company’s Royal class, which will consist of six ships upon the last ship’s delivery in 2021. The ship measures 142,714 GT and has a capacity of 3,560 passengers.
Royal Princess was one of the first passenger ships built to comply with the safe return to port requirements. As the largest ship in the fleet at the time, an increase in overall volume and decrease in space allocated to pools allowed for more venues than on any other Princess ship. Among the offerings onboard are two sets of cantilevered walkways extending over the port and starboard sides of the ship known as the “SeaWalk,” three swimming pools, a dancing water fountain, a movie screen designed by Daktronics, and several entertainment lounges.
On 30 May 2013, Royal Princess was officially presented to Princess in Monfalcone. On 9 April 2013, it was announced that The Duchess of Cambridge would name Royal Princess in a naming ceremony in Southampton, United Kingdom on 13 June 2013. The ceremony upheld British ship-naming traditions, including the blessing and a performance by the Royal Marines and the pipers of the Irish Guards. The ship arrived at the Ocean Terminal in Southampton on 7 June and hosted events for customers and travel agents, including a special naming gala on the evening of 12 June. The ship’s inaugural celebrations concluded with her maiden voyage on 16 June.
To start her inaugural season, Royal Princess performed two 2-night preview sailings from Southampton to St. Peter Port, Guernsey on 9 June 2013 and 14 June 2013. She left on her 7-day maiden voyage on 16 June 2013 from Southampton to Barcelona, calling in Vigo, Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Málaga. She then cruised 12-day Mediterranean voyages from Barcelona to Venice throughout that summer before re-positioning to her North American homeport of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in fall 2013.
Between 2013 and 2019, Royal Princess continued to sail out of her homeport of Port Everglades to the Caribbean during the winter seasons and re-positioned to Europe, including the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the British Isles, during the summer seasons, with several short fall seasons cruising the Canadian Maritimes and New England coast.
