NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
Princess Cruises made a host of announcements this week. Lucy Huxley reports Grand Princess
Princess plans 500 days’ ex-UK sailing in 2021
P
rincess Cruises will operate its longest-ever UK and Europe season in 2021, with nearly
500 days’ ex-UK cruising from Southampton across three ships. Te programme, with cruises
on Grand Princess, Island Princess and Crown Princess, represents a 9% increase on 2020. Te 2,600-passenger Grand
Princess will sail the longest-ever season for a UK-based ship, from April to November, a total of 207 days from Southampton, including six school-holiday sailings. Te ship will depart for the Mediterranean, northern Europe, Canada and New
Europe goes from
strength to strength as the destination of choice for UK passengers”
England, with several new voyages. Te 2,200-passenger capacity
Island Princess will spend a season sailing out of Southampton from June to October across northern Europe, while 3,080-berth Crown Princess will sail the British Isles from April to October with 14 sailings. Crown Princess will travel to
destinations including Liverpool, Dublin, Orkney Islands (Kirkwall) and Edinburgh, with select itineraries offering overnight calls in port. Meanwhile, Princess Cruises’
two newest ships, Sky Princess and Enchanted Princess, will be based in northern and southern Europe respectively, bringing Princess’s total European cruise days to almost 1,000. Sky Princess will spend April to
September sailing a Scandinavia and Russia round-trip itinerary from Copenhagen, visiting destinations including Tallinn, Oslo, Helsinki and
Crown Princess features line’s OceanMedallion
Crown Princess is the latest ship to be fully OceanMedallion-activated, making it the first UK-based ship to adopt the wearable personalisation technology. Te 3,080-passenger vessel is based in
Southampton this summer, sailing around the British Isles on a series of 12-night voyages. Princess Cruises says OceanMedallion will create a new level of service and a holiday that is
more simple and personalised, with streamlined check-in, touchless stateroom entry, on-demand drinks, food and retail services, plus a family and friends locator. In addition, Crown Princess now benefits from
MedallionNet, which delivers “land-like Wi-Fi speeds” that ensure guests stay connected from anywhere on the ship, including staterooms. A Carnival Corporation spokeswoman claimed
Princess has the “best Wi-Fi at sea”. She said: “It’s not the fastest but we have access
in every stateroom, whereas other lines just have two or three access points up a hallway. So ours gives guests a much beter experience – you don’t have to prop open your door and wander up the corridor to get reception.” Caribbean Princess, Regal Princess and Royal
OceanMedallion 18 25 JULY 2019
Princess are also OceanMedallion-activated, with seven more ships due to be so by the end of 2020.
travelweekly.co.uk
Berlin and will offer overnight calls in St Petersburg. Enchanted Princess, which will be
named in Southampton in June next year, will sail the Mediterranean from April to October. All Europe 2021 voyages go on
sale on August 14, 2019, and every ship based in Europe in 2021 will feature OceanMedallion technology. Tony Roberts, Princess Cruises’
vice-president for the UK and Europe, said: “Europe goes from strength to strength as the destination of choice for UK passengers.”
LINE LAUNCHES JOURNEY VIEW
Guests booked on Princess Cruises itineraries can now download an “itinerary tool” called Journey View that is designed to help them better plan their sailing. The tool will be available 45-60 days
in advance of a cruise and a Carnival Corporation spokeswoman said agents could use it as a reason to connect again with their customer and “talk them through it”. She said: “It’s basically a timeline of all
activities and events that will be happening during each customer’s specific cruise – and agents can help their clients go through and bookmark the ones they are interested in. It’s another opportunity for agents to add value.”
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