Cruises To Mexico

Princess Cruises is a premium American cruise line, with offices in the Valencia section of the city of Santa Clarita, California, and operating cruise ships. The Company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index: however Princess Cruises and Cunard Line are now both owned by Carnival Corporation & plc with whom they share the same offices. The company was made famous by The Love Boat TV series, in which two of its ships, the Island Princess and Pacific Princess were featured.

History

Princess Cruises began in 1966, when founder Stanley McDonald chartered Canadian Pacific Limited's Alaska cruise ship Princess Patricia for Mexican Riviera cruises from Los Angeles during a time when she would have usually been laid up for the winter. However, Princess Pat , as she was fondly called, had never been designed for tropical cruising, lacking air-conditioning, and Princess ended her charter in favor of a more purpose-built cruise ship Italia .

The Italia had originally been ordered in 1963 and was one of the first to implement modern design elements, such as lifeboats mounted lower on the ship, allowing for uncluttered upperdecks, and engines placed far in the rear, allowing for spacious public rooms amidships. Gustavo Finali and Romano Boico had designed the ship's interiors, designers whose résumés included such ships as the Augustus and Raffaello (of Italian Line) and the Oceanic and Homeric (of Home Lines).

Construction proceeded slowly, and accordingly, the Italia was not launched until the spring of 1965, and during the fitting out, both the owners and the builder were declared bankrupt. The Italia was passed onto a bank who created a company to charter or sell the ship, and consequently, the company chartered the Italia to Princess.

Princess, who marketed the ship as Princess Italia but never officially renamed her, used the ship to inaugurate their Mexican Riviera cruises out of Los Angeles, and did not even receive the Princess logo on her funnel until 1967.

In 1969, the Princess Italia was used on Alaskan cruises from San Francisco, but by 1973, the charter was canceled, and the Italia returned to Europe on charter to Costa Cruise Line.

Princess's third charter ship was none other than Costa's Carla C . Originally, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique's Flandre , the ship had been purchased by Costa in the late sixties and given a major rebuilding. Almost immediately after completion, the ship was chartered to Princess, and it was on board the ship, which was marketed as, but again not officially renamed, Princess Carla , that Jeraldine Saunders wrote the first chapters of 'Love Boat.'

Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) which by 1960 was the world's largest shipping company with 320 ocean going vessels acquired Princess Cruise Lines in 1974 and their Spirit of London (originally to have been Norwegian Cruise Line's Seaward ) was transferred to the Princess fleet, becoming the first Sun Princess .

The two ships that were to be featured heavily in the television series 'Love Boat' were built in 1971 at Nordseewerke for Flagship Cruises and originally named the Sea Venture (for the original Sea Venture , the 1609 wreck of which resulted in the settlement of Bermuda) and Island Venture . In 1974, P&O purchased them for their Princess division, and they served as the Island Princess and Pacific Princess respectively.

A part time addition to the Princess fleet was the former Swedish transatlantic liner Kungsholm , purchased by P&O from Flagship Cruises in 1978, and then restyled and rebuilt in Bremen as the Sea Princess . She was initially based in Australia as a P&O ship until 1981 when her role there was taken over by the Oriana . After that, she alternated between P&O and Princess colours as she moved between fleets. The Sea Princess returned to the P&O UK fleet permanently and in 1995 and was renamed Victoria to allow a then new Princess ship to be named Sea Princess .

The first P&O Princess Cruises purpose-built cruise ship was the Royal Princess in 1984, the largest new British passenger ship in a decade, and one of the first, if not the first, ships to completely dispense with interior cabins. The ship now serves in P&O Cruises fleet as the Artemis. A new Princess ship, Royal Princess, is set to debut sometime in spring 2007.

In 1986, P&O Princess Cruises acquired Tour Alaska, which operated on the Alaska Railroad. Based in Anchorage, Alaska, Princess Tours now operates ten luxury railcars with full-service scenic tours of Mount McKinley and can accommodate over 700 passengers per day.

P&O Princess Cruises acquired Sitmar Line in 1988 and transferred all of its major tonnage to Princess, including three cruise ships then under construction. The Dawn Princess and Fair Princess were both ex-Cunarders, and the former Sitmar Fairsky became Princess's Sky Princess . The first of the three new Sitmar ships came into the Princess brand in 1989 as the Star Princess , the largest British exclusively cruising ship. Two 70,000 grt cruise ships entered service in 1990 as the Crown Princess and Regal Princess , bringing Princess's fleet up to ten deluxe cruise ships.

On October 23 , 2000 , P&O Princess Cruises demerged from Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), to become an independently traded company. Then, on April 17 , 2003 the Miami-based Carnival Corporation merged with P&O Princess Cruises at US$5.4 billion, to form Carnival Corporation & plc as the world's largest cruise company. Besides Princess Cruises, Carnival owns 11 other brands.

On April 3 , 2008 Micky Arison, the chairman of Carnival Corporation & plc, stated that due to the low value of the US dollar, inflation and high shipbuilding costs, the company would not be ordering any new ships for their US-based brands (Princess, Carnival Cruise Lines and Holland America Line) before the economical situation improves.

Current fleet

Grand Class

Note: Strictly speaking, Diamond Princess , Sapphire Princess , Emerald Princess , Crown Princess and Ruby Princess are "Gem" class ships but are usually grouped under the "Grand" class for marketing purposes.

Sun Class

Explorer Class

Former Fleet

• Island Princess (1972—1999) - Since 2003 sailing for Discovery World Cruises as Discovery .
• Sun Princess (1974—1989) - Since 2004 sailing for Cruise Elysia as New Flamenco .
• Pacific Princess (1975—2002) - Since 2008 sailing for Quail Cruise as Pacific .
• Sea Princess (1979—1995) - Since 2008 sailing for Lord Nelson Seereisen as Mona Lisa .
• Royal Princess (1984—2005) - Since 2005 sailing for P&O Cruises as Artemis .
• Fair Princess (1988—1997) - Scrapped in Alang, India 2005.
• Dawn Princess (1988—1993) - Scrapped in Alang, India 2004.
• Star Princess (1989—1997 ) - Since 2003 sailing for Ocean Village as Ocean Village .
• Golden Princess (1993-1996) - Since 2005 sailing for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines as Boudicca .
• Regal Princess (1992—2005) - Since 2007 sailing for P&O Cruises Australia as Pacific Dawn .
• Crown Princess (1992—2002) - Since 2004 sailing for Ocean Village as Ocean Village Two .
• Sky Princess (1983—2000) - Since 2006 sailing for Pullmantur Cruises as the Sky Wonder .
• Ocean Princess (2000—2002) - Since 2002 sailing for P&O Cruises as Oceana .

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Princess Cruises timeline
2. ^ P&O plan to demerge its cruise division
3. ^ Carnival cruises to P&O deal
4. ^ "No newbuildings for Carnival's US brands at current dollar-euro rate - Arison". Cruise Business Review . Cruise Media Oy Ltd. 2008-04-04 . http://www.cruisebusiness.com/news.php?u=20080403224002 . Retrieved 2008-04-03 .  

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