SANTA CLARITA, Calif.,
Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
Princess Cruises, the world's fastest growing international premium
cruise line, today took delivery of Sky Princess from shipbuilder
Fincantieri at an official handover ceremony at the shipyard in
Monfalcone, Italy. The first ship
designed from the ground up as a Princess MedallionClass ship, the
143,700-ton, 3,660-guest Sky Princess features an evolution of the
design platform used for the cruise line's previous Royal-Class
ships.
The milestone handover ceremony was attended by executives from
Carnival Corporation & plc including Micky Arison, Chairman of Carnival Corporation;
Arnold Donald, President and CEO of
Carnival Corporation; Stein Kruse,
Group CEO of Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn,
Carnival Australia and Carnival UK, and Jan
Swartz, Group President of Princess Cruises and Carnival
Australia, Fincantieri was represented by Giuseppe Bono, CEO.
"We wish to extend our sincere gratitude to our long-time
shipbuilding partner Fincantieri who delivered Sky Princess to us
today," said Jan Swartz, president
of Princess Cruises. "As our new flagship in the fleet, Sky
Princess represents the absolute best Princess Cruises has to offer
our guests by connecting them with what matters most, unique
destinations, loved ones, and new friends, while enjoying all the
state-of the-art experiences in comfort and style."
With the debut of Sky Princess, Princess Cruises marks the first
time a ship has been purpose-built as a Princess MedallionClass™
ship. Featuring the complimentary OceanMedallion™ wearable device,
MedallionClass vacations deliver an entirely new level of service
and creates a vacation that is more seamless, effortless and
personalized.
Considered a breakthrough in the vacation industry and a CES®
2019 Innovation Award Honoree, the OceanMedallion wearable device
is complimentary for all guests and features leading-edge
technology that delivers personalized service through enhanced
guest-crew interactions, eliminates friction points and enables
interactive entertainment.
Princess MedallionClass Vacations are resulting in high guest
satisfaction scores, thanks to a portfolio of experiences
specifically designed to enhance their cruise vacation,
including:
- Expedited Arrival - From curbside to poolside in a
breeze: Personalization starts pre-cruise as guests
become OceanReady™ before arriving at the port.
Guests who arrive at the terminal having uploaded their travel
documents (i.e. passports) to their profile enjoy a streamlined and
expedited check-in process that gets their vacation started even
sooner.
- On-Demand Services - Food, beverage, retail orders and
service delivered to your location: Using smart devices
and stateroom TVs, guests have the ability to order drinks, food
and retail items like sunscreen
with OceanNowTM and have them delivered
directly anywhere on board.
- Family and Friends Locator - Finding travel companions and
directional ship information: Accessible on portals
throughout the ships and via guests' smart
devices, OceanCompassTM leverages the
OceanMedallion to easily locate and chat with friends and family on
board, as well as enables point-to-point wayfinding throughout the
ship. OceanCompass guides guests throughout their journey,
providing directional information so they can seamlessly navigate
to their next point of interest.
Other innovative features of the Princess MedallionClass
experience include:
- Keyless stateroom entry: Access to staterooms is a
seamless experience where each guest is securely validated as the
door automatically unlocks. Personalized greetings, including
loyalty level recognition and celebrations, welcome the guest on
their door portal.
- Interactive voyage timeline: Available on ship portals
and via guests' smart devices, JourneyViewTM is
an interactive timeline that lets guests scroll through all of the
events available on board during their voyage and bookmark
activities they are interested in to their own personalized
itinerary. Voyage itineraries are available as many as 60 days in
advance, allowing guests to start planning before they leave
home.
- Wager-based gaming: On smart devices and on select
portals via Ocean Casino™, lets guests wager real money
on games including slots, poker, bingo, roulette, keno and lottery
from anywhere on board.
- Interactive game play: On portals located shipwide
and on smart devices PlayOcean™ helps guests enjoy a new
level of fun with interactive games, a digital scavenger hunt,
customizable avatars and more. PlayOcean also transforms guests'
mobile devices into game controllers for interactive gaming on the
massive Movies Under the Stars screen.
Sky Princess will start her inaugural season in Europe on a seven-day Mediterranean &
Adriatic maiden voyage from Athens
to Barcelona on Oct. 20, 2019. The ship will sail a series of
Mediterranean voyages before debuting in North America on Dec.
1, 2019, for a season of Caribbean cruises from Ft.
Lauderdale.
Sky Princess shares all of the spectacular style and elegance of
her sister ships - Regal Princess, Royal Princess and Majestic
Princess. The ship also debuts the new luxurious Sky Suites, with
expansive views from the largest balconies at sea. In addition, two
new entertainment experiences are offered - Phantom Bridge, a
world's first game combining digital and physical elements for the
ultimate immersive escape room, and Take 5, the only jazz theater
at sea, celebrating the iconic sounds, culture and history of
jazz.
The Princess Cruises fleet continues to expand with Enchanted
Princess in June 2020, Discovery
Princess in November 2021 and two
additional ships in 2023 and 2025.
Additional information about Sky Princess and Princess Cruises
is available through a professional travel advisor, by calling
1-800-PRINCESS (1-800-774-6237), or by visiting the company's
website at www.princess.com.
About Princess Cruises
One of the best-known names in
cruising, Princess Cruises is the fastest growing international
premium cruise line and tour company operating a fleet of 18 modern
cruise ships, carrying two million guests each year to 380
destinations around the globe, including the Caribbean, Alaska, Panama Canal, Mexican Riviera,
Europe, South America, Australia/New
Zealand, the South Pacific, Hawaii, Asia,
Canada/New England, Antarctica and World Cruises. A team of
professional destination experts have curated 170 itineraries,
ranging in length from three to 111 days and Princess Cruises is
continuously recognized as "Best Cruise Line for
Itineraries."
In 2017 Princess Cruises, with parent company Carnival
Corporation, introduced MedallionClass Vacations enabled by the
OceanMedallion, the vacation industry's most advanced wearable
device, provided free to each guest sailing on a MedallionClass
ship. The award-winning innovation offers the fastest way to a
hassle-free, personalized vacation giving guests more time to do
the things they love most. MedallionClass Vacations will be
activated on five ships by the end of 2019. An activation plan will
continue across the global fleet in 2020 and
beyond.
Princess Cruises continues its multi-year, "Come Back New
Promise" – a $450 million-dollar
product innovation and cruise ship renovation campaign that will
continue to enhance the line's onboard guest experience. These
enhancements result in more moments of awe, lifetime memories and
meaningful stories for guests to share from their cruise vacation.
The product innovations include partnerships with award-winning
Chef Curtis Stone; engaging
entertainment inspired shows with Broadway-legend Stephen Schwartz; immersive activities for the
whole family from Discovery and Animal Planet that include
exclusive shore excursions to onboard activities; the ultimate
sleep at sea with the award-winning Princess Luxury Bed and
more.
Two new Royal-class ships are currently under construction -
Enchanted Princess, scheduled for delivery in June 2020, followed by Discovery Princess in
November 2021. Princess previously
announced that two new (LNG) ships which will be the largest ships
in the Princess fleet, accommodating approximately 4,300 guests are
planned for delivery in 2023 and 2025. Princess now has four ships
arriving over the next five years between 2020 and 2025. The
company is part of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL;
NYSE:CUK).
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SOURCE Princess Cruises