It is called the cruise line for people who want a large ship with lots of amenities.
Princess Cruises ships are fairly priced. Unlike many of its competitors in that space, it doesn't load them up with flashy, family-focused diversions.
Compared to other big ship-operating rivals, Princess is known for a more serene, almost "old school" type of cruising.
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The line is all about warm and gracious service in an atmosphere of comfortable elegance designed to spark connections between passengers.
Instead of bustling attractions, its top decks offer lots of quiet and relaxing pool and lounge areas where you can enjoy the experience of being at sea. The experience inside is the same as it has been on Princess ships for a long time.
It's the way Princess customers like it. The Love Boat line caters to people who prefer a more traditional type of cruising than you will find on most other big-ship lines.
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Princess has reduced the size of its fleet over the last few years. It is the fifth biggest cruise line by passenger capacity, with 15 ships that offer more than 46,000 berths.
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The vessels operated by Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and MSC Cruises are larger than the ones operated by Princess. The line's six Royal Class ships measure over 145,000 tons. Royal Caribbean has larger ships than that.
The Royal Class ships are the center of attention. They are newer and have more amenities than the line's nine other ships.
The series is named after the first Royal Class vessel. The U.K.'s Catherine, Duke of Cambridge christened it the Royal Princess. The Royal Princess was christened by Diana, Princess of Wales.
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The seven Grand Class vessels are just as important as the rest of the fleet. Smaller than the Royal Class vessels, the ships were unveiled between 1998 and 2008. The smaller size allows for a wide range of itineraries. They are large enough to have many onboard venues. Between 2,600 and 3,100 passengers are carried on the Grand Class ships.
There are two smaller vessels that measure 92,000 tons a piece. The line has two sister ships named Coral Princess and Island Princess. Around 2,000 passengers are carried by each of them.
Over the past few years, the Princess fleet has been downsizing. Three ships left the line's fleet in 2020 as part of an effort to cut costs. The Golden Princess and Star Princess were supposed to leave the Princess fleet before the swine flu started. They were moved to P&O Cruises Australia.
The line currently has two more vessels on order that will be its largest ships ever. The first of the vessels will be called Sun Princess and will be followed by an as-yet-unnamed sister in 25 years.
The new Sky Princess is being boarded by a private equity firm.
Princess Cruises sails to more than 100 countries on seven continents and has a wide range of itineraries. More than 400 different ports and destinations are visited by the line's ships.
The voyages include three-day sampler cruises along the West Coast of the U.S. and around the world voyages.
The market for cruises to Alaska is dominated by Princess and Holland America. Princess deploys more ships to Alaska in the summer than any other line. It also runs tourist trains and buses in the state. It combines a cruise with land-based touring in a range of 10- to 17-night Alaska tours.
Princess can deploy as many as eight ships to Europe in the summer, and it can deploy as many as six ships in Australia each year. It has become a major player in cruises around Japan that cater to both American and Japanese travelers.
In North America, Princess ships can be found in Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and Galveston.
The majority of Princess ships sail out of the ports of Athens, Greece, and Rome.
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The Princess line appeals to older people. Most of the couples on board are in their 50s, 60s and 70s.
These aren't people who like go-kart tracks and ropes courses at sea. People are looking to explore the world in a comfortable, classy way that is relatively inexpensive. It's the last part that's important. Many high-end luxury lines offer globe-circling itineraries like Princess does. It does so at a very low price.
Princess is not the largest line for families with young children. If you want an affordable ship that will appeal to your parents as much as your child, then you need to take this line.
A lot of passengers celebrate milestone. Birthdays and anniversaries are marked heavily by the line with special packages. It is a huge player in the market for destination weddings at sea with a division that will help you arrange a ceremony on board or at an exotic location during a port call.
Princess was the first cruise line to offer modern-day weddings on ships.
The "Love Boat" line is what it is.
Princess is a Marriott of the big ship cruise world when it comes to rooms. The rooms are comfortable but not great. A Princess style is not avant-garde.
Most of the accommodations on Princess ships are windowless inside cabins, ocean view cabins and balcony cabins. There are balconies on Princess ships. Princess was the first mass-market line to add balcony cabins to ships.
Few suites are found on balcony cabins on Princess ships. The Sky Princess has just 46 suites, which is an improvement over earlier vessels in the same series, which had just 36 suites.
There aren't a lot of ways to live large on a Princess ship. Sky Princess was the first line to have a cabin that could hold more than four people.
The Grand Class vessels offer two "Family Suites" that can be created by connecting a Mini-Suite with an adjacent inside room to create a six to eight person complex.
The Sky Suites were the line's first truly large stand-alone suites. The Discovery Princess has also been added to the line.
There are two suites on each of the ships, and they measure a generous 1,800 square feet, with more than half of that space taken up by a wraparound balcony. They have two bedrooms and a living room with a pullout sofa.
The Sky Suites on Sky Princess aren't as big as the suites on the latest Royal Caribbean or Regent Seven Seas Cruises ships. Princess isn't your line if you're after that.
There is a cruise ship suite that is bigger than a house.
The dining rooms on Princess ships are the heart of the dining experience and include meals in the fare. The main dining room is where most of the passengers eat.
If you want a table at the right time, you can make a reservation for dinners in the main room. Once you've paid for the cruise in full, it's a good idea to reserve a table far in advance so you can maximize your time on the ship. You can make reservations on board ships and even show up to a dining room without a reservation, in which case you will be seated on a space- available basis.
Princess doesn't offer a fixed-time seating option where you can request the same table at the same time every night of a cruise.
There is a casual buffet eatery on every vessel. The World Fresh Market is located near the main pool area on some ships.
Pizza outlets and grills are included in the fare on some ships. Princess transforms a bar or restaurant at lunchtime into an English-style pub. Traditional pub food such as fish and chips and cottage pie can be found there.
Extra-charge eateries are included in the price of every Princess ship. The line's signature Italian restaurant is on most ships. It charges a flat fee of $35 per person for its homemade pasta, seafood and other Italian specialties.
The majority of Princess ships have a signature steak. Premium beef and seafood can be ordered in an open, theater style kitchen on most vessels. Passengers are able to choose their cut of steak from a tray presented by their waiter on the ships.
There is a Cajun and Creole twist to the steak on two ships. New Orleans-style peel-and- eat shrimp, alligator ribs, and gumbo can be found on the menu. The name of the restaurant is the Bayou Café and Steakhouse.
The fee is $39 per person.
A Chef's Table experience is offered on Princess ships. It includes pre-dinner cocktails and hors d'oeuvre in the galley with the executive chef before a main dining experience at a private table in the dining room.
The bistro sur la Mer is a French restaurant that is on a Princess ship. There is only one restaurant on Sky Princess. The dishes are created by the star chef of the French Alps. The cover charge is similar to that of the Princess steakhouses.
You can have the best meals at sea.
There are Broadway-style theater shows, street entertainers, and more on Princess ships. They are not an amusement park. Princess isn't topping its vessels with waterslides, go-kart tracks, ropes courses and other family focused attractions.
Princess ships have a lot of entertainment on offer. On a typical night, you can find a fast-paced production show in the main theater, a comedy show in the secondary lounge, and live music in a number of other places.
Broadway-show-level lighting and special effects are included in the productions housed within the theaters on Princess ships.
Stephen Schwartz, the Tony Award-winning composer of "Godspell" and "Pippin", has collaborated with Princess in the past.
Schwartz has worked on a new production called "The Secret Silk," which features life-size puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop. John was a star of Broadway's "Avenue Q" and "Beauty and the Beast"
The score for "Magic to Do" features many of Schwartz's best-known songs as well as an original number he created just for Princess.
Princess is known for its karaoke nights and recently began holding a new competition called "The Voice of the Ocean" during cruises that is a spinoff of the TV show. Passengers compete in a live performance after auditioning with the shipboard band and backups. Passengers vote to decide the winner of a game in which a team of coaches sit in chairs.
A range of bars, lounges and night spots can be found in the Princess ships' interiors, as well as entertainment spaces.
The Piazza is a multilevel space designed to look like a square in Italy. Several shops, a coffee bar, a wine bar, and additional bars and eateries can be found in the Piazza on ships. There are street performers at the Piazza.
There is a casino on every Princess ship and spas on the ships. There are nearly two dozen treatment rooms, an extensive beauty salon and a thermal suite on the Royal Class ships.
The first jazz club on a Princess ship, called Take 5, was located on the recently unveiled Sky Princess.
Princess has many enrichment activities on its ships. The Discovery at Sea program on vessels is a partnership between the line and Discovery. In places such as Alaska, destination specialists are on board to offer insights.
In order to challenge both adults and kids on the myths and interesting facts about sharks, Princess has created Shark Week at Sea, a program that runs on select sailings in the summer.
Wine tasting and dance classes are popular on Princess ships.
There are no pedal-powered sky rides or ropes courses on the top decks of Princess ships, unlike on Carnival ships or the go-kart tracks on some Norwegian vessels. On Royal Caribbean vessels there are zip lines and rock climbing walls, but there are no surfing sims, sky diving sims, or rock climbing walls for that matter. There aren't any waterslides or watery splash zones for the most part.
Princess executives decided not to engage in what they call the "amusement park arms race" between lines that operate large, resort-like ships.
The line has stuck to the basics. They have a lot of lounge and pool areas.
There is a main pool area at the center of the top deck with two full pools and three hot tub, as well as a secondary pool area at the back of the ship. An adult-only relaxation area called the Sanctuary is located near the front of the vessel.
There are additional areas with lounge chairs and hot tub on the side of the ship.
There is more space on the top deck of the newest Princess vessels than on any other ship of comparable size.
There is a giant Movies Under the Stars movie screen located on the top deck of Princess ships. Princess pioneered the idea of having a movie screen on the pool deck.
During the day, the screens show movies, but at night they shine. The main pool areas of the ships are turned into outdoor movie theaters at night by rearranging lounge chairs to face the screen and bringing out blankets. Popcorn is even served.
There are basketball courts, miniature golf putting courses, shuffleboard games, and ping-pong tables on some ships.
Princess has an extensive children's program that gets high marks from parents, even though it doesn't draw as many families with young children.
As a result of the line's partnership with Discovery Communications, the Princess Youth and Teen centers have been renamed "Camp Discovery" and offer free, supervised activities for children of all ages.
Children in the program are divided into three age groups: the Treehouse, the Lodge and the Beach House. The different age groups have their own facilities on ships. The age groups can be further divided on some ships.
New experiences designed to help young Princess explorers learn, play and create fun memories have been created for each group.
While the free programming for children ages 3 to 12 ends at 10 p.m., you can pay extra to leave your kids at shipboard youth and teen centers past 10 p.m. They are in a group child-sitting service.
Children under the age of 3 can go to the Youth and Teen centers.
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All international itineraries include sailings to Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, India, Central and South America, Panama Canal and Caribbean voyages.
You don't need a passport for many domestic itineraries if you're a U.S. citizen. An official copy of your birth certificate and a driver's license can be used. A passport card is one form of identification that is acceptable. All travelers should bring a passport.
The passport must be valid for at least 6 months. The name on your reservation needs to be the same as the one on your passport.
An automatic service gratuity of $16 to $18 per person per day is added to final bills by Princess. You can adjust the amount at the guest services desk if you are unhappy with the service you receive. If you want, you can raise the tip amount. 18% is added to the bill at bars, dining room wine accounts and spas.
There is a lot of information about tipping on a cruise ship.
Princess has been rolling out faster wi-fi systems with land-like speeds across its fleet, such that you can stream video on some ships. The line recently charged a fee to hook up a single device. The rate for a single device is going to go up in February of 2020.
The faster Princess wi-fi system is called MedallionNet and it is one of several technological upgrades that Princess is rolling out to ships. The ability to locate friends and family on board, as well as expedited embarkation, on-demand food and beverage delivery, and the ability to locate friends and family via several apps for mobile devices, are all part of the MedallionClass.
There is better wi-fi on ships.
If you want to bring wine or champagne to an onboard restaurant or bar, you will have to pay a corkage fee. You will have to pay a corkage fee for every bottle of wine you bring on the plane.
Smoking is only permitted in designated outdoor areas, cigar lounges, designated sections within nightclubs and at designated slot machines for those who are playing on ships. It is not allowed in cabins or on balconies. Passengers caught smoking in their cabins will be fined. E-cigarettes can be used in cabins, but not on cabin balconies.
There are washing machines and ironing boards on Princess ships. There is a $3 per load charge for washers and dryers. There are vending machines at the launderettes that sell detergent and water softener at a discounted rate. Extra-charge laundry and dry cleaning are also offered by vessels.
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Some vessels have European-style 220-volt outlets in cabins, while others have standard North American-style outlets in rooms.
Most Princess itineraries use U.S. dollars. Select sailings on ships based in Australia are exceptions. Any onboard purchases you make will be posted to your onboard account. You will be given a medallion that you can use to charge. The same card is used to enter your cabin.
You have to be 21 to drink on Princess itineraries. Sailings between ports in Europe, China, Australia and New Zealand are exceptions. The drinking age for cruises is 20.
There isn't a dress code during the day. T-shirts, shorts and bathing suits are fine if you are going to the beach on a warm-weather day.
There is a dress code in restaurants during the evening hours. Princess refers to most nights as smart casual, which means pants and an open neck shirt for men and skirts and dresses for women.
Beach attire, shorts, baseball caps and casual jeans can't be. Men are expected to turn out in dark suits with a tie or tuxedo on one or more nights of a cruise. Women should wear evening gowns or cocktail dresses on such nights.
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Princess has a four-tier frequent cruiser program, the Captain's Circle, that is worth joining for the perks if you're willing to bear with its convoluted tier qualification.
You can get to the first tier by taking a single cruise. You can either accumulate a certain number of cruise credits or sail a certain number of days in order to move to the next tier.
Three cruise credits or 30 days on Princess ships are required to reach the Ruby level. Platinum status starts after 50 days on ships.
There is a Princess loyalty program.
Members get one cruise credit for every cruise they take. Two cruise credits will be given to members who travel solo in a cabin meant for two. The number of cruise credits you have earned is usually the same as the number of cruises you have taken.
When it comes to cruise line loyalty programs, lower tiers don't bring as much as they could. You will get an invite to a private party and a free upgrade to your travel insurance package when you buy it through the line. Higher levels of the program are appealing.
Priority check-in and boarding is one of the perks of Platinum.
There is an exclusive window to preview and book new itineraries, priority ship-to-shore water shuttle service, complimentary laundry and a complimentary minibar setup on the top Elite level.
Special pricing on certain cruises is available to members at all tiers. They get a membership pin.
Cruise line loyalty programs don't require you to requalify for status every year. The perks are not great. It can be done in a few years if you are cruising a lot.
After just three cruises, a passenger will reach the Platinum level. It is possible to get to the top level on eight cruises.
There's a guide to cruise line loyalty programs.
The price of a princess ship is very reasonable. They are not the most expensive vessels in the world. It is possible to find Princess voyages to the Caribbean for less than $100 per person, per night, including all taxes and fees.
Seven-night sailings from Fort Lauderdale to the Eastern Caribbean in May start at just $571 per person, not including taxes and fees. That works out to $102 per night, per person, with taxes and fees for a package that includes lodging, transportation and meals.
Pricing for ships will usually be lower during the months of September, October, November and December.
It matters when you book. Cruises are more likely to book up in advance than airlines or hotels. When cruises first go on sale, you can usually find the best pricing for any given sailing. You can get your preferred cabin type and location on a ship if you book in advance.
Most drinks, extra-charge restaurants, spa services, shore excursions, internet service, and a few other things will cost you more if you don't buy a package in advance.
The line recently unveiled new bundle pricing for extra-charge items such as gratuity fees, wi-fi fees and a few other fees if passengers pay for them in advance.
Pre-paid gratuities, a single- device wi-fi plan and a basic beverage package are included in the Princess Plus plan.
An enhanced version of the above plan, called Princess premier, adds a photo package and two free meals at restaurants that normally have an extra charge. $75 per person per day is the cost of the princess premier plan
The fare includes most onboard activities.
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You can make a booking directly at Princess.com if you know what type of cabin you want, on which ship, on which itinerary, and a number of other things.
We recommend that you use a seasoned travel agent who specializes in cruises since there are a lot of decisions to be made during the booking process.
A travel agent can help you find the perfect cruise line, itinerary and cabin for you. If something goes wrong just before, during or after your trip, they can help you.
If you are certain that Princess is your line, you need a travel agent who specializes in Princess trips. You want someone who knows all the quirks of Princess cabins and has done ship inspections to see the cabins first-hand.
Booking a cruise with points and miles is related.
If you use a travel agent, make sure to maximize your credit card points by using a credit card that offers extra points for travel purchases. 3 Ultimate rewards points per dollar on travel and dining is offered by the Chase Sapphire Reserve 2 Ultimate rewards points per dollar on travel and 3 Ultimate rewards points per dollar on dining are included on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
Princess ships are comfortable and classy at an affordable price.
It's probably not the line for you if you're looking for a lot of deck-top flair. If you are looking for a vessel that will take you to the farthest corners of the world in comfort, the ships of Princess should be on your list.
Its ships are designed to appeal to a wide range of age groups, making it a great line if you are planning a multigenerational trip.
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