1965–1973: Early years Princess Cruises began in 1965, 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. 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 receive the Princess logo on her funnel until 1967.
1974–1987: P&O acquires Princess Britain's
Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which by 1960 was the world's largest shipping company, with 320 oceangoing 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. Princess Bay was the cruise line's second private island resort, replacing Palm Island, and was marketed as "every castaway's first choice," but is now no longer a Princess private resort.
1988–1994: Sitmar acquisition, Princess Cays . 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.
Dawn Princess and
Fair Princess were both ex-Cunard, 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
Star Princess, the largest British exclusively cruising ship. Two 70,000
GT cruise ships designed originally by famed architect
Renzo Piano entered service in 1990 as
Crown Princess and
Regal Princess, bringing Princess's fleet up to ten deluxe cruise ships. The resort suffered from a fire in January 2019 that damaged several buildings along the south side of the island.
1995–1999: Fleet modernization (pictured in 2016) marked the introduction of the brand's first purpose-built newbuild ship in a decade. In the early 1990s, Princess was operating a fleet of mostly second-hand ships, with the majority having been inherited from the Sitmar Cruises acquisition. The last purpose-built Princess new build had been the Royal Princess in 1984, and the 3 recent inherited new builds had all been designed for Sitmar Cruises. A new building project was commenced with the first new build debuting in 1995 with
Sun Princess as the lead vessel for the
Sun-class. This was the first of four ships in the class, followed by
Dawn Princess,
Sea Princess, and
Ocean Princess. At the same time Princess began transferring some of its older ships to parent company
P&O Cruises and their subsidiaries
P&O Australia.
Dawn Princess left the fleet in 1993,
Sea Princess in 1995,
Golden Princess, 1996,
Fair Princess in 1997,
Island Princess in 1999.
Grand-class '' (pictured in 2009) was the world's largest cruise ship upon delivery. Princess unveiled its first
Grand-class vessel in 1998, the
Grand Princess, which debuted on May 26, and was christened by
Olivia de Havilland. At the time, the $450 million
Fincantieri-built vessel was the largest passenger ship ever commissioned and completed. Two more ships in the class,
Golden Princess and
Star Princess, followed, pioneering the design that carried on through the following six vessels in the class, with the last ship delivered in 2008.
2000–2002: P&O Princess spun off On October 23, 2000, the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) spun-off its passenger division to form an independent company, P&O Princess Cruises. In 2001, Princess Cruises headquarters moved from
Century City to
Santa Clarita, near the
Westfield Valencia Town Center. With the debut of
Golden Princess in North America in 2001,
Sky Princess was deployed to Australia for
P&O Cruises Australia in 2000 and replace
Fair Princess. Sky Princess was transformed into
Pacific Sky to become the sister brand's first modern-era cruise ship for the recently spun off
P&O Cruises Australia.
Star Princess commenced operations in March 2002 and became the first "mega-ship" to operate from the
West Coast on a full-time basis. In June 2002,
Crown Princess was transferred to P&O Princess's new start-up brand,
A'Rosa Cruises, to be the only cruise ship in A'Rosa's fleet to help launch the brand. In 2002 , famous as the ship from
The Love Boat, left the Princess fleet after 27 years of service with the line, and last of the original Princess fleet.
Coral-class introduction '' (pictured in 2012) was built to a maximized
Panamax standard to transit the
Panama Canal. In 2002 and 2003 Princess debuted two
panamax ships, the
Coral Princess and
Island Princess. Built to be the maximum sized ships to transit the Panama Canal, they were assigned for longer Southern Caribbean and Panama Canal cruises. They would also incorporate the ship engineering trend of the time of having additional gas turbine engines. This was emphasized in the ship's design with giant decorative faux turbines on each side of the funnel.
R-class ships acquisition (pictured in 2012) was acquired from
Renaissance Cruises in 2002. Princess eventually acquired two former Renaissance ships for the line starting in 2002. They were deployed for longer and more exotic destination cruises. The ships joining the fleet were
Tahitian Princess, which was first based in Tahiti before being later renamed
Ocean Princess, and
Pacific Princess, reviving the famous name of the ship featured on
The Love Boat.
2003–2009: Carnival acquires P&O Princess P&O Princess Cruises merged with Carnival Corporation on April 17, 2003, to form the world's largest cruise operating company in a deal worth US$5.4 billion. As a result of the merger, Carnival Corporation and P&O Princess were integrated to form
Carnival Corporation & plc, with a portfolio of eleven cruise ship brands. It is a
dual-listed company, registered in both the United States and the United Kingdom, with the former P&O Princess Cruises being relisted as Carnival plc, more commonly known as
Carnival UK, which holds executive control over
Cunard Line and
P&O Cruises. As an American-based company, executive control of Princess Cruises was transferred to Carnival's American operations, with the formation of the Holland America Group umbrella, which comprises Princess,
Holland America Line,
Seabourn Cruise Line, and
P&O Cruises Australia. In 2005, Princess swapped two ships between it and sister brand P&O. The
Royal Princess, Princess Cruises first purpose-built ship, was transferred to
P&O Cruises in April after 21 years of service with the line. Princess reacquired
Sea Princess in May from P&O, which it had transferred over just two years prior. On April 3, 2008,
Micky Arison, the chairman of Carnival Corporation & plc, stated that due to the low value of the
United States dollar because of the
recession, inflation and high shipbuilding costs, the company would not be ordering any new ships for their U.S.-based brands (Princess,
Carnival Cruise Line, and Holland America Line) before the economic situation improved.
2010–2021: Royal-class, COVID-19 pandemic (pictured in 2013) became the largest ship to be built for Princess in its history. In May 2010, Carnival Corporation & plc signed a contract with
Fincantieri for the construction of two new 3,600-passenger ships, known as the
Royal-class cruise ships, for Princess. At more than , the
Royal-class vessels became the largest ships ever constructed for Princess. Named in honor of Princess's former vessels bearing the
Royal name,
Royal Princess entered service in 2013 and became Princess's flagship vessel; she was quickly followed by
Regal Princess in 2014. In 2017, Princess further invested in
China via the delivery of their third
Royal-class ship,
Majestic Princess, which was designed for the
Chinese-speaking market and scheduled to homeport in
Shanghai. Following the delivery of
Sky Princess in October 2019, Princess received two more
Royal-class ships (
Enchanted Princess and
Discovery Princess) to complete the class in the fleet with six vessels.
COVID-19 outbreak , the ship underwent a cleaning and disinfection process at
Daikoku Pier at the
Port of Yokohama in March 2020. In 2020, Princess became the first major cruise line to be affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic after an
outbreak onboard Diamond Princess in February led 712 of the 3,711 people on board to become infected. The ship's outbreak and quarantine in
Yokohama elicited global criticism, both for Japan's handling of its mandated quarantine procedures at the time and for Princess after it was reported Princess had initially assumed there was only minimal risk and had only initiated the lowest-level protocols for any outbreaks prior to the quarantine. Subsequent large-scale outbreaks onboard several more Princess vessels, including
Ruby Princess in Australia accelerated Princess's suspension of operations as the broader industry proceeded into the pandemic-induced hiatus. Amid the operational pause in 2020, Princess parted ways with four ships in advance of their initially projected timelines after increased speculation about a sale surrounded the brand's oldest ships. This came after Carnival Corporation revealed its goals to reduce overall fleet tonnage in a bid to reduce costs. In September, Princess sold its remaining two
Sun-class ships,
Sun Princess and
Sea Princess. Sun Princess was later acquired by
Peace Boat to become its largest ship and subsequently renamed
Pacific World. Sea Princess was acquired by Chinese start-up Sanya International Cruise Development and renamed
Charming. The following month, in October, Princess announced the official transfer of
Golden Princess and accelerated transfer of
Star Princess to sister brand P&O Cruises Australia, marking the first two
Grand-class vessels to exit the fleet.
Post-pandemic recovery Throughout the pause, Princess staffed all ships with skeleton crew who had been onboard for months longer than anticipated after the hiatus extended beyond original expectations. The success of the first voyages was followed by the resumption of service on seven additional vessels by the end of November 2021, with the whole fleet operating by the end of November 2022 after the reentry of
Diamond Princess.
2022–present: Homeport expansion, Sphere-class After the success of the initial phased rollout of its resumption in the United States and amid the lingering uncertainty surrounding international travel restrictions related to the pandemic, in March 2022, Princess announced it would redeploy several ships from their originally scheduled distant homeports back to those in the United States. As a part of the redeployment, Princess revealed it would also return to the
Port of San Diego with
Diamond Princess in September 2022 (later postponed to November 2022 as a result of "staffing challenges") after more than ten years away, and to the
Port of Galveston in December 2022 with
Ruby Princess after a six-year absence. Princess has since made further expansions in its commitment to the American market with the stationing of the larger
Regal Princess in Galveston, beginning in fall 2023, and the introduction of
Port Canaveral to its network with
Caribbean Princess to mark Princess's debut at the port in November 2024.
Sphere-class In July 2018, Princess signed a memorandum of agreement with Fincantieri for the construction of two new 175,000 GT ships to be primarily powered by
liquefied natural gas (LNG). The ships would become the largest vessels built in Italy and commissioned for Princess as well as the first in the fleet to run on LNG. Princess unveiled the names of the lead vessel and second ship as
Sun Princess and
Star Princess in September 2022 and May 2023, respectively, with both being the third ships in the fleet's history to bear their respective names.
Sun Princess made its debut in February 2024 after a short delay for additional technical work.
Star Princess was also delayed and is now scheduled to sail beginning in September 2025.
60th Anniversary A special commemorative 60th anniversary cruise on the
Mexican Riviera is scheduled to depart from the Port of Los Angeles on March 6, 2026. The cruise, on the
Royal Princess, will be hosted by
Jill Whelan, who played Vicki Stubing in the TV series
The Love Boat.
The Temptations will provide a guest performance. == Fleet ==