Princess Cruises Expands Fleet

Princess Cruises has announced it will expand its fleet by adding a sister vessel to the line´s popular Pacific Princess and Tahitian Princess.

The 680-passenger ship will be named Royal Princess, taking the name of a former, much-beloved Princess ship which had long been cruising in Europe and other exotic worldwide destinations.

Its new successor will take over a similar deployment when she enters service in autumn 2007.

The 30,000-ton ship originally entered service in 2001 as a Renaissance vessel –named R8- and is currently cruising as Swan Hellenic´s Minerva II.

Royal Princess will join its sisters Tahitian Princess and Pacific Princess to give passengers a cruising environment with all the hallmarks of choice for which Princess is known, including a variety of dining and entertainment options and a large number of cabins with private balconies.

The ship will begin sailing for Princess in April 2007 after a two week dry dock to make some interior modifications. Her first itineraries will be in Europe with 12-day sailings in the Mediterranean, Holy Land and Black Sea, and details of these cruises will be announced shortly.