Royal Princess to Make West Coast Debut in March 2019
Princess Cruises' Royal Princess will debut on the U.S. west coast in March next year. Her maiden voyage will be to the Mexican Riviera.
Princess Cruises is undertaking a $450 million-dollar cruise ship renovation program, and before undertaking the voyage, the ship will undergo a "wet dock" renovation and receive several new features, including new equipment in the Lotus Spa and fitness center and installation of the line's Princess Luxury Bed, created in collaboration with Sleep Doctor Michael Breus and HGTV Designer Candice Olson, to all cabins.
The 3,560-guest Royal Princess first debuted in Southampton in June 2013 and was officially christened by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. Significant to this ceremony was the fact that her mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales, christened the original Royal Princess in 1984.
Royal Princess will sail on a series of cruises from Los Angeles (San Pedro) to the Mexican Riviera with port calls in Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. From Los Angeles, she will sail to Vancouver to begin her maiden voyages to Alaska - 18 seven-day cruises, sailing between Vancouver and Anchorage (Whittier) with port stops in Ketchikan, Skagway and Juneau with scenic cruising in Glacier Bay National Park, plus an additional glacier viewing experience at either Hubbard Glacier or College Fjord. Royal Princess ends her 2019/2020 season with a seven-day Pacific Wine Country cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver departing on May 9, 2020.
Princess Cruises started with a single ship sailing out of the Port of Los Angeles to Mexico in 1965 and currently operates 17 vessels. Three new Royal-class ships are currently on order with the next new ship, Sky Princess, scheduled for delivery in October 2019 and Enchanted Princess in 2020.
Royal Princess at a glance
To construct Royal Princess it took:
• three million man hours
• 37,000 tons of steel (more than three times the amount of steel in Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall)
• 4,000 kilometers (2,484 miles) of electrical cable (enough to travel between the company’s offices near Los Angeles, California, and New York City)
• 360,000 liters (95,000 gallons) of paint (more than twice what is reportedly used per year on the Golden Gate Bridge)
• 200 tons of marble (more than 30 times the amount of marble in Michelangelo’s famous David statue)
Royal Princess has:
• a top speed of 23 knots
• 15,000KW of transverse (sideways) thruster power (The original Love Boat, Pacific Princess, had a forward propulsion power of about 13,500KW. So Royal Princess can go faster sideways than that ship could travel forward.)
• an anchor that weighs 14 tons
How big?
• 1,083 feet long (longer than the height of the Eiffel Tower)
• 217 feet high (taller than London’s Tower Bridge)
How much?
• 600 pounds of butter used each day
• 1,500 pounds of flour is used each day to create the ship’s fresh-baked bread, homemade pasta and pastry shop treats
• 18,000 bottles of wine and champagne in the wine cellars
• 250,000 eggs used per week
• three tons of ice - used to carve 20 sculptures per cruise
• 170,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed per cruise
• 900,000 pounds (about 20 truckloads) of supplies loaded every 10 days
• 54,600 napkins washed per week
• 21,200 bath towels washed per week