MS Caribbean Princess
Caribbean Princess at St. Thomas, USVI on May 2, 2011
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Caribbean Princess |
| Owner: | Carnival plc |
| Operator: | Princess Cruises |
| Port of registry: |
 Hamilton, Bermuda
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| Builder: | Fincantieri (Monfalcone, Italy) |
| Cost: | US $500 million |
| Launched: | 2004 |
| Christened: | April 2, 2004 by Jill Whelan in Fort Lauderdale |
| Maiden voyage: | April 3, 2004 |
| In service: | April 2004 |
| Identification: |
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| Status: | In service |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Caribbean Class cruise ship |
| Tonnage: | 112,894 GT |
| Length: | 951 ft (290 m) |
| Beam: | 118 ft (36 m) |
| Draft: | 26.2 ft (8.0 m) |
| Decks: | 17 total, 15 passenger |
| Installed power: | 2 diesel-electric propellers (42,000kW each) |
| Speed: | 22-knot (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
| Capacity: | 3,142 passengers |
| Crew: | 1,200 crew |
MS Caribbean Princess is a modified Grand Class cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises, with a capacity of over 3,600 passengers, the largest carrying capacity in the Princess fleet until June 2013 when the new Royal Princess, another Princess ship superseded its record. She has 900 balcony staterooms and a deck of mini-suites. She was the first modern cruise ship with an outdoor theater, which Princess bills as "Movies Under The Stars".
Caribbean Princess is slightly larger than the other ships in her class (Star Princess, Golden Princess, and Grand Princess), due to the addition of an additional deck of cabins called the Riviera deck. Another difference is that, being initially designed to cruise the Caribbean year-round, there is no sliding roof over the pool area for shelter in poor weather.
On March 12, 2012, Caribbean Princess suffered an issue to her port side propulsion engine, which required her to return to her home port of San Juan, Puerto Rico after a stopover in St. Maarten. The problem caused Princess Cruises to cancel the next two trips (scheduled for March 18 and 25).
In November 2013 a scheduled Thanksgiving week cruise departure was delayed from the Houston cruise port due to inclement weather conditions. Above average winds combined with safety concerns related to the narrow and extremely busy Houston ship channel were cited from the ship's bridge as the main reasons for the delay. Further complications with pilot boat scheduling were also announced over the ship's public address system. The Caribbean Princess finally departed on the next day, however two of the exotic ports of call (Belize and Roatan) were cancelled. An unscheduled stop at Costa Maya was added to the itinerary, but the advertised 7 night sailing with 3 stops ended up as 6 nights of actual sailing with only 2 stops. Princess cruise lines did not openly offer its passengers credits, discounts or compensation for the inconvenience and changed itinerary.
The Caribbean Princess experienced a norovirus outbreak in January 2014 sickening approximately 200 people on board. The scheduled cruise ended two days early.
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Wikipedia