Grand class
The Grand-class ships were built at Fincantieri Navali Italiani at Monfalcone, Italy in 1997,2000 and 2001. The ships tonnages are 108.806 (Grand) and 108.865 (Golden and Star). They have room for 3300 passengers served by 1200 crew on 12 decks. The ships are 289,51 meters in lenght, 36 meters wide and a draft of 8 meters. They fly the Bahamian-flag with homeport Hamilton and sail at 22,5 knots. Berlitz rated them 4-star plus.
In the middle of the nineties, Princess Cruises became one of the biggest expanding cruisecompanies in the world. Old ships were sold and a large number of megaships were built. In may 1997, just after Carnival Cruise Lines introduced the worlds first 100.000-tonner Carnival Destiny, Princess Cruises smashed this record by almost 10.000 tons when Grand Princess floated out. This new colossus became the biggest ship in the world, so big, that the first cruise to Istanbul had to be cancelled because the interiour wasn't ready on time. Her first cruise was thus from Istanbul on the 26th of may 1998...
The ship has 750 outside cabins with balconies, at the time the most balconies on any cruiseliner. Five swimmingpools are also on board, and the most distinctive feature is a glass-roofed nightclub high above the stern of the ship. All of this, in a ship that was supposed to be a 'big ship with a small ship feel'. Opinions about this are not the same with every passenger...
In april 2001, a few years after the introduction of Grand Princess, Golden Princess came into service with some short cruises out of Southampton. This new princess was also slightly bigger then her older sister, although you can't see this in any way. This ship was followed one year later by the thirth Grand-class Star Princess. The names of the last two ships were used both earlier in Princess Cruises history.
A lot of people say these ships are not pretty in any way and somehow I agree. But we cannot forget the fact that these ships were the trendsetters for even bigger ships and the growth of the cruiseindustry in total. Also, they have some features that make them easily recognizable, like the overhanging Skywalkers Lounge at the stern. This is a nightclub, actually, and it was designed to be a resemble the design of a Spanish galleon. The bad thing about this lounge is that is overshadowing the aft open deck space and viritually no sun can get there. What is surprising about these ships is that they are incredibly short for ships of this size. Because of this, they mostly grew in height and therefor we really can call them weddingcakes...
In march 2006, Star Princess was in the headlines when a fatal fire broke out on a Caribbean cruise. One American passenger died in this tragic incident and at least 150 cabins were destroyed by fire or smoke-damage. Besides the one passenger who died, eleven others were injured. The rest of the cruise was logically cancelled and the ship had to be repaired because the damage was extensive.
With ships of 120.000, 150.000 and 220.000 tons sailing, we can only guess for the time when these ships will be called mid-sized. But their introduction changed the world of cruising for sure, we cannot argue about that. Pretty, I don't know. But when I look at the Star Princess picture below, I can say they maybe have some charm too...
Besides the problems with the blocking of the sun from the aft decks, there were also some structural issues about the Skywalkers Lounge that were revealed in the past years. Small cracks in the structure has been reported when the ships just came into service. On april 14th 2011, Grand Princess will enter dry dock and the lounge will be removed, for fuel-efficiency reasons as stated by Princess Cruises. During this drydocking, that will be finished on may 4th, there will be a new nightclub installed, the atrium will be rebuilt and a new tealounge will be installed, that will be a combination with a library under the name of Leaves. Furthermore, a lot of inside spaces will be rebuilt and 10 new suites will be added. So a new Grand Princess will be sailing her European season in 2011 out of Southampton.
The blueprints of the Grand Class that consists actually just out the original three ships, were also used in a lot more ships often referred to as Grand-class. But in fact these ships all are very different from this original trio, even having their own class-names.
There is the Gem-class of ships that consists out of Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess. These ships have a totally different lay-out as the original Grand-class trio. Also, they were not built at Fincantieri, like the rest of all Grand-class lookalikes, but at the Mitsubishi Yard at Nagasaki, Japan. The most striking difference is the change of place of the Skywalkers lounge. It is situated directly behind the funnel instead of above the stern, due to the earlier problems Princess faced with the original ships.
The Caribbean Princess, launched in 2003, has no changes made to the basic layout of the first ships, but she recieved one extra deck so around 300 passengers more can be sailing her. No other ships were built exactly like her, so she is a unique ship within the Grand-class family.
Then there is the Crown-class, where three ships can be connected to. They have the extra deck like Caribbean Princess, but their Skywalkers lounge is also placed just aft of the funnel like at the Gem-class. Also, some new cafe's and grills are added for her passengers and the Crown-class ships also have The Sanctuary, a for-fee, adults-only area above the spa, where the Sports Courts are located on earlier ships. The Crown-class is Crown Princess, Emerald Princess and Ruby Princess. Below are two pictures shown of Emerald Princess, when she left Rotterdam on the 13th of may 2009.
For P&O, also two ships are built based on the original Grand-class design. These ships are referred to as Ventura-class, named after the first of the two. The other ship beiing the Azura. These ships are built in the style of P&O, thus very different from the Princess ships.
