Royal Princess (I)

What the early steam paddlers were for transoceanic passengerliners, was the Royal Princess for modern cruiseships that sail today. She was not the biggest or the longest ship when she was launched at the  Wärtsilä Yard in Helsinki, Finland in 1984, but her looks were ahead of her time. The yardnumber was 464 when she was built, and with a tonnage of 44.588 she was the biggest P&O cruiseship in servive, after the much loved Canberra of course. The Royal Princess was at the time the most luxurious ship that sailed for P&O and she was also the first that looked like a true modern cruiseship. The first ship also, where the public rooms were below and passenger accommodation was on the upper decks, so all passengers could enjoy great views. Also, Royal Princess does not have any inside cabins, something that is now only seen at the most highrated cruiseships in service!

The ship was built for 1260 passengers who could be served and pampered by 518 crewmembers. She has a length of 230,61 meters, she is 30,21 meters wide and her draft is 7,80 meters. Her servicespeed lies somewhere around 20 knots and out of a total of 12 decks, 9 can be used by her passengers. The ship was flying the British flag when she was introduced. Royal Princess was the first big cruiseliner that was built in the 'all-outside cabin' concept. All these cabins have windows, instead of portholes mostly found on older ships and it was also the first ship that offered two decks of cabins with balconies, namely the Lido deck and the Aloha deck. Her appearance was mostly appealing. Her clipperbow, massive but good proportioned superstructure and her funnel well aft, creating a vast open lido in the center of the ship, something that is greatly loved by Britisch passengers. Her main public rooms are found on the Riviera deck, in her Princess days these included the Princess Theater, Princess Court, the International Lounge, the Riviera Club and the casino. The main dining room, the Continental Dining Room was to be found one deck below, on the Plaza Deck. Wrapped around her funnel was a lounge also, called the Horizon Lounge, that gave spectacular views 360 degrees around. When she was built, the placement of her public rooms was almost an exact copy as the layout of the Island Princess and Pacific Princess. When you compare the Riviera deck on both of these sisters from the early seventees to the Riviera deck on Royal Princess you will find them practicly the same, only on Royal Princess the rooms are somewhat bigger of course. This was done because passengers from the older ships would feel immidiately at home on the new megaliner.