Caribbean Princess

Caribbean Princess at St. Thomas, USVI on May 2, 2011
History
Bermuda
Name: Caribbean Princess
Owner: Carnival plc
Operator: Princess Cruises
Port of registry: Bermuda Hamilton, Bermuda[1]
Builder: Fincantieri (Monfalcone, Italy)[2]
Cost: US $500 million[1]
Launched: 2004
Christened: April 2, 2004 by Jill Whelan in Fort Lauderdale[3]
Maiden voyage: April 3, 2004[4]
In service: April 2004[1]
Identification:
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)[1]
Decks: 17 total, 15 passenger[1]
Installed power: 2 diesel-electric propellers (42,000kW each)[1]
Speed: 22-knot (41 km/h)[1]
Capacity: 3,142 passengers
Crew: 1,200 crew[7]

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the largest carrying capacity in the Princess fleet until June 2013 when the new Royal Princess, another Princess ship superseded its record.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 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.

Incidents

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).[8]

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. 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 seven-night sailing with three stops ended up as six nights of actual sailing with only two stops.

Caribbean Princess experienced a norovirus outbreak in January 2014 sickening approximately 200 people on board. The scheduled cruise ended two days early.[9]

During March 2014 Caribbean Princess had to wait at the Houston port and was delayed about two days after a bulk carrier ship and oil barge collided in Galveston Bay. The crash spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the water. Houston ship channel traffic was stopped, with thousands of cruise passengers stuck.[10]

On August 3, 2016, Caribbean Princess experienced a power outage while on a British Isles cruise. The ship completely lost propulsion about 25 miles southeast of Dublin, Ireland in the Irish Sea, and was left adrift for nine hours. During the power outage, air conditioners, lighting, hotel functions, and toilets were all functional. The ship regained power and sailed to Belfast (Northern Ireland), missing her next port of Dublin on her itinerary. An ocean-going tug was dispatched from Holyhead in North Wales (UK) and an Air/Sea rescue helicopter from Dublin monitored the situation. The cruise continued without any further problems to either the ship or the passengers.

Ocean pollution

On August 26, 2013, the crew of Caribbean Princess deliberately discharged 4,227 gallons of oil-contaminated waste off the southern coast of England.[11] The discharge involved the illegal modification of the vessel's on-board pollution control systems, and was photographed by a newly hired engineer.[12][13] When the ship subsequently berthed at Southampton, the engineer resigned his position and reported the discharge to the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency.[14] An investigation was launched by the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division which found that the practice had been taking place on Caribbean Princess and four other Princess ships since 2005.[15] In December 2016, Princess Cruise Lines agreed to plead guilty to 7 felony charges and pay a $40 million penalty. The charges related to illegal discharges off the coasts of Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.[16] As part of the agreement cruise ships from 8 Carnival companies, including Carnival Cruise Line and Holland America Line, are required to operate for 5 years under a court-supervised environmental compliance plan with independent audits and a court-appointed monitor.[17] According to the US Justice Department, the fine was the "largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel pollution."[16]

Current and future cruises

Caribbean Princess sailed her maiden European season from Southampton, England. She later repositioned back to New York City, New York sailing to Canada/New England as well as Bermuda. She then moved to Ft. Lauderdale to sail to 7-Day Southern Caribbean cruises. In April 2013 and April 2015 she moved once again back to Europe, sailing out of Southampton, where she sails various cruises around the British Isles and northern Europe and the Mediterranean during the summer and fall months. In November 2013, she began sailing out of Houston, Texas and will return there for the 2015–2016 season. For the 2016–17 season, she will reposition to Fort Lauderdale for a whole series of Caribbean cruises, which is what she did in the 2013–14 and the 2014–15 seasons. During the European cruising season of 2016 and 2017 Caribbean Princess was relocated to the UK summer home port of Southampton to complete 13 cruises between March and September each year. Aimed at the US fly/cruise market the Caribbean Princess is a regular visitor around England, Ireland, and Scotland. Now the Caribbean Princess sails in the Caribbean sea and Panama Canal from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ward, Douglas (2005). Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships. Singapore: Berlitz. ISBN 981-246-510-3.
  2. ↑ "CARIBBEAN PRINCESS". Vessel Assessment System. Archived from the original on 2009-04-08. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  3. ↑ "Caribbean Princess Arrives in Ft. Lauderdale". Goliath. PR Newswire. 2004-03-31. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  4. ↑ Stieghorst, Tom (2004-10-24). "Cruise lines add big, bold features to entice travelers". Access my Library. Tribune Business News. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  5. ↑ "Caribbean Princess (9215490)". Equasis. French Ministry for Transport. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  6. ↑ "MV Caribbean Princess (IMO: 9215490)". vesseltracker.com. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
  7. ↑ "Princess Cruises: Caribbean Princess – Cruise Ship Facts". www.princess.com. Retrieved 2016-06-27.
  8. ↑ Sloan, Gene (2012-03-16). "Caribbean Princess cruises ship cancel". USA Today.
  9. ↑ Haiken, M., "Is it Safe to Take a Cruise? 8 Virus Outbreaks in 3 Months", Forbes, P.1-2, https://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/04/12/8-cruise-ship-outbreaks-in-2014-is-your-cruise-safe/
  10. ↑ Harris, R.L., "Oil Spill Delays Cruise Departures," New York Times, March 24, 2014, retrieved from http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/oil-spill-delays-cruise/departures/%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  11. ↑ "The $40m 'magic pipe': Princess Cruises given record fine for dumping oil at sea". The Guardian. London. December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  12. ↑ Martin, Hugo (December 1, 2016). "Princess Cruises to pay $40-million fine for dumping oily waste and lying about it". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Carnival's Princess Cruises to pay record fine for pollution, cover-up". CBS News. New York. December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  14. ↑ Rogers, Katie (December 2, 2016). "Princess Cruise Lines to Pay $40 Million Fine for Illegal Dumping". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  15. ↑ Flechas, Joey; Herrera, Chabeli (December 1, 2016). "Carnival Corp ship caught in pollution scheme. Now they're paying $40 million for it". Miami Herald. Miami. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  16. 1 2 "Princess Cruise Lines fined $40m for waste dumping after UK tip-off". BBC News. December 1, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  17. ↑ Dennis, Brady (December 2, 2016). "'Magic pipe' used to spew oily waste into water: Princess Cruises to pay record-breaking fine for pollution". Calgary Herald. Calgary. Archived from the original on 2016-12-03. Retrieved December 3, 2016.

Bibliography

  • Saunders, Aaron (2013). Giants of the Seas: The Ships that Transformed Modern Cruising. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781848321724.
  • Smith, Peter C. (2010). Cruise Ships: The World's Most Luxurious Vessels. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN 9781848842182.
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