SUN, SEA & SOLD!
September 28, 2020
This week Princess Cruises announced the departure of two ships from their fleet; Sun Princess and Sea Princess.
The Cruise line which is owned by parent company Carnival Corporation has sold both ships to an undisclosed buyer. The ships are just two out of eighteen ships Carnival Corp is selling across their brands, including Costa Cruises, P&O Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line. Carnival Corp is the world’s largest Cruise company making up 45% of the global cruise market. They recently said, the global downturn is cruising, particularly the ban on cruising in Australia and the USA has lead them to move up plans to remove the older less efficient ships in their fleet.
Princess Cruise Lines President, Jan Swartz said: “Sun Princess and Sea Princess contributed to significant growth in Australian cruising. Both ships defined the premium cruise experience with Australians and New Zealanders spending close to 14 million nights aboard these ships.
While it is never easy to say goodbye to any ship in our fleet, this will allow us to deploy newer ships enhancing our offerings for Australia cruisers and focus on bringing into service exciting new builds like the upcoming delivery of Enchanted Princess.”
Sun Princess made its Princess debut in 1995 as one of the biggest cruise ships in the world at the time and as the first Sun Class ship. Debuting in the Caribbean, the 2,000-passenger ship also sailed in Alaska and the Panama Canal, before becoming home ported in Australia in 2007.
The ship also helped open Princess Cruises up to the Japanese market, becoming the first foreign-flagged cruise ship in 2013 to offer cruises specifically for the Japanese.
Sea Princess also carrying 2,000 passengers, she was renowned for her world cruises and has completed six full world cruises since 2013.
Based in Australia, the ship travelled the equivalent of 35 times around the world. Prior to joining Sun Princess in Australia, Sea Princess sailed in Europe and Alaska as well as the Caribbean, including serving as a homeport ship in Barbados in the 2000s.
Due to the departure of the two ships, Princess has had to cancel sailings on both vessels, which include:
Sun Princess From 28 December 2020 – 14 August 2021
Sea Princess From 23 December 2020 – 9 November 2021
Guests and Travel Agents are in the process of being notified and will receive information on how to book another Princess cruise when operations resume. If guests choose to not re-book they will receive a full refund.
