Sky Princess is a Royal-class cruise ship currently operated by Princess Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. She is the second ship in the cruise line's history to sail under this name. She is the fourth Royal-class ship in the Princess fleet and commenced operations in October 2019.[1] [2] The ship measures 145,281 GT and has a capacity of 3,660 passengers.
Carnival Corporation first entered a strategic agreement with Fincantieri in March 2015 for five cruise ships for delivery between 2019 and 2022.[3] From this agreement, the order for a then-unnamed, fourth Royal-class vessel was announced for Princess on 30 December 2015.[4] [5] The contract for this order was finalized on 2 April 2016.[6] On 30 November 2017, Princess Cruises officially announced the name of the fourth Royal-class ship as Sky Princess, in honor of a previous Princess vessel that carried the same name.[7] [8]
Construction began on 9 November 2016 with the steel cutting for the ship's bow at Fincantieri's shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia,[9] with a separate milestone on 8 September 2017 marking the steel-cutting for the rest of the ship at Fincantieri's shipyard in Monfalcone.[10] Her keel-laying was performed on 5 July 2018.[11] She was floated out on 14 February 2019[12] and completed her sea trials in September 2019.[13]
Sky Princess was officially delivered on 15 October 2019 in her handover ceremony at Fincantieri's shipyard in Monfalcone.
The ship sailed a four-day pre-inaugural "shakedown" cruise for the press on 16 October 2019 from Trieste to Athens with a call in Kotor.[14] She performed her official maiden voyage on 20 October 2019, a seven-day cruise sailing between Athens and Barcelona.[15] She sailed a short inaugural season in the Mediterranean in fall 2019 before repositioning to her new homeport of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, arriving on 1 December 2019. Due to high demand, two three-day inaugural cruises were scheduled on 1 December 2019 and 4 December 2019, with both cruising between Port Everglades and Princess Cays.[16]
Sky Princess was christened at Port Everglades on 7 December 2019 by NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy Captain Kay Hire and NASA engineer Poppy Northcutt.[17]
During the winter months, Sky Princess sails in the Caribbean from Port Everglades.[18] [19] For the summer months, she sails in Europe, including the Baltic region.[20] [21] In the fall, she sails along the Maritimes and New England from New York.[22] [23]
Sky Princess measures, has a length of 330m (1,080feet), a draft of 8.49m (27.85feet), and a beam of 38.4m (126feet).[24] She is powered by a diesel-electric genset system, with four total Wärtsilä engines, producing a total output of 62.4MW. Main propulsion is via two propellers, each driven by a 18MW electric motor. The system gives the vessel a service speed of 21.9kn and a maximum speed of 23kn. The ship houses 1,830 passenger cabins and 757 crew cabins. Of the 1,830 passenger cabins, 81% have a balcony. The ship has a maximum capacity of 5,800 passengers and crew.