Sky Princess nears completion with bow section launch

Princess Cruises has come a step closer to the completion of its new Sky Princess behemoth with the launch of the 143,700-gross ton cruise liner’s bow section.

The bow section, a huge 7,600-ton block of the ship’s hull, was slide down a traditional inclined slipway at the Fincantieri shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia (Naples).

Princess Cruises’ Rai Caluori, second from left, and, second from right, Cyril Tartar, VP newbuilds, Holland America Group, are joined by Fincantieri executives for the bow launch

The 82-foot high (24m), 141 foot wide(43m) and 426 foot long (129m) section of the ship was then transported by sea to Monfalcone in Italy, where the rest of the ship is being assembled.

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Sky Princess is scheduled to debut in October 2019 on a series of Mediterranean voyages.

Sky Princess will be a huge addition to the Princess Cruises fleet, to put her size in context, her bow section alone is 98-feet (30m) longer and weighs twice as much as Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s entire SS Great Britain (the world’s first iron steam ship to the cross the Atlantic, and the largest ship in the world when launched in 1843).

Sky Princess will be the cruise line’s largest cruise ship to date.

With a passenger capacity of 3,660, Sky Princess will feature an evolution of the successful design platform used for the previous Royal-class ships (Royal Princess, Regal Princess and Majestic Princess).

Sky Princess will include signature elements that have become synonymous with the brand’s best-in-class guest experience, and bring together the best features found on her Royal-class sister ships, the cruise line has said in press material.

“The ship building process is truly something to marvel and each completed milestone is something to celebrate,” said Rai Caluori, Princess Cruises executive vice president of guest experience and product development.

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“Today, with our long-standing partners at Fincantieri, we uniquely launched the bow section of Sky Princess and the team at Fincantieri will invest more than 2 million man-hours to complete her,” he added.

The inaugural Mediterranean deployment of Sky Princess features 10 cruise departures on eight itineraries.

First up, is a seven-day Mediterranean & Adriatic cruise from Athens (Piraeus) to Barcelona departing on October 20, 2019.

This voyage is combinable with a seven-day Mediterranean Barcelona to Rome (Civitavecchia) voyage for a 14-day Inaugural Western Mediterranean & Adriatic Medley from Athens to Rome.

In addition, Sky Princess will sail on a new seven-day Mediterranean roundtrip Rome voyage, combinable with a seven-day Mediterranean Barcelona to Rome for a 14-day Western Mediterranean Medley voyage calling in some of the most iconic ports in the Mediterranean Sea.

The culmination of Sky Princess’ inaugural Mediterranean season will be a 14-day Spanish Passage from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale, combinable with the seven-day Mediterranean and/or the seven-day Mediterranean roundtrip Rome voyages for an epic 21-day or 28-day Grand Adventure across the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

Princess Cruises is represented in the Middle East by Cruise Master, the region’s largest dedicated cruise travel agency. They have a number of Princess cruise offers available here.