So What is a "Princess" Anyway?

THE WORD, "Princess" is generally thought to denote a woman of royal or noble birth; daughter or wife of a ruler or prince; or a female ruler. But wait. I think we all know that's not really what I am talking about. 😁

THIS BLOG is about cruises. And since we spend a fair amount of time talking about Princess Cruise Lines here, it seems fitting to put things in a brief historical perspective. I am not going to re-create the entire nitty-gritty history of Princess Cruises here. There is plenty of online information about the company, beginning with this wikipedia entry. But some context will be helpful as I comment off and on about Princess things.

Ruby Princess moored off Princess Cay
Copyright Andy Richards 2012 

PRINCESS CRUISE Lines was started by a private owner in 1965, who chartered a ship which was used in Alaskan cruising, to sail in the southern seas during its off-season. Shortly afterward, Princess introduced its first purpose-built cruise ship, which it used both in Alaska in season and in the south during the winter months. In 1974, Princess was acquired by P&O, then the world's largest commercial shipping company. Princess became its primary passenger division. 

The Original "Love Boat" - Pacific Princess

DURING THIS period, two ships in the line, "The Pacific Princess," and "The Island Princess," became the models for the long-running, 1976 television series, "The Love Boat." The ship name in the series was the Pacific Princess. The series successfully ran for nearly 10 years, as well as a couple of specials in later years. Who can forget Jack Jones crooning: "Love ..... exciting and new ....?" In doing my very light research for this piece, I learned that the series was based on a non-fiction book by Jeraldine Saunders: "The Love Boats;" based on her experiences as a real-life cruise director. During one of our later cruises in the Caribbean, we were "followed" by the Pacific Princess to a couple of our ports of call. At the time, I thought it was indeed the original Pacific Princess, but have since learned that that ship was (somewhat controversially) scrapped in 2015, and Princess had acquired a couple "legacy" ships in 2002, renaming one to "Pacific Princess." It was fun to see the old-style ship from our deck above it.

Grand Class - Grand Princess

IN 1986 Princess acquired an Alaskan rail touring company, and now operates the Princess Train and its Denali-based Princess Hotel/Resort, combining their Alaska offerings for so-called "cruise/tour" vacations. In the early 1980's Princess acquired a private Island in the Caribbean; the first of 3 they eventually owned - though not at the same time. Today, they own and operate Princess Cays, part of the Island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. It is one of their frequent stops in the Eastern Caribbean.

Royal Class - Princess

IN 2003 P&O Princess Cruises (then a subsidiary of parent corporation P&O), was acquired by U.S. based Carnival Corporation. The resultant merger created the world's largest cruise operating company. Eventually they settled into two divisions: Carnival UK (which operated Cunard and P&O lines) and the U.S. division (which operated, Carnival, Holland America, and Princess). In all, today, Carnival Corporation owns 9 separate cruise lines.

Coral Class - Princess

TODAY, HAVING the fewest ships of any of its competitors, Princess is said to be the second largest revenue producing cruise line. In recent years, they have pared down their fleet and now have only three different "classes, the "Grand Class" (7 ships) and the larger, newer "Royal Class" (6 ships). These are their primary large cruise categories. They also have two ships in more of that "legacy" class that are smaller and refer to them as their "Coral Class." The Coral Class ships were originally built specifically for sailing the Panama Canal.

WE HAVE had experiences in both Grand and Royal classes; three cruises on Grand Class ships (Diamond, Ruby and Emerald Princesses) and two on Royal Class (Royal and Regal Princess). Our most recent Princess Cruise was a short trip from Southampton, England, to a couple stops in Spain, one in France, and then back to Southampton, on the Regal Princess in October, 2021.  I have some nostalgic memories of these ships - especially the Grand Class ships. I also have some experiences that could be deemed "negative." But I think life is full of differences and occasionally, disappointments. It is how you look at what life throws your way, and how you react to it that really puts these things in perspective. And - in perspective - it has been mostly positive. We will touch on all those experiences in later, more cruise-specific posts.