''Grand Princess'' is a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

owned by

Princess Cruises Princess Cruises is an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California and is incorporated in Bermuda. As of 2025, it is the List of cruise lines#List of cruise lines by size, s ...

. It was built in 1998 by

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

Cantieri Navali Italiani in

Monfalcone Monfalcone (; Venetian language#Regional variants, Bisiacco: ; ; ; archaic ) is a town and (municipality) in the Province of Gorizia, Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northern Italy, located on the Gulf of Tr ...

, Italy, with yard number 5956, at a cost of approximately US$450 million. She was the largest and most expensive passenger ship ever built at the time.

History

''Grand Princess'' was the first of the s debuting in 1998, and christened by

Olivia de Havilland Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British and American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her tim ...

. When ''Grand Princess'' was launched, she featured in the Princess Cruises brochures as a ''Sun''-class ship; it was only with the subsequent launch of that the ''Grand'' class appeared in brochures. The ship has a different decor scheme to her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

s, using darker woods, and the interior decor is more similar to the smaller ships. She is the sister ship of and ''Golden Princess''. ''Grand Princess'' was the setting for a task in the second series of the UK version of the reality TV show '' The Apprentice''. On 19 July 2009, the ship was drydocked for 14 days for refurbishments such as boosting Grand Princess's energy and environmental efficiency.

2011 refit

In May 2011, ''Grand Princess'' completed the most extensive dry-dock in Princess Cruises history that included a refit and removal of the nightclub from her stern. This resolved her tendency to sail bow high, and has improved her fuel economy by about 3–4%. The bow high tendency was specific to ''Grand Princess'' and did not affect her sister ships as they were designed with aluminum upper decks. In The aft nightclub atop the aft of Grand Princess was removed in the 2011 refit. Grand Princess - panoramio

Incidents

2017 whale incident

On 9 August 2017, a dead

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

was found stuck on the bow of the ship after it docked in Ketchikan, Alaska. Princess Cruises issued a statement that said "It is unknown how or when this happened as the ship felt no impact. It is also unknown, at this time, whether the whale was alive or already deceased before becoming lodged on the bow." It was the second time in two years that a whale had been carried into an Alaska port on the bow of a cruise ship.

2020 coronavirus pandemic

References

Bibliography

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External links

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The picture of ''Grand Princess'' departing from Fort Lauderdale post refit.
{{Princess Ships Ships of Princess Cruises Ships built in Monfalcone 1998 ships Ships built by Fincantieri Cruise ships involved in the COVID-19 pandemic