Sky Princess

Sky Princess is the fourth ship of the Royal class, the platform Princess Cruises introduced in 2013 to succeed its long-serving Grand-class fleet, and she arrived as the class matured into its larger, technology-forward form. Ordered on 30 December 2015 as part of Princess's multi-ship building programme with Fincantieri, she was constructed at the yard's Monfalcone shipyard near Trieste, Italy, under yard number 6268. Her keel was laid on 5 July 2018, she was floated out of the building dock on 14 February 2019, and Fincantieri handed the completed vessel over to Princess on 15 October 2019. She sailed her maiden voyage on 20 October 2019, a seven-night Mediterranean and Adriatic crossing from Athens to Barcelona.

Though sharing the Royal-class hull, Sky Princess reflected the incremental growth of the later ships in the series, measuring 145,281 GT against roughly 141,000 GT for the earliest Royal-class sisters. She is 330 metres long with a moulded beam of about 38.4 metres (an extreme beam of some 47.2 metres across the bridge wings and lifeboat stations) and draws around 8.5 metres. Arranged across 19 decks, 16 of them for guests, she carries 3,660 passengers at double occupancy and up to 4,610 when every berth is filled, tended by roughly 1,450 crew across her 1,830 staterooms, of which about 81 percent have balconies.

Sky Princess holds a particular place in Princess history as the first ship purpose-built from the keel as a MedallionClass vessel. Rather than being retrofitted with the wearable OceanMedallion, she was engineered around the system's network of readers and sensors, so that the quarter-sized disc could unlock keyless stateroom entry, enable touchless payment, deliver ordered food and drinks to a guest's location anywhere aboard, and help families locate one another through the Princess app. She also introduced expanded suite accommodations, most notably the two Sky Suites perched high and aft with the largest private balconies in the fleet at over 1,000 square feet, sleeping up to five guests and configured with multiple bathrooms and televisions.

Across her public decks Sky Princess carries the signature Royal-class design language: the three-deck Piazza atrium modelled on an Italian town square as the ship's social heart; the adults-only Sanctuary retreat and its Retreat Pool with private cabanas; and the cantilevered glass SeaWalk extending over the ship's side, part of the SeaView and SeaWalk lineage that first appeared on Royal Princess. Propulsion is diesel-electric, with four Wartsila generating sets producing about 62.4 MW feeding two 18 MW electric propulsion motors for a service speed near 21.9 knots and a maximum of about 23 knots.

Sky Princess was christened on 7 December 2019 at Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, under the theme "Reach for the Sky," with two women of the American space programme, former NASA astronaut Captain Kathryn "Kay" Hire and Apollo engineer Frances "Poppy" Northcutt, serving as godmothers. Registered in Hamilton, Bermuda, and flying the Bermudian flag, she has ranged widely on Caribbean, Mediterranean, Baltic and Canada/New England itineraries, more recently basing her seasons at Southampton for northern European and Mediterranean sailings. She remains in active service with Princess Cruises.