Princess Cruises

Princess Cruises
Santa Clarita, CA
USA

Princess Cruises Overview

Princess Cruises launched their first Mexican Riviera cruise in 1965 but didn't become a household name known to people who vacation at sea until about a decade later when the company was acquired by P&O, who at the time was the world's largest oceanic shipper with more 300 vessels in operation. Baby boomers may recall Island Princess and Pacific Princess as the ships featured in the 1970s television series, The Love Boat.

P&O spun off its passenger division in 2000, and it merged with Carnival in 2003. The combined company then featured 11 different brands of cruise ship companies. Princess, Carnival, and Holland America stopped requisitioning new ships during the 2008 economic downturn but added three new 3,600 passenger ships beginning with Royal Princess in 2013 and Regal Princess which entered service in 2014. A third Fincantieri-built ship, Majestic Princess launched in 2017.

The entire current fleet flies the flag of Bermuda except for Royal, Majestic, Golden, Diamond, and Sapphire Princess which ships call the UK home. Three additional Bermuda-flagged Royal Class vessels are slated for launch in 2019, 2020, and 2022.

Departure points for Princess Cruises include Vancouver, Canada, Brisbane, Rozelle, and Melbourne in Australia; Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the US, as well as Marina Bay, Singapore; Rome, Italy, and Piraeus in Greece.

USA Today has awarded Princess the accolade of "Best cruise lines for Gamblers" and slots fans are frequently offered high return tournaments like the $200,000 Monopoly Cruise for Cash tournament. There are tournaments on every cruise so blackjack players and slots spinners have a chance to compete against their shipmates for cash prizes.

Games vary from ship to ship but most voyagers will find traditional, video, and progressive jackpot slot machines as well as video poker. Table games can include heads-up Texas Hold ‘Em poker, and casino games like Caribbean Stud Poker, Three Card Poker and Let it Ride. Blackjack, dice, roulette, and other table games are available on most ships and you can even play bingo with ticket packages ranging from $10 to $30.

A fairly new "class" of ships was introduced in 2017, known as the Ocean Medallion Class. These are 'the internet of things' ships with omnichannel connectivity to guests accounts from a medallion wristband. On ships appointed with the amenity, guests have access to the PlayOcean Casino and PlayOcean Everywhere so they can play real money games anywhere on the ship.