Tag Archives: southampton

Third Princess Ship Resumes Service as Sky Princess to Sail From Southampton

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The Sky Princess is the third Princess Cruises ship to resume revenue service.

Based in the United Kingdom, the vessel is departing Southampton today, starting its “Summer Seacation” program.

The Sky Princess is offering a four-night cruise the first in a series of domestic UK cruises, which will run through late September. Along with the Regal Princess, the Sky Princess is now offering scenic voyages and regular cruises around the country, ranging from three to seven nights.

The itineraries include stops in ports such as Liverpool, in England; Belfast, in Northern Ireland; Greenock, in Scotland; and more.

After the UK program, the vessel is set to return to Port Everglades. Starting in November, the ship is sailing three-, five-, seven- and 14-day cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean.

A Royal-class ship, the Sky Princess entered service in 2019 and was said to be an evolution to the platform used for previous Royal-class ships, the Royal, Regal and Majestic Princess.

The new and enhanced features include a digitally enhanced escape room called the Phantom Bridge and the Wakeview pool located on the ship’s aft decks. Other changes are a new café, redesigned lounges, additional Jacuzzis, and the new Sky Suites.

Featuring the largest continuous private balconies at sea ever offered by any cruise line, the two Sky Suites have a sleeping capacity for five guests and are located on one of the ship’s highest decks.

The 143,700 ton, 3,660-guest ship was also the first in the fleet to be built from the ground up with the Ocean Guest Experience Platform, powered by Princess’s MedallionClass technology. 

With the Sky Princess now in service, three Princess Cruises vessels have resumed guest operations. The first ship to welcome passengers back was the Majestic Princess, which launched a series of Alaska cruises on July 25.

A few days later, on July 31, the Regal Princess started to offer domestic sailings in the UK.

Princess is now preparing its return to the Caribbean, Panama Canal, Mexican Riviera, Hawaii the California Coast. By November 28, a total of eight ships will be sailing to those destinations from Port Everglades, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  

Cunard Makes Final Touches to Queen Elizabeth For Return to Sailing on Friday

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The final touches are being made to Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth as the cruise line prepares to return to sailing on Friday, August 13 after a 17-month break, according to a press release.

“I think I speak for the entire team at Cunard when I say how delighted we are to be returning to what we do best as we get ready to welcome our guests back on board,” said Cunard President Simon Palethorpe.

“We know how much our guests have been looking forward to our first voyage and we hope that they fully immerse themselves in the Cunard onboard experience, as they enjoy some of the most stunning coastlines Britain has to offer,” Palethorpe added.

Following a series of other UK voyages, Cunard’s international sailings onboard Queen Elizabeth will begin in October with a cruise from Southampton to Amsterdam followed by a 14-night voyage to the Canary Islands and Madeira this November.

Royal Caribbean extends Anthem of the Seas Season.

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Anthem of the Seas entering the river Mersey, Photo credit Dave Jones
Royal Caribbean International has extended Anthem of the Seas’ UK-based season until October and announced plans to welcome international guests onboard from next month.

The ship returned to the UK for the first time in six years in July to restart Royal’s domestic cruise programme.

In September “eligible international guests” will also be able to sail from Southampton, subject to the latest UK government travel advice and their country of residence.

Fully vaccinated travellers from the US and EU were granted exemption from UK quarantine requirements this week.

Anthem’s British Isles sailings feature calls to Liverpool, Belfast and Kirkwall and Glasgow. All adults must be fully vaccinated and all passengers must provide a negative Covid test result before boarding.

Anthem’s extended season opened for bookings on Wednesday (4 August).

Ben Bouldin, Royal’s vice-president EMEA, said the line was “thrilled” with the response to its UK programme since restarting, with cruises achieving “peak guest satisfaction levels”.

“We welcome the recent update from the UK government, which lifted advice against international cruise travel. While this marks a positive step forward in the global return of cruise, there are still complexities to navigate when calling at multiple European ports of call from the UK,” he added.

“This, coupled with the popularity of our British Isles sailings to date, has led to our decision to extend our sailings around the British Isles, and I’m delighted to welcome international guests to experience these itineraries, starting in September.”