Princess Cruises - Ocean Medallion Update

Princess has announced that their Ocean Medallion program will expand beyond the current trio of Ocean Medallion enabled vessel of the Royal, Regal, and Caribbean Princess.  By the end of 2020, guests on most itineraries will be sailing with the technology.

Note that the Pacific, Star, and Golden are not mentioned.  This is interesting since the Star and Golden have recieved some of the foundational upgrades for Ocean Medallion on previous drydocks.  When we sailed on the Star in late 2017 after her drydock in Victoria, there were several technicians working on-board wearing uniforms with Ocean Medallion logos and labels on them.  It's likely that the Ocean Medallion program will be activated on these ships after their transfer to P&O Australia in 2020 and 2022.  The Pacific Princess has an uncertain future and may not ever get Ocean Medallion.  It is also interesting that the Majestic, Sapphire, and Diamond are not mentioned at all.

The list of ships and planned activation dates are listed below the messages from our sponsors.

h/t: https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/20825-princess-to-activate-six-more-medallion-ships.html


Booking.com

Ship	Code	Year Built	OM Activation
Sun	SP	1995	Not Announced
Grand	AP	1998	3/29/2020
Sea	CP	1998	Not Announced
Pacific	PA	1999	Not Announced
Golden	NP	2001	Not Announced
Star	TP	2002	Not Announced
Coral	CO	2003	10/16/2020
Island	IP	2003	12/20/2020
Caribbean	CB	2004	Active
Diamond	DI	2004	Not Announced
Sapphire	SA	2004	Not Announced
Crown	KP	2006	7/24/2019
Emerald	EP	2007	8/16/2020
Ruby	RU	2008	1/27/2020
Royal	RP	2013	Active
Regal	GP	2014	Active
Majestic	MJ	2017	Not Announced
Sky	YP	2019	10/12/2019
Enchanted	EX	2020	6/15/2020

2021 Princess World Cruise Details - Island Princess in, Pacific Out?

Princess has announced that the 2021 World Cruise will be completed by the Island Princess.  This is interesting as it either would indicate that the demand is high enough to justify more than doubling the capacity of the current World Cruise vessel (Pacific Princess) or that the Pacific will be taking on different duties with a different line.

Booking.com

Some early booking benefits include:

• On board spending money
• Free Gratuities
• Free Wifi
• Free airfare for balcony and above
• Free room location upgrades
• 4 free specialty dining nights
• 4 free bottles of wine per booking

The Island is an interesting choice for this voyage since it's not nearly as popular now as it was before her extensive refit which added capacity for 200 guests at the cost of public areas.  Her "Passenger Space Ratio"  dropped pretty substantially after her drydock and is now on par with the original Grand Class ships.  While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's definitely a downgrade from where she was before, being a near twin of the Coral and a big downgrade from the Pacific.  Regardless, most people will book a world cruise for destinations rather than the ship.

The ultimate fate of the Pacific remains to be seen, but it certainly doesn't look good for her going forward as a Princess ship.