Sky Princess - May 2019 Update

To start, here are a few actual pictures:

Tenders

Ship construction progress 

Interior lounge lights being hung 

And now, more renderings around the ship.

Aft Pool area showing "infinity pool"

Main pool area

La Mer

Sky suites

Interested in a cruise on the Sky Princess?  There are a lot of great rates still available on sailings this fall and next year.  Contact me by email to see what's available.
captainrob21@gmail.com

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

Grand Princess Upcoming Drydock Info and Medallion Update

First thing - Booking.Com has some great deals on hotels no matter where you are and also lists AirBNB and VBRO listings! Check it out!

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Booking.com

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Courtesy of our friends at PrincessCruisesFAQ, the Grand is scheduled for drydock in Portland from March 3rd to March 19th.
Unconfirmed information reported from CruiseCritic: 

GUEST AREAS:

• Reupholster lounge chairs in Explorer's, Crooner's, Wheelehouse, Crown Grill, Library, and Snookers. 
• New sofas for Explorer's and Crooner's 
• Replace Mini-suite sleeper sofas 
• Replace astro turf deck covering on upper decks 
• Replace Horizon Court carpeting and tiles 
• Replace Wheelhouse Dance floor 
• Repair/Refinish beverage station cabinets in Horizon Court 
• New carpets in dining room and Crooner's. 
• Ocean Medallion wiring install (not active until subsequent drydock in 2021/2022)

 SHIP SYSTEMS: Inspection and repair of propellers, exchangers, propulsion as well as hot and cold water lines.

As shown above, this will be at the Vigor drydock yard in north Portland, OR, the same place where she had her last drydock.  Here is a great drone flyover video of the Grand during that drydock.

REALLY COOL DRONE video of the last drydock of the Grand in Portland's Vigor shipyard.

A few other notes, Princess has announced the follow schedule for the deployment of MedallionNet (note this is NOT Ocean Medallion, but it is the foundation for it, and does include very fast wifi)

• Currently available on Caribbean, Regal, and Ruby
• Royal - April 13
• Crown - July 24th
• Sky - October 12th - the Sky will also be the first newbuild with the Ocean Medallion activated.

Sky Princess Fall 2018 Construction Photos

Looking back at the original Sky Princess

As Princess Cruises has announced previously, the 4th variant of the Royal Class ships (6 in total) will be the Sky Princess.  The name is another rehash of a past guest favorite ship of the Princess.  The new and old Sky Princess ships share very little in common, but we thought it would be fun to look back at the original Sky Princess which means also looking at her short lived stint sailing as the FairSky for Sitmar Cruises.

The Sky Princess - Sailing in Alaska

The Sky Princess was on par with the size of most new builds of the 80's, and had a passenger space ratio about about 38 which is decently roomy even for today's ships.  As the FairSky, designed and built for Sitmar, she had the unique trait of being the last steam powered passenger vessel of this scale built.  This was likely because Sitmar, owned by Mr. BorisVlasov (hence the "V" on some older Sitmar ship funnels) had only steamships in the fleet and believed in dealing with the devil he knew rather than the devil he didn't, that being conventional diesel driven motors.  You can read more of the past here as this website does a much better job than we can of describing the back story.  After sailing for 4 different lines, she was laid up and scrapped in 2013.

FairSky (Sky Princess) fact sheet

Steam turbine system control panel - an odd juxtaposition, much like making an electric abacus.

Standard ship design for the period with pools on the aft terraced decks, and most cabins forward and lower in the ship.  Very similar to the 1983 versions of the ms Noordam and ms Nieuw Amsterdam, built for Holland America.

Decks with major public areas are shown below 

Looking down on the Sky Princess from a Sun Class vessel.