Princess Cruises turned a page in maritime history with the introduction of Royal Princess, the first of a new class of ships that would energize the Princess fleet in exciting ways.  Tweaked a bit when building sister-ship Regal Princess, the design of Royal class Princess ships has proved popular with cruise travelers.  Capitalizing on that popularity, Princess Cruises recently announced an agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to build a third Royal class vessel, which will  enter service in 2017.

Promising to include signature elements that cruise travelers have come to associate with the Princess Cruises guest experience, the ship will also introduce some brand-new innovations to enhance the guest experience even further.  Specifically mentioning the central atrium hub ; the adults-only Sanctuary; Movies Under the Stars, and 80 percent of all staterooms with balconies, those core design elements look to have made the cut for the third rendition of this series.

Not listed:  the 17-deck-high, glass-bottomed “SeaWalk”, a signature design element of Royal class ships… but inadvertent creator of what have been called ‘peek-a-boo’ balcony staterooms, their verandah clearly visible from the protruding observation feature.

Then again, it’s early. Count on Princess to tease us a bit, announcing interesting new features along the way between now and the ship’s launch in 2017.

Interestingly, Princess Cruises president Jan Swartz, apparently ready for war, noted “We are incredibly excited to add this fabulous new ship to our already formidable fleet,” in a press release.  Hey, that’s battle talk there.  Someone is sizing up the Princess fleet hardware, preparing for maneuvers.

Then again, thinking along the lines of global domination should probably come as no surprise to fans of Princess Cruises. Under the folksy guise of the Love Boat, Princess has sailed to most places on the planet, has shoreside experts in all areas of operation, a deep bench of experienced Captains and a perfected onboard experience that indeed allows cruise travelers to “come back new”.

In other words, they know what they are doing.
In Lisa’s words; “It’s nice to know that the Love Boat will be out there protecting us!”

Not yet named, the new 143,000-ton, €600 million vessel, will carry 3,560 passengers, and feature the successful design platform introduced by sister ships Royal Princess in 2013 and Regal Princess which entered service this past May.

Photo- by Official U.S. Navy Page