Princess bookings off to a Royal start

Record bookings for the debut of Royal Princess have set Princess Cruises up for a bumper 2013, when it will have an unprecedented seven ships in Europe and another seven in Alaska.
The 3,600-passenger Royal Princess, currently under construction in Italy, will set off from Southampton on her seven-day maiden voyage to Spain on June 16 next year.
UK director Paul Ludlow says the importance of UK passengers has been behind the decision to bring the ship to Britain, and is delighted with the response when sales opened on Thursday.
“We’ve seen great bookings already from the UK on the Maiden Voyage from Southampton to Barcelona, and this is giving us high expectations for the two three-night Advance Preview sailings which will go on sale when the inaugural programme in Southampton has been finalised.”
I imagine he is also looking forward to being able to announce a Royal godmother to name the new Royal Princess – but that’s pure speculation for now.
There’s no guessing over the fact that capacity for cruises from Southampton will increase when the 3,080-passenger Crown Princess moves in to take over from Grand Princess (2,610) which is switching to Alaska.
In Europe, Princess will have the youngest fleet ever in the region, with seven ships plying the waters of the Mediterranean and Scandinavia. Its brand new ship Royal Princess will sail the Grand Mediterranean cruises, which went on sale last week, while passengers can take advantage of a variety of other intriguing sunny and scenic cruise options across the fleet, including new off-the-beaten-track Med itineraries, and more cruises to the Holy Land, Black Sea, and Scandinavia and Russia.
The 2013 Europe programme features seven ships sailing on 60 itineraries with 124 departures to 135 destinations:
Royal Princess, the line’s newest ship, debuts in June sailing on Princess’s signature 12-day Grand Mediterranean itinerary.
Ruby Princess debuts three new seven-day Mediterranean Interlude sailings that can be combined into longer voyages. The ship will also sail 12-day cruises in the Greek Isles.
Crown Princess will sail from Southampton on a variety of cruises to the Mediterranean as well as Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea.
Caribbean Princess will be offering more departures of its 12-day British Isles cruises, and will sail to the Norwegian Fjords.
Emerald Princess again sails on 11-day Baltic Sea cruises from Copenhagen, featuring overnight stays in St. Petersburg.
The smaller Ocean Princess debuts a new 14-day Iceland and Norway itinerary to off-the-beaten- path ports in Iceland, and will offer more eight-day British Isles sailings and a longer Baltic route.
Sister ship Pacific Princess again offers a full season of Holy Land sailings and will offer more departures on Black Sea cruises.
In Alaska, the seven-ship Princess fleet will feature the recently refurbished Grand Princess sailing 10-night Inside Passage cruises from San Francisco. The fleet will offer the most balcony staterooms in Alaska, perfect for taking in the spectacular scenery, including Glacier Bay to which Princess takes more passengers than any other cruise line.
Alaska passengers can choose from more than 20 Princess landtours to combine with their Princess cruise, all featuring the state’s number one land attraction – Denali National Park.
Princess Cruises’ summer 2013 Mediterranean and Scandinavia, and Alaska Cruises and Landtours programmes will be on sale from Tuesday April 24.