Island Princess is a Coral-class cruise ship for the Princess Cruises line. She is the sister ship to and together they are the only Panamax ships in Princess's fleet. She was constructed at Chantiers de l'Atlantique, France.[1]
The Island Princess was the second of the Coral-class ships constructed at Chantiers de l'Atlantique, France. The ship is the second ship to bear the name after the first Island Princess of 1972.
The ship debuted in 2003, and was named by Olympic Gold medalist Jamie Salé and David Pelletier.[2]
Island Princesss main itinerary consist of seven day Alaskan cruises from Vancouver, British Columbia to Whittier, Alaska during the summer months. During the fall, winter, and spring, Island Princess and her sister ship run 10/14-15 day Panama Canal cruises with stops in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, San Juan del Sur, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Cartagena, Colombia, and Oranjestad, Aruba.
The ship has had outbreaks of community-spread illnesses. Norovirus hit the ship in March 2006 (72 passengers, 16 crew), October 2006 (109 passengers, 11 crew), January 2007 (179 passengers, 37 crew), January 2018 (71 passengers, 7 crew), February 2019 (101 passengers, 9 crew), e. coli and Shigella in April 2009 (100 passengers, 8 crew), and unknown outbreaks in two May-June 2004 sailings (441 passengers, 68 crew).[3] [4]
In 2015 Island Princess sailed on cruises for the first time in Europe, traveling between Barcelona and Venice.[5]
In 2015, the Island Princess was given a major refit that saw the removal of a lounge and the aft part of its promenade to accommodate 121 new staterooms. This increased the ship's capacity from 1,974 to 2,200 double occupancy guests.[6] This altered the ship's profile in addition to the removal of the symbolic gas turbines on the ships funnels.
In the 2019/2020 cruise season, Island Princess would continue to operate the West Coast cruises.[7] As part of the COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships, the ship repatriated crew members to Asia in April 2020. In May 2020, the summer cruise schedule for the ship was cancelled.[8] [9]