After the Grand Princess changes home port which Princess ship will take its place in San Francisco

[satxdiver]

Golden is going to be transferred to P&O Australia (a Carnival Corp company) later this year where she will be retrofitted to add 500 more pax and named Pacific Adventure.  Next year the Star will also be transferred to P&O Australia and renamed the Pacific Encounter.  It is interesting to note that P&O  Australia has never received a new ship built for them.   P&O Australia has 3 ships all ported in Australia and all retrofitted.

 

The royal class ships have a very short promenade and do not have a skywalkers.  Ruby moved skywalkers up next to the funnel while Star has it suspended over the stern and is configured differently.  After the Golden and Star leave the fleet, Grand will be the only ship with an indoor swimming pool.  Grand had its skywalkers removed several years ago due to metal fatigue making it dangerous.  On the Star and Golden the superstructure supporting skywalkers is made from composite material. 

 

Grand is first going to Singapore on October 21 after spending the summer cruising to AK this year.  The ship is going to Southampton on March 23 next year to sail out of Southampton.  Where it is going after that has not been revealed.  

 

[Jojiboy]

1 hour ago, satxdiver said:

After the Golden and Star leave the fleet, Grand will be the only ship with an indoor swimming pool.

Don’t the Diamond and Sapphire have indoor pools?

[satxdiver]

4 minutes ago, Jojiboy said:

Don’t the Diamond and Sapphire have indoor pools?

Forgot about the Sapphire which we were on last year in the UK.  I have never been on the Diamond.  I was talking about those ships that go out of US ports.  

[Jojiboy]

7 minutes ago, satxdiver said:

Forgot about the Sapphire which we were on last year in the UK.  I have never been on the Diamond.  I was talking about those ships that go out of US ports.  

Sorry, didn’t see that part in your post. FWIW, I understand the Sapphire will be doing Alaska cruises from Vancouver and Anchorage in 2021.

[screamingreen]

The Island has an indoor pool and has sailed out of US ports.

 

[Cruise Raider]

4 hours ago, Phamer55 said:

 

That's quite a good rumor that NCL is looking into home porting a ship in SF.

 

I love knowing that!  Fingers crossed!  They may end up giving us one of their old tired ships but we just need a little change of pace.  Now that we got a beautiful, rather new, terminal in the City, it would be nice to see it used more often.  Now, they just need a shuttle from the Embarcadero BART station to the pier.  It's not a bad walk for us ... well, yet....

 

[Cruise Raider]

44 minutes ago, Jojiboy said:

Don’t the Diamond and Sapphire have indoor pools?

 

And the Coral and Island have indoor pools as well.  

[jondfk]

Ruby is a lovely ship and I know many welcome a change from Grand.  However, we still love the old lady and are very much looking forward to sailing her once more from our home port . . . just 22 days from now.

 

I'd love to see some variety, something from NCL or RCI, but honestly we remain so very grateful that Princess has been so committed to San Francisco for so long.  We wouldn't have the gleaming new terminal if Princess hadn't established a year round market in the City.  

 

[BarbinMich]

On 1/30/2020 at 12:19 PM, Cruise Raider said:

 

I know the promenade is a big deal for some ... me?  I don't care one way or another. 

And, the Royal does come into the port of SF, so that isn't an issue.  Still would love to see one of these newer ships home ported here in the future.  

I'm surprised the Royal ports in SF.  Per Wikipedia, the ship's height is 217 ft.  Clearance of the GG Bridge is 220 ft.  What about tidal changes?  Pretty tight fit IMHO, but I presume Princess knows what they're doing.

[Cruise Raider]

4 minutes ago, BarbinMich said:

I'm surprised the Royal ports in SF.  Per Wikipedia, the ship's height is 217 ft.  Clearance of the GG Bridge is 220 ft.  What about tidal changes?  Pretty tight fit IMHO, but I presume Princess knows what they're doing.

 

It looks as though her schedule is 7 AM until 10 PM throughout different times of the year.  I know she also sails out under the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver ... some comments on this site were by posters also surprised by that.  Like you, I would guess Princess has it down.  

[thinfool]

21 hours ago, satxdiver said:

The royal class ships have a very short promenade

We spent 14 days on the Royal and all I could find in the place where the promenade should have been was what amounted to an overcrowded patio that went nowhere.

Perfect example of how out of touch the Princess designers were/are when it comes to what's important to their passengers.

[need2cruisesoon]

26 minutes ago, thinfool said:

We spent 14 days on the Royal and all I could find in the place where the promenade should have been was what amounted to an overcrowded patio that went nowhere.

Perfect example of how out of touch the Princess designers were/are when it comes to what's important to their passengers.

 

There are other newer ships that are more connected with the ocean if you look....

[AtlantaCruiser72]

1 hour ago, need2cruisesoon said:

 

There are other newer ships that are more connected with the ocean if you look....

yes, however many of those vessels carry 4000-5000 passengers and have far less pool/sundeck space than any Princess ship, as well as far less indoor public space due to all the specialty dining.  I would take the Royal Class ANY day over an NCL Breakway/Breakaway+ Class vessel!

[brisalta]

2 hours ago, BarbinMich said:

I'm surprised the Royal ports in SF.  Per Wikipedia, the ship's height is 217 ft.  Clearance of the GG Bridge is 220 ft.  What about tidal changes?  Pretty tight fit IMHO, but I presume Princess knows what they're doing.

 

Is that 217 ft above the water line or is that 217 ft from the keel?

[martincath]

3 hours ago, BarbinMich said:

I'm surprised the Royal ports in SF.  Per Wikipedia, the ship's height is 217 ft.  Clearance of the GG Bridge is 220 ft.  What about tidal changes?  Pretty tight fit IMHO, but I presume Princess knows what they're doing.

You have to deduct the Draft from the Height to get 'air draft' or height above the waterline - which is the relevant factor for bridge clearances... ~28 feet of the Royal is underwater with typical passenger & cargo load, so the only way it wouldn't fit under GGB is if the captain popped a wheelie!!! 😉

 

[BarbinMich]

On 1/31/2020 at 12:42 PM, Cruise Raider said:

 

It looks as though her schedule is 7 AM until 10 PM throughout different times of the year.  I know she also sails out under the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver ... some comments on this site were by posters also surprised by that.  Like you, I would guess Princess has it down.  

And the LG clearance is even less at 200 ft.  We've sailed out of Vancouver twice but only on older HAL/Celebrity ships.

[BarbinMich]

22 hours ago, martincath said:

You have to deduct the Draft from the Height to get 'air draft' or height above the waterline - which is the relevant factor for bridge clearances... ~28 feet of the Royal is underwater with typical passenger & cargo load, so the only way it wouldn't fit under GGB is if the captain popped a wheelie!!! 😉

 

I always assumed that the ht shown in wikipedia was from water line to highest antenna or superstructure.  Thanks for setting me straight!

[martincath]

2 minutes ago, BarbinMich said:

I always assumed that the ht shown in wikipedia was from water line to highest antenna or superstructure.  Thanks for setting me straight!

Depends entirely who wrote the specific ship article on Wiki Barb - some ships have both height and air draft listed, others just one, yet others if you go back to the original source the person who wrote the Wiki recorded a number as height but meant air draft or vice versa. Just so happened I was researching Royals specs for another post a couple days earlier and read that our local harbour pilots had confirmed the air draft to be 58 metres (~190 feet), so I could immediately tell that your quoted height must have been keel-to-top.

 

I do love Wiki, but it suffers badly from lack of consistency unless there are very organized editors on a given topic, and cruise ship specs obviously lack such oversight - unless a modern ship has had a well-publicized incident like a fire or a homicide or a rescue the articles are usually very scant.

[grapau27]

On 1/28/2020 at 1:13 AM, brisalta said:

It is my understanding that the Grand Princess is going to have its home port changed to Singapore for about a year and then after that it will move to Southampton.

Which Princess ship will be home ported in San Francisco after the Grand Princess leaves for Singapore?

When we got on Grand Princess in November in San Francisco the

Coral Princess was docked there.the day before.

[grapau27]

On 1/30/2020 at 8:03 PM, satxdiver said:

Golden is going to be transferred to P&O Australia (a Carnival Corp company) later this year where she will be retrofitted to add 500 more pax and named Pacific Adventure.  Next year the Star will also be transferred to P&O Australia and renamed the Pacific Encounter.  It is interesting to note that P&O  Australia has never received a new ship built for them.   P&O Australia has 3 ships all ported in Australia and all retrofitted.

 

The royal class ships have a very short promenade and do not have a skywalkers.  Ruby moved skywalkers up next to the funnel while Star has it suspended over the stern and is configured differently.  After the Golden and Star leave the fleet, Grand will be the only ship with an indoor swimming pool.  Grand had its skywalkers removed several years ago due to metal fatigue making it dangerous.  On the Star and Golden the superstructure supporting skywalkers is made from composite material. 

 

Grand is first going to Singapore on October 21 after spending the summer cruising to AK this year.  The ship is going to Southampton on March 23 next year to sail out of Southampton.  Where it is going after that has not been revealed.  

 

With the indoor pool this makes sense to be sailing out of Southampton just like P&O Ventura.

[satxdiver]

With the excellent natural harbor and the large number of people living in the bay area, it is surprising that more cruise ships do not go out of San Francisco.  I would much rather fly to SFO than to LAX and deal with the super congestion and a sprawling city.  

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, satxdiver said:

With the excellent natural harbor and the large number of people living in the bay area, it is surprising that more cruise ships do not go out of San Francisco.  I would much rather fly to SFO than to LAX and deal with the super congestion and a sprawling city.  

 

I'd rather take the BART train over to SF than fly to LA, too.  🙂