Steel Cut for New Princess "Sphere" LNG Ships in Italy

[LACruiser88]

The two new ships will have capacity for 4,300 passengers and have delivery dates of 2023 and 2025.

 

 

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/shipbuilding-refurb-equipment/fincantieri-cuts-steel-princess-cruises-first-lng-ship

[LACruiser88]

I hope they re-use some of the ship names that have left the fleet and not "new" names...

[pms4104]

Since these will be new sphere class ships, I suspect Princess will come up with brand new and artsy names

[AZjohn]

2 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

The two new ships will have capacity for 4,300 passengers

Sometimes bigger is not always better.

But then again, I don't make Princess's decisions 🙂

 

I do however make my own consumer decisions and don't think I would book on that size of ship for an itinerary with lots of ports.  

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

The two new ships will have capacity for 4,300 passengers and have delivery dates of 2023 and 2025.

 

 

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/shipbuilding-refurb-equipment/fincantieri-cuts-steel-princess-cruises-first-lng-ship

I am all for the LNG and advancements in ship-building, propulsion, passenger amenities, etc.  But size-wise, I think the Royal Class is big enough in passenger load.  I never was interested in sailing a Behemoth of the Seas.

[susancruzs]

I wasn't sure about Royal Class, especially reading first reviews about the center stairs, crowded elevators, various complaints but I love the Royal Class.  I still like having a promenade but can get by without it as Royal class I'm usually in a balcony cabin.  On other ships, always inside cabins so the promenade is nice.

 

I am not sure about going bigger though, over 4,000 seems too much, I'll be in wait and see mode. 

[c-boy]

2 hours ago, pms4104 said:

Since these will be new sphere class ships, I suspect Princess will come up with brand new and artsy names

Medallion Princess ... kinda rolls off the tongue

[geoherb]

When they first announced the Caribbean Princess, I thought I'd never want to sail on a ship that large. I was wrong. I had a great time when I finally sailed on the CB 10 years after it launched. I've sailed on it four additional cruises in the intervening years. I thought the same about the Royal class ships, but we've loved our cruises on them as well.

[LACruiser88]

The day may come when the Royal class ships will the smallest in the Princess fleet...

[nocl]

The problem with larger ships is that as the ship size increases, the variety in ports and itineraries is decreasing.

[cruise44]

Has anyone seen any renderings yet? I am wondering if this new class will be based on the "Project Mille" design that Fincantieri developed, and has since been used for the MSC Seaside class, Virgin Scarlett Lady, and the upcoming NCL Prima class. It seems it would fit within the design trend of the recent ships the yard has built.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by cruise44

[LACruiser88]

49 minutes ago, cruise44 said:

Has anyone seen any renderings yet? I am wondering if this new class will be based on the "Project Mille" design that Fincantieri developed, and has since been used for the MSC Seaside class, Virgin Scarlett Lady, and the upcoming NCL Prima class. It seems it would fit within the design trend of the recent ships the yard has built.

This would be interesting to see...

[seacruise9]

7 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

I hope they re-use some of the ship names that have left the fleet and not "new" names...

Hi, 

 

I agree about re-using past names. How about Sun Princess and Sea Princess? 

 

Chuck

[LawDog61]

2 hours ago, cruise44 said:

Has anyone seen any renderings yet? I am wondering if this new class will be based on the "Project Mille" design that Fincantieri developed, and has since been used for the MSC Seaside class, Virgin Scarlett Lady, and the upcoming NCL Prima class. It seems it would fit within the design trend of the recent ships the yard has built.

Interesting ideas.  But I have a hard time seeing a cruise ship with a swimming pool on the lower decks.

 

 

[eroller]

2 hours ago, cruise44 said:

Has anyone seen any renderings yet? I am wondering if this new class will be based on the "Project Mille" design that Fincantieri developed, and has since been used for the MSC Seaside class, Virgin Scarlett Lady, and the upcoming NCL Prima class. It seems it would fit within the design trend of the recent ships the yard has built.

 

 

 

 

I'm also very interested in seeing a rendering.  I don't think they will be based off the Project Mille design.  I'm guessing this is more of a Carnival Corp in-house design, and may be spin-off of the XL-Class.  The XL-Class (IONA, MARDI GRAS, COSTA SMERALDA, AIDAnova) is LNG powered (although Sphere Class will be a hybrid).  Carnival Corp loves to squeeze every penny out of a design, then use it ad nauseam across multiple brands so that is my guess.  

[cruise44]

1 hour ago, eroller said:

 

 

I'm also very interested in seeing a rendering.  I don't think they will be based off the Project Mille design.  I'm guessing this is more of a Carnival Corp in-house design, and may be spin-off of the XL-Class.  The XL-Class (IONA, MARDI GRAS, COSTA SMERALDA, AIDAnova) is LNG powered (although Sphere Class will be a hybrid).  Carnival Corp loves to squeeze every penny out of a design, then use it ad nauseam across multiple brands so that is my guess.  

It'll be interesting to see if Meyer Werft will share their platform design with competitor Fincantieri.  And yes, I'm surprised Carnival Corp even allowed Princess' Royal class to be built, they have been pushing the evolved 1996 Destiny platform design with their's and Costa's fleet for so long, and Holland America and Cunard are still using the almost 20 year old Vista class platform design. At 175,000 tons and 1,000 less passengers than XL class,  let's hope "Sphere" is something totally unique and new for Princess.

[scott4020]

yup I seriously doubt if it's the same as the MW ships.

Edited September 4, 2021 by scott4020

[eroller]

18 minutes ago, cruise44 said:

It'll be interesting to see if Meyer Werft will share their platform design with competitor Fincantieri.  And yes, I'm surprised Carnival Corp even allowed Princess' Royal class to be built, they have been pushing the evolved 1996 Destiny platform design with their's and Costa's fleet for so long, and Holland America and Cunard are still using the almost 20 year old Vista class platform design. At 175,000 tons and 1,000 less passengers than XL class,  let's hope "Sphere" is something totally unique and new for Princess.

Great point about the RP class, although it’s not exclusive to Princess.  P&O has the class as well, but yes you are quite right about it being a miracle it was designed and built at all.  Even the XL-Class is a very evolved version of the Destiny/Dream Class ships.  The general arrangement still shares many similarities.  It’s rightfully its own class, but you can see where its roots are.  
 

I’m not sure the XL-Class is entirely a Meyer-Werft design.  I think much of it was developed by Carnival Shipbuilding, Carnival’s own in-house ship development team.  
 

I do hope Sphere is something entirely new, like the RP class was.  History tells us it’s unlikely,  but the RP class shows us it can happen! 

Edited September 4, 2021 by eroller

[Steelers36]

12 hours ago, seacruise9 said:

Hi, 

 

I agree about re-using past names. How about Sun Princess and Sea Princess? 

 

Chuck

IDK where the moniker "Sphere" came from, but at least "Sun" fits into that.  They seem to be going for more dramatic names of late.  Perhaps Pacific and Sea do work since they our part of the Earth which is a sphere.

[john watson]

On 9/3/2021 at 5:14 PM, LACruiser88 said:

I hope they re-use some of the ship names that have left the fleet and not "new" names...

 

Like:  Sun, Sea, Fair, Dawn, Tahitian, Italian, Golden, Ocean or Patricia.

 

or they could do another gemstone, precious metal or something like Enchanted or Majestic like Romantic etc. If it is sphere they could do planets or heavenly bodies.

 

Regards John

 

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by john watson

[LACruiser88]

5 hours ago, john watson said:

 

Like:  Sun, Sea, Fair, Dawn, Tahitian, Italian, Golden, Ocean or Patricia.

 

or they could do another gemstone, precious metal or something like Enchanted or Majestic like Romantic etc. If it is sphere they could do planets or heavenly bodies.

 

Regards John

 

 

Maybe they can have a passenger contest for the naming?  No, they will probably spend a ton of money with a focus group company and come up with a strange name!

[Dunk]

On 9/3/2021 at 9:14 AM, LACruiser88 said:

I hope they re-use some of the ship names that have left the fleet and not "new" names...

I would love to see them call it Pacific Princess since it's such an iconic part of their history.

[brisalta]

On 9/3/2021 at 2:17 PM, cruise44 said:

But I have a hard time seeing a cruise ship with a swimming pool on the lower decks.

 

 

 

Maybe the plan is to fill the pool with LNG?

[CeCe_]

On 9/3/2021 at 6:51 PM, cruise44 said:

let's hope "Sphere" is something totally unique and new for Princess

 

I agree.

 

I am all for something new.  I don't mind bigger ships, actually love bigger.  I am tired of seeing the same cookie-cutting shopping experience on the Grand Atrium.  I love the Grand Atrium, but the shops carried Target quality merchandise.  I would like to see a new Promenade deck with shops for designer brands.  I am not talking about Kate Spade, Guess, Michael Kors as the RCL does.  I am talking better brands.

Edited September 5, 2021 by CeCe_

[rdsqrl]

9 hours ago, CeCe_ said:

 

I agree.

 

I am all for something new.  I don't mind bigger ships, actually love bigger.  I am tired of seeing the same cookie-cutting shopping experience on the Grand Atrium.  I love the Grand Atrium, but the shops carried Target quality merchandise.  I would like to see a new Promenade deck with shops for designer brands.  I am not talking about Kate Spade, Guess, Michael Kors as the RCL does.  I am talking better brands.

Couldn't disagree more.  It's a ship, not a shopping mall.  This is Princess, not that Mall of the Seas cruiseline.   

 

That said, they definitely need to keep the logo shop/"souvenir" shop -- mostly because I like to go in and cuddle the Stanley bear from time to time.  That's not weird, right?