Golden Princess (2000)


Golden Princess is a operated by Princess Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Delivered in 2001, she is the second Grand-class ship in the fleet, following sister ship Grand Princess.
She is currently scheduled to transfer to sister brand P&O Cruises Australia and begin operating as Pacific Adventure by fall 2020.

History

''Golden Princess''

Construction and debut

In January 1998, Princess Cruises announced it was ordering two Grand-class ships scheduled for delivery in 2001. Each ship was initially estimated to cost approximately US$425 million and be constructed by Fincantieri near Trieste. Golden Princess officially debuted in Southampton in May 2001, with her maiden voyage scheduled for May 16, 2001. For her inaugural summer, she sailed 12-day Mediterranean voyages between Barcelona and Istanbul, with Caribbean voyages from Fort Lauderdale, Florida beginning on 13 October 2001.
She was originally planned to be christened by Jane Seymour on 12 October 2001 but was later christened by Merlisa George, Miss US Virgin Islands 2002, on 17 April 2002 in St. Thomas.

Atlantic and Mediterranean service

Golden Princess returned to the Mediterranean in the summer of 2002, but in the wake of the September 11 attacks, Princess modified the ship's itineraries, replacing all ports in Turkey with ports in Italy, Malta, and Monaco. That fall, she sailed her first season in New England and the Maritimes. She was deployed to Europe for her third consecutive summer in 2003, cruising between Barcelona and Venice.
In 2004, Princess homeported Golden Princess in San Juan, Puerto Rico year-round for weekly Southern Caribbean cruises. In 2005, Princess deployed the ship to Southampton for the summer to sail Northern Europe cruises and repeated the rotation in 2006 with the additions of Eastern Mediterranean cruises to Greece and Egypt.
In December 2006, Princess deployed Golden Princess to sail out of New Orleans for the company's first time operating from the port, selling three cruises to the Western Caribbean. This would mark the ship's last deployment in the Caribbean.

Pacific service

In the winter of 2006-2007, Golden Princess sailed to South America and around Cape Horn for the first time as a part of her move to the Western United States for her debut in Alaska from Seattle. Following her Alaskan season, she debuted in Los Angeles for weekly Mexican Riviera sailings. In the fall of 2008, the ship began sailing round-trip 14-day Hawaii itineraries from Los Angeles, continuing this rotation for the next few years.
In the fall of 2013, Golden Princess performed the company's first season of 3-/4-day cruises from the West Coast, before returning to South America later in the winter. The rotation repeated the following year.
In the summer of 2015, Golden Princess cruised Alaska sailings from San Francisco for the first time. Following this, she crossed the Pacific Ocean and debuted in Melbourne for her maiden Australia season in fall 2015, making her the largest ship to homeport there. She then debuted in China, sailing from Tianjin, the following summer, before returning to Melbourne in fall 2016. The ship did not homeport in North America for 2017, a first in her history, and left for a 75-day circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean from Sydney in May of that year, before returning to Melbourne in fall 2017. In the summer of 2018, Golden Princess sailed another Alaska season from Los Angeles as well as between Vancouver and Whittier, Alaska and returned to Melbourne in fall 2018.
The 2019-2020 season marked the last active season that the ship sailed as Golden Princess. She began with weekly Alaska voyages in summer 2019 before returning to Melbourne in fall 2019. In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, several passengers were suspected of coronavirus after developing symptoms and were quarantined on the ship. The ship was bound for Akaroa at the time of the announcement, causing the premature end of the cruise and the ship to sail back to Melbourne. Golden Princess was scheduled to perform a full season of Alaska voyages from Los Angeles in summer 2020 and a final transpacific crossing to Singapore in fall 2020, but due to the pandemic, all sailings of the ship since the cruise line's suspension of operations have been cancelled.

''Pacific Adventure''

In September 2017, Carnival Corporation announced that instead of transferring Carnival Splendor to P&O Cruises Australia, Golden Princess would be transferred instead. In September 2018, P&O announced the ship would be renamed Pacific Adventure and be redesigned prior to operating to better adapt to the Australian cruise market. In October 2018, P&O unveiled the inaugural season for Pacific Adventure, which features cruises of various lengths from Australian ports, visiting New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and other destinations in Oceania.

Design and specifications

Golden Princess has 17 decks, 13 of which are accessible to passengers. She currently measures, has a length of, a draft of, and a beam of. She is powered by a diesel-electric genset system, with six Sulzer engines: four producing and two producing. Main propulsion is via two diesel-electric propellers. The system gives the vessel a maximum speed of. The ship houses 1,299 passenger cabins and 627 crew cabins. Of the 1,780 passenger cabins, 72% have a view outside, including 55% that include a balcony. The ship has a maximum capacity of 4,160 passengers and crew.
Facilities aboard Golden Princess include various entertainment venues, bars, and lounges, including the aft "Skywalkers Nightclub" atop the ship's stern, three dining rooms, a buffet, a tiered atrium, an internet café, a wedding chapel, and four swimming pools. In 2009, the ship received significant upgrades in a dry dock in Victoria, British Columbia, including the addition of a movie screen, a new steakhouse, and several interior modifications.
Pacific Adventure will retain the overall architecture of Golden Princess, but is planned to include both additions and modifications to the ship's facilities. New recreational features will include two water slides and a rock climbing wall.