Emerald Princess is a Grand-class cruise ship

Cruise ship

A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...

 for Princess Cruises

Princess Cruises

Princess Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line, based in Santa Clarita, California in the United States. Previously a subsidiary of P&O Princess Cruises PLC, the company is now one of ten cruise ship brands operated by Carnival Corporation & PLC and accounts for approximately 19% share...

 that entered service in April 2007. Her sister ships include Caribbean Princess and Crown Princess

Crown Princess (ship)

Crown Princess is a Grand Class ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises. Her maiden voyage took place on June 14, 2006, departing Red Hook, Brooklyn for Grand Turk , Ocho Rios , Grand Cayman , and Port Canaveral...

. She features two nightclubs, a piazza style atrium, multiple pools and hot tubs, a spa, and a gym. Unlike her sisters, Emerald Princess does not have a disco overhanging the stern, but the same stern as her near-sisters Diamond Princess

Diamond Princess (ship)

Diamond Princess is a large cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises. She began operation in March 2004 and primarily cruises in Alaska during the summer and the Asia in the winter. She is a Grand Class ship and subclassed as a Gem Class ship...

 and Sapphire Princess

Sapphire Princess

The Sapphire Princess is a cruise ship owned by Princess Cruises which entered service in 2004. It is one of the world's largest cruise ships, with a capacity of approximately 2670 passengers and is the sixth Gem Class ship built by Princess Cruises....

.

Emerald Princess launched from the Italian shipyard of Fincantieri Monfalcone

Fincantieri

Fincantieri - Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A. is a shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. It was formed in 1959 and is the largest shipbuilder in the Mediterranean, and one of the largest in Europe...

 on June 1, 2006. She was then handed over to Princess on March 24, 2007. Emerald Princess was christened on 13 May 2007, in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

.

Service history

Emerald Princess began commercial service on 11 April 2007, offering 12-day Mediterranean and Greek Isles cruises, and continued sailing Europe for Summer 2007. She was then repositioned in Fort Lauderdale

Port Everglades

Port Everglades is a port in Broward County, Florida. As one of South Florida's leading economic powerhouses, Port Everglades is the gateway for international trade and cruise vacations. Already one of the three busiest cruise ports worldwide, Port Everglades is also one of Florida's leading...

in Fall to offer Caribbean cruises.

Emerald Princess had a power outage on July 25, 2010 on the first day of a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise. For extended periods during the 4+ hour outage, there was no air conditioning, no elevator service, limited lighting, and toilets could not flush. As a result of the outage, the Emerald Princess missed its first port of call the following day. Passengers were credited $300 USD per stateroom for the inconvenience. Princess cruises has not yet determined the cause of the outage.

Incidents

On May 17th, the ship sustained considerable damage to several lifeboats when a fuel loading barge collided with the side of the ship while in the port of St Petersburg, Russia. After inspection by authorities, it was determined the ship still had enough passenger space in an emergency using inflatable life rafts, and the ship will continue on the planned itinerary.

External links

• Emerald Princess official website