Pacific Princess
Calling into Bergen today was the modestly sized Pacific Princess.
Considerably smaller than most modern mass-market cruise ships, many passengers are drawn to the more intimate experience on offer, with a relaxed atmosphere and shorter queues.
Pacific Princess originally enetered service in 1998 as R Three for the now-defunct Renaissance Cruises. She was one of an ambitious series of eight identical ships built for the line between 1998 and 2001. Unfortunately this turned out to be a step too far, and Renaissance Cruises ceased operations in 2001 (this is often attributed to unlucky timing; their closure came with the massive global downturn in travel that followed the 9/11 attacks in the USA).
In the following years, this fleet of eight smart, modern cruise ships found their way to a variety of cruise lines across the world. Princess Cruises initially took two of these (with a third, Royal Princess, added in 2007). Pacific Princess has remainded a member of their fleet since 2002, and is at this stage the sole R-Class ship operated by Princess Cruises.
Pacific Princess has a legth of 181m, a tonnage of 30,277 and can accommodate up to 826 passengers, with a crew of 323.
The following photos were taken as Pacific Princess departed the city this afternoon, as seen from the Bergen-Askøy ferry.
FYI... Princess actually had three of the "R" ships at one point. Pacific Princess, Tahitian Princess (which became Ocean Princess) and the Royal Princess. Ocean Princess was sold to Oceania and is now sailing as Sirena. Royal Princess is now P&O's Adonia and sailed recently for Fathom.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the additional information - I've updated the post accordingly. It's hard to keep track of where all of the R-Class ships have been since Renaissance Cruises closed down!
ReplyDeleteThere's a full listing of the R-class ships at
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Cruises
That's really handy, thanks :)
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