Princess Cruises, an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation, has named its second LNG-powered Sphere class cruise ship being built by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.
This second Sphere class ship was named Star Princess and it will sail an inaugural season of Mediterranean voyages when it debuts in August 2025.
At 175,000 tons and carrying 4,300 guests, Star Princess and its sister ship, Sun Princess, are the largest ships ever built for Princess Cruises. The two vessels in the Sphere class will be powered by LNG fuel technology and include advanced sustainable innovations.
To remind, Princess Cruises and Fincantieri finalized the contracts for the construction of two next-generation 175,000-ton dual-fueled cruise ships back in 2019.
Launched earlier this year at Fincantieri’s shipyard Monfalcone, Sun Princess has a capacity of 4,000 m3 and is expected to be able to run on LNG for almost 9 days sailing at service speed.
It will be outfitted with two shore power connections and two Azipod propulsions for forward and backward movements and the four largest Controllable Pitch Propellers, known as bow thrusters, on the market for sideways navigation. The vessel is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2024.