Royal Princess (2012)

On 30 May 2013, Royal Princess was officially presented to Princess in Monfalcone.[22]

On 9 April 2013, it was announced that The Duchess of Cambridge would name Royal Princess in a naming ceremony in Southampton, United Kingdom on 13 June 2013.[5] The ceremony upheld British ship-naming traditions, including the blessing and a performance by the Royal Marines and the pipers of the Irish Guards. The ship arrived at the Ocean Terminal in Southampton on 7 June and hosted events for customers and travel agents, including a special naming gala on the evening of 12 June. The ship's inaugural celebrations concluded with her maiden voyage on 16 June.[23][24]

To start her inaugural season, Royal Princess performed two 2-night preview sailings from Southampton to St. Peter Port, Guernsey on 9 June 2013 and 14 June 2013.[6][25] She left on her 7-day maiden voyage on 16 June 2013 from Southampton to Barcelona, calling in Vigo, Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Málaga.[6] She then cruised 12-day Mediterranean voyages from Barcelona to Venice throughout that summer before re-positioning to her North American homeport of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in fall 2013.[6]

On 22 September 2013, Royal Princess experienced a power outage while sailing between Mykonos and Naples.[26] A back-up generator provided power for essential services, but the cruise terminated in Naples for emergency repairs and the ship resumed regular sailings from Barcelona on 27 September.[27] The ship was sailing a 12-day Mediterranean cruise from Venice at the time of the incident.[26]

Between 2013 and 2019, Royal Princess continued to sail out of her homeport of Port Everglades to the Caribbean during the winter seasons[5] and re-positioned to Europe, including the Mediterranean,[28] the Baltic,[29] and the British Isles,[30] during the summer seasons, with several short fall seasons cruising the Canadian Maritimes and New England coast.[31][32]

On 13 November 2018, a 52-year-old woman was reported dead after falling from the upper decks onto a lifeboat. Authorities from the FBI and Aruba investigated the incident, no charges were filed. The ship was sailing an 8-day Southern Caribbean cruise from Port Everglades at the time of the incident and was en route to Aruba at the time of the woman's death.[33]

Royal Princess was refurbished in a wet dock in Freeport, Bahamas in December 2018.[34]

On 2 February 2019, she re-positioned to Los Angeles, California via a 49-day voyage circumnavigating South America[35] and became the first Royal-class ship to call at a port in the Western United States. Beginning in March 2019, Royal Princess sails to the Mexican Riviera and along the California coast from her homeport of Port of Los Angeles during the fall, winter, and spring seasons, and along the Alaskan coast from her homeports of Vancouver, British Columbia and Whittier, Alaska during the summer seasons.[36][37]

On 13 May 2019, six people died when two floatplanes, all carrying passengers from Royal Princess, collided in midair near Ketchikan, Alaska.[38] All passengers and the pilot aboard a Mountain Air Service De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver and one passenger aboard a Taquan Air De Havilland DHC-3 Otter were reported dead at the scene.[38] The other nine passengers on the DHC-3 Otter were rescued and received medical attention.[38] The United States Coast Guard assisted in the rescue and the NTSB and Alaska State Troopers are leading the investigation.[38] The ship was sailing a 7-day Alaska cruise from Vancouver to Whittier, Alaska at the time of the incident, and was docked in Ketchikan when the collision occurred.[38]

On 7 March 2020, after a crew member from Grand Princess had transferred to Royal Princess fifteen days earlier, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a "no-sail order" for the ship on 8 March 2020, prompting Princess to cancel the ship's seven-day cruise to Mexico before it departed Los Angeles.[39][40]