''Pacific Adventure'' is a operated by

P&O Cruises Australia P&O Cruises Australia is a British-American owned cruise line with operational headquarters as part of Carnival Australia, based in Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia. Originally a sister company of P&O Cruises in the United Kingdom, it was ...

, a subsidiary of

Carnival Corporation & plc Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of two companies – Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carniv ...

. In 1998,

Princess Cruises Princess Cruises is an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company is incorporated in Bermuda and its headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California. As of 2021, it is the second largest cruise line by net revenue. It w ...

finalized the order for the ship (then known as the ''Golden Princess'') in response to the strong demand for her sister ship, ''

Grand Princess ''Grand Princess'' is a cruise ship owned by Princess Cruises. It was built in 1998 by Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani in Monfalcone, Italy, with yard number 5956, at a cost of approximately US$450 million. She was the largest and mos ...

'', making her the fleet's second ''Grand''-class ship. She was built by Italian shipbuilder

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

Monfalcone Monfalcone (; Bisiacco: ; fur, Monfalcon; sl, Tržič; archaic german: Falkenberg) is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Gorizia in Friuli Venezia Giulia, northern Italy, located on the Gulf of Trieste. Monfalcone means 'falcon mountain ...

, delivered in 2001, and christened by Merlisa George in Saint Thomas in April 2002. While operating as ''Golden Princess'', she has sailed to all seven continents, beginning with her debut in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in May 2001, followed by seasonal deployments serving regions around the Caribbean and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. In 2007, she circumnavigated

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

and debuted along the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

before also sailing around ports in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

bordering the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

until 2020. In 2017, Carnival Corporation announced ''Golden Princess'' would be transferred from Princess to sister brand

as a part of P&O's fleet renewal. She is currently in service as ''Pacific Adventure'' as of 2022, sailing itineraries around Oceania along with her sister ship ''

Pacific Encounter ''Pacific Encounter'' is a cruise ship operated by P&O Cruises Australia, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. She was originally delivered in 2002 as ''Star Princess'' to sister cruise line Princess Cruises in 2002 by Italian shipbuild ...

'' (previously known as '' Star Princess'').

Construction

In January 1998 Princess announced it was ordering two additional ''Grand''-class ships at a cost of approximately US$425 million each from Italian shipbuilder

for delivery in 2001. The first ship, named ''Golden Princess'', was floated out on 31 August 2000 in

. She sailed her maiden voyage on May 16, 2001. She was originally planned to be christened by

Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne ...

on 12 October 2001, but was later christened by Merlisa George,

Miss US Virgin Islands Miss U.S. Virgin Islands is a beauty pageant in the US Virgin Islands. History Between 1961 and 1978, the National Committee of Virgin Islands celebrated Miss Virgin Islands contest, in which the grand winners competed at the Miss Universe and ...

2002, on 17 April 2002 in Saint Thomas.

Design and specifications

Princess made several changes to the design of ''Golden Princess'' compared with ''Grand Princess'', including a modified stern. Princess commissioned ''Golden Princess'' to have similar dimensions to ''Grand Princess'': they both measure and have an approximate capacity of 2,600 passengers. Additionally, they have a length of , a draft of , and a beam of . ''Golden Princess'' 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 has 1,299 passenger cabins and 627 crew cabins. She has a maximum capacity of 4,160 passengers and crew. On board, ''Golden Princess'' retains much of the design of ''Grand Princess'', aside from several changes. Instead of the slanted bulkheads of the tiered decks below her sister ship's navigation bridge, she has flat bulkheads. Additionally, in order to reduce the ship's weight, she features a modified stern made of lighter materials, particularly in the "handle," which housed the ship's nightclub.

Covid-19

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 a round-trip sailing from

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, three passengers were quarantined onboard after one was suspected of having the coronavirus when they began developing symptoms. At the time of the announcement, the ship was bound for Akaroa and proceeded to anchor in

Akaroa Harbour Akaroa Harbour, is part of Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. The harbour enters from the southern coast of the peninsula, heading in a predominantly northerly direction. It is one of two major inlets in Banks Peninsula, on ...

to allow for medical officials to test the guests, who ultimately tested negative. The remainder of the voyage was subsequently cancelled and the ship was cleared to return to Melbourne, following the Australian government's ordinance for all cruise ships to return to their homeports. The ship returned on 19 March 2020 and all guests finally disembarked around 6:00pm after some of the guests were tested earlier in the day, and none of those tests returned positive. ''Golden Princess'' was scheduled to perform a full season of Alaska voyages from Los Angeles in summer 2020 and a final

transpacific crossing Transpacific crossings are voyages of passengers and cargo across the Pacific Ocean between Asia, Australia and the Americas. Cruises offer transpacific crossing which passes through the International Date Line. The first recorded crossing of the Pa ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

in fall 2020, but due to the pandemic, all sailings of the ship were suspended. There were rumors of the vessel possibly being sold for scrap instead of being transferred to P&O Australia, but Carnival Corporation denied the rumors and later did transfer the vessel.

''Pacific Adventure''

Background

In December 2015, Carnival Corporation announced it had ordered a new 4,200-passenger ship from Fincantieri for Princess' sister brand,

, as a part of its "fleet enhancement plan." The new ship, scheduled for delivery in 2019, would become P&O's first-ever new-build vessel and its largest ship overall in the fleet. However, in December 2016, the order for the new ship was transferred to sister brand

Carnival Cruise Line Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Its logo is a funnel shaped like a whale's tail, with a red, white, and blue color scheme. This ...

(CCL) in exchange for ''

Carnival Splendor ''Carnival Splendor'' is a operated by Carnival Cruise Line. As she is the only ''Concordia''-class ship in the Carnival fleet, she is also referred to as a ''Splendor-''class ship. Her other sister ships are part of the Costa Crociere fleet. T ...

'' joining the P&O fleet instead. In a statement, P&O president Sture Myrmell conceded that the market's current infrastructure and its anticipated pace of development would be inadequate to support the brand's earlier, more ambitious expansion goals. But in September 2017, Carnival issued a further fleet realignment, announcing ''Golden Princess'' would transfer to P&O, with ''Carnival Splendor'' continuing to operate for CCL. In September 2018, after hosting an online naming contest, P&O announced ''Golden Princess'' would be renamed ''Pacific Adventure'' and debut in October 2020, featuring modified accommodations and onboard facilities designed in-line with the P&O brand.

Service

In October 2018, P&O unveiled the inaugural schedule for ''Pacific Adventure'', with cruises of various lengths from Australian ports, visiting

, Fiji,

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, and other destinations in

, beginning in October 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic led P&O to halt its operations, and this delayed the ship's debut until 2022. Australian cruises were suspended in March 2020, with the ban finally being lifted on April 17 2022. The ship was transferred in October 2020, but she did not enter service until 2022 because of the

. ''Golden Princess'' transitioned into P&O's fleet in 2022 as ''Pacific Adventure'', her guest capacity has been increased to 2,636, with modifications including the addition of five-berth cabins. P&O also invited the public to contribute suggestions in order to design a more family-oriented experience on the ship. Other new features will consist of a new adults-only lounge space and a recreational park. The ship has been renovated in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

References

External links

Archived page of ''Golden Princess''
(via Princess Cruises)

(via Princess Cruises) {{Princess Ships 2000 ships Ships of Princess Cruises Ships built in Monfalcone Ships built by Fincantieri Cruise ships involved in the COVID-19 pandemic