Roberts, vice-president UK and Europe, also revealed that the name of the ship – the first of three Royal-class vessels set to be built by 2022 – would be announced later this week and itineraries would go on sale “few weeks’ time”.
Speaking to media and trade partners in London yesterday (November 29), Roberts said the ship’s proximity to the UK offered a “great opportunity” to both the trade and its clients.
He also gave more details on Princess’s fifth and sixth Royal-class ships, launching in 2020 and 2022.
Roberts teased that there was a “pretty good chance” the fifth ship, being built in Italy, would sail in Europe.
“I am not going to place any bets on where she is but she has been built in Italy so there is a pretty good chance that she will be around [in Europe] for at least part of summer 2020,” he said
“Over the next three years we’ll be putting another three Royal-class ships on sale and chance are they will be sending a great deal of time in Europe as well.”
During the event, Princess also announced that 2019 would feature its “longest-ever” ex-UK season featuring 198 days of sailing onboard Sapphire Princess with more than one million cruise nights available from Southampton and Dover.
“We’ve worked very hard to make it different and have some of the old favourites but for the first time from a UK team’s perspective we have had more influence over the [ship’s] deployment than ever before and worked hard to bring more to the UK market,” said Roberts.
Sapphire will sail on a series of voyages to the Mediterranean and northern Europe.
Across its 2019 season, Princess will boast five ships sailing across the Mediterranean and northern Europe (Sapphire, Crown, Regal, Emerald and Pacific Princess) to 130 destinations.
Emphasising Princess’s desire to offer new product to UK customers, Roberts highlighted a 24-night Canada & New England roundtrip from Southampton, calling at ports including Charlottetown, Boston and New York.
“It’s one of the highlights of the season,” he added.
