M.S. CROWN PRINCESS

P&O Princess Cruises

United Kingdom

 

Northbound in Bosphorus, Istanbul. August, 1990.

 

Built: 1990 by Fincantieri, Monfalcone yard, Italy.

Technical:  

Overall length: 245.1 m

Beam: 32.3 m

Draft: 7.9 m

Gross Tonnage: 70285 tons

Passengers: 1590

Power: 4 MAN B&W powering 2x12 MW electric propulsion engines.

Service Speed: 22.5 knots

Operating Routes: Worldwide cruising, including the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

Sister Ships:

- M.S. Regal Princess

Former Names: None

Later Names: M.S. A'Rosa Blu (2002).

Owners:
- 1990-2002: P&O Princess Cruises, London, United Kingdom.
- 2002-Present: A'Rosa Cruises, Germany, which is a subsidiary of P&O. Marketed by Seetours, Germany.

History and Current Status: A new generation of cruise ship, M.S. Crown Princess was designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano and built at the Monfalcone yard of the Italian company Fincantieri in 1990. Originally, she was being built for Sitmar Cruises but when P&O/Princess acquired Sitmar, she was transferred to Princess. It was claimed that the shape of a dolphin's body was taken as a model in her superstructure design. She cost over $20M and was christened by the famous actress Sophia Loren. Between 1990 and 2002, she continuously served under the Princess logo in worldwide but mostly Caribbean cruising. She got refurbished extensively in 1995. In 2002, Princess Cruises transferred her to their new subsidiary, A'Rosa Cruises of Germany. After refurbishments, which included some renovation of the interiors and modifications on the funnel design, she is now marketed as M.S. A'Rosa Blu by Seetours of Germany, which also belongs to the P&O group. She serves exclusively for a German clientele and based in Europe. There are rumors that she will have a difficult future because of her design, which does not provide a reasonable amount of open deck space with too many large cabins stacked on top each other and small public lounges.

(email all info about her to ata.bilgili@dartmouth.edu)

Notes: I first heard about M.S. Crown Princess in the catalogue pages of Princess Cruises. To be honest with you, I did not give a damn about her first, just because her artist's renditions looked ugly and I assumed that she was going to be stationed in the Caribbean 99% of time, just like many other newbuildings of the time. Back in 1990, I was looking at this new generation of gigantic cruise liners not as ships but as ugly floating hotels. In the 1990 catalogue of Princess Cruises, however, I found out that the M.S. Crown Princess, which was built in Italy, was going to make her maiden cruise in the Mediterranean/Black Sea, before crossing the Atlantic towards the New World! She was going to make a one night stop in Istanbul, before a northbound passage through Bosphorus on her way to the Black Sea ports. I did not want to miss this opportunity and headed to my favorite spot to take her photographs and see her.

I first saw her docked at Karakoy, in the evening hours. After taking a couple of night photos, I headed home to redo the trip the next day, during her crossing of Bosphorus. The next day, under a partly cloudy sky, there she was, making her way towards the Black Sea exit of Bosphorus. She was still carrying the Italian flag on her mast. She was actually much better looking than I expected, but nowhere near the grace and elegance of classic smaller cruise vessels. I especially disliked her funnel first but then decided that nothing else would have looked better on a ship like that. She really looked gigantic to my eyes at the time, in her 70000 tons, which is a almost medium ship considering today's standards!... She was the first cruise vessel that I saw which almost shadowed the silhouette of the 150500 DWT 1974 built Soviet tanker M.T. Kavkaz, which was a regular in Bosphorus. The pictures taken by me on this page are all from that maiden voyage.

Links:

- Princess Cruises webpage.
- M.S. Crown Princess by Aleksi Lindstrom.
- M.S. Crown Princess postcards from Simplon postcards.
- M.S.Crown Princess from www.schiffsphoto.de.
- M.S. Crown Princess by Onno Heesbeen.
- M.S. A'Rosa Blu from Marcus Puttich.
- M.S. A'Rosa Blu rechristening ceremony from Raoul Fiebig.
- M.S. A'Rosa Blu from www.schiffsphoto.de.
- A'Rosa Cruises webpage.
- Seetours webpage.

Line Drawings: From the 2002 A'Rosa Cruises brochure.

Other Pictures:

Postcards from My Collection: