This is strange - Princess website, classification of ships

[Coral]

I went to Princess website and clicked on ships and this screen is new:

http://www.princess.com/ships/

Look how they classify the ships. They put the Coral and Island into the Sun class classification. And they have a Royal class with Tahitian, Pacific, Regal and Royal.

Not necessairly how I would classify things.... A little over simplistic. I did click on a specific ship and was impressed with the deck plan info, etc. .

[Casey12]

I wish they would use the real classifications:
Grand class, Sun class, Diamond class, Coral class, ........ This is misleading.

I posted reference to this on Coral's other posts...perhaps those are the real classifications...I mean the ships do belong to Princess. But it's interesting to wonder what - if anything - it means...?

-------------------------
Sun Princess, 03/2004; Pacific Princess, 07/2003; Star Princess, 05/2003; Grand Princess, 10/2002; Grand Princess, 10/2002; Sun Princess, 05/2001; Sun Princess, 04/2001; Sun Princess, 09/2000; Sun Princess, 09/2000; Regal Princess, 10/1999; Sun Princess, 08/1998; Holiday, 05/1998; Westerdam, 09/1997; Regal Princess, 11/1996; Royal Odyssey, 09/1995; Starward, 11/1993

[sue d. miller]

Princess announced that the grand class were also getting the movie. Diamond and Sapphire also?

Sue
7 days on Star Princess 10/24

[Coral]

Sue -

The Press Release says "These screens will be added to Princess' trademark Grand-class ships, Grand Princess, Golden Princess and Star Princess."

but who knows.....

Here is a link to the Press Release:
http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na669

[sue d. miller]

HMMMMM, Interesting. Wonder why the 3 are Trademark, with at least another Caribbean coming, if not more. And the other two are just different.

Sue
7 days on Star Princess 10/24

[Coral]

Sue - ??

Will wait and see I guess.

[LovingFL]

From what I see, the three catagories are separating the ships in size... "over 2600 passengers, over 1950 passengers and over 670 passengers.
These days I find that most travelers book their cruise on the number of passengers that are on board a typical sailing. Mega ship vs. small ship. I'm cool with that...
What I'm not cool with on Princess's new web site is...get the "floor plans" correct for the specific catagory (Caribbean Princess). To me...that is very important, when I reserve a cruise, I want to know exactly what I'm purchasing. The Grand Suite looks no different than a mini-suite on some other Princess ship...


Mark

Until Caribbean Princess 9-4-04
http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff0000&cdt=2004;9;4;17;0;00&timezone=GMT-0500

[dougnewmanatsea]

Well, from a technical standpoint, they are quite wrong. CORAL/ISLAND are not SUN-class, and there is no such thing as a ROYAL-class ship since ROYAL was a one off.

I could see CARIBBEAN/DIAMOND/SAPPHIRE as GRAND-class ships (they are, after all, modified versions of that design) but certainly not ISLAND and CORAL as SUN-class; and as for the ROYAL-class, that is obviously a marketing invention as ROYAL PRINCESS has no sister ships at all.

Also what on earth is with "These ships seat over 1,950 passengers"? Seat?

I shouldn't complain, at least they're not saying "this ship seats over 1,950 guests"...

Doug Newman
Cruise Critic Message Boards Host
e-mail: shiploverny AT yahoo DOT com

[bbqman]

Don't worry folks, in a couple of years they are all going to be the "funship" class. http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Stan http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
<marquee> So many places to go and no money to get there <marquee>

Grand from Galveston
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[karen2cruz]

I agree with LovingFl, it's based on size. Royal Caribbean does that as well. There are differences in their ships within the classes as well. As technology changes they improve the class or when they find some things work better than others, they change. The Mariner of the seas did not have a kiddie pool or slide and it was a big controversey for people with small families. It's balconies are built out from the structure of the ship versus the original Voyager...etc...etc

I think Princess did a great job "classifying" their ships.

I do agree I wish they would be more accurate on their room desciptions/floor plans. Give them time. It's a lot of work upgrading websites. My husband is a programmer, I know. Even the smallest addition can crash the whole thing.

Sea Princess 2/02
DisneyWonder 6/03
Mariner of the Seas 4/04
Golden Princess 1/23/05

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff0000&cdt=2005;1;23;23;0;00&timezone=GMT-0500

[dougnewmanatsea]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by karenduncan_99:
it's based on size. Royal Caribbean does that as well. There are differences in their ships within the classes as well.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
RCI's classifications are much less broad than Princess'.

The RADIANCE-class, VISION-class, and SOVEREIGN-class are all relatively similar in size but are different designs and RCI classifies them seperately.

As I said, I can see the GRAND-class classification as those are all variants of the same design. CORAL/ISLAND are not SUN-class ships but I can vageuly see that. However the whole ROYAL-class thing is, as I said, a marketing invention, and there are three completely different designs there. ROYAL PRINCESS carries about double the number of passengers as PACIFIC or TAHITIAN and REGAL another 400 or so pax, and the three designs are all very, very different. The range of size, age, design, etc., within this so-called class of ships is far too wide for them to classify them as being in the same class... IMHO.

Doug Newman
Cruise Critic Message Boards Host
e-mail: shiploverny AT yahoo DOT com

[karen2cruz]

Hey Host Doug, I am not disagreeing with you. I understand Princess has more variations in their ships. But heck, let's applaud them for trying to simplify things a little and update their website. I bet they have someone reading this thread right now who might take some ideas back to the website people to group the ships better http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Sea Princess 2/02
DisneyWonder 6/03
Mariner of the Seas 4/04
Golden Princess 1/23/05

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff0000&cdt=2005;1;23;23;0;00&timezone=GMT-0500

[Coral]

I find it strange to put the Regal Princess in the same "class" as the Pacific Princess. I would have designed this area differently.

Kudos to the rest of the site - it looks great.