Star Princess - The Original One

[CrusinAgain]

We went on the Star Princess to Alaska in 1994. The Star Princess I am seeing says it is new as of 2002? What happened to the original Star?

[bdjam]

Star Princess 1 is now sailing as Ocean Village for … Ocean Village. It is a very casual British cruise line. She does sail the Caribbean as I saw her in 2004 when I sailed Sun Princess. Unfortunately, they’ve chosen to paint her a rather garish orange and magenta and they’ve made changes to her interior to facilitate the casual style of cruising she’s now providing. I've attached a picture from the Ocean Village website below.

 

The ship was originally being built for Sitmar as the Fair Majesty, but Sitmar was purchased by Princess before she was completed and so she was re-christened Star Princess. She was the first of the "big" ships for Princess and set the standards that Crown Princess 1 and Regal Princess - and then the rest of the fleet - followed. Star, Crown 1 and Regal were all designed for Sitmar, and so have the Sitmar influence. Crown 1 is now sailing for AIDA, a German cruise line. And as we all know, Regal will soon join P&O Australia. Unfortunate that these ships have been purged from the fleet, but the "tastes" of today's cruising population don't match what these fine ships have to offer.

[CrusinAgain]

Wow! I had no idea. Thanks so much for letting me know she's still cruising but changed. I hadn't been able to keep up on the cruise ships for a few years. Looks like I missed alot of news.

[bdjam]

I know a lot of people who felt that Star Princess 1 was one of the best ships Princess had to offer…so it’s a little disappointing to see what’s happened to her. But she’s not yet gone to the breakers, so I guess we can be happy about that. :)

[CrusinAgain]

I believe she was the biggest if not one of the biggest back then. Although looking at the pictures now, she doesn't have many balconies like they are trying to do now.

 

Looks like you have sailed alot on Princess. Any one in particular that you would recommend that stands out to sail on?

[bdjam]

I believe she was the biggest if not one of the biggest back then. Although looking at the pictures now, she doesn't have many balconies like they are trying to do now.

 

Looks like you have sailed alot on Princess. Any one in particular that you would recommend that stands out to sail on?

I don’t think you can go wrong with any Princess ship in general. I am a fan of the “smaller” ships – I would stay away from the 3100 passenger ships like Caribbean, Crown 2 and Emerald just because they are too big in my opinion, but I think the quality of the cruise is probably very good. I have sailed on the smaller Grand Class ships – Grand and Star – and while I found the cruise to be fine, there was something missing in that the personal contact that can be achieved with passengers and crew on the smaller ships wasn’t there.

 

My favorite ships in the fleet are Regal first, with Island, Dawn and Sun all probably tied for second. As I say, I like the smaller ships and find that these give me the cruise experience I want. If you sailed Star 1, Regal Princess would present much the same experience as they were pretty close in design. You’ll find the passenger density a little higher on Sun and Dawn (and the cabins a lot smaller), but the ships were designed with an additional dining room and additional show lounges to handle the increase in passengers. Probably the most spacious next to Regal is Island Princess, which is about 13,000 GRT larger than Sun and Dawn but carry the same number of passengers…on my sailing I kept wondering where everyone went!

 

I also sailed Pacific Princess 2 which is a lovely little ship – 650 passengers, just perfect. Unfortunately since she does the exotic itineraries (she did the San Francisco to Alaska run when I sailed her) she’s out of reach, but I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to sail her again.

 

Lots of typing – did that help?

[CrusinAgain]

I don’t think you can go wrong with any Princess ship in general. I am a fan of the “smaller” ships – I would stay away from the 3100 passenger ships like Caribbean, Crown 2 and Emerald just because they are too big in my opinion, but I think the quality of the cruise is probably very good. I have sailed on the smaller Grand Class ships – Grand and Star – and while I found the cruise to be fine, there was something missing in that the personal contact that can be achieved with passengers and crew on the smaller ships wasn’t there.

 

My favorite ships in the fleet are Regal first, with Island, Dawn and Sun all probably tied for second. As I say, I like the smaller ships and find that these give me the cruise experience I want. If you sailed Star 1, Regal Princess would present much the same experience as they were pretty close in design. You’ll find the passenger density a little higher on Sun and Dawn (and the cabins a lot smaller), but the ships were designed with an additional dining room and additional show lounges to handle the increase in passengers. Probably the most spacious next to Regal is Island Princess, which is about 13,000 GRT larger than Sun and Dawn but carry the same number of passengers…on my sailing I kept wondering where everyone went!

 

I also sailed Pacific Princess 2 which is a lovely little ship – 650 passengers, just perfect. Unfortunately since she does the exotic itineraries (she did the San Francisco to Alaska run when I sailed her) she’s out of reach, but I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to sail her again.

 

Lots of typing – did that help?

 

You bet it helped alot! Thank you!

 

When we sailed the Carnival Miracle it held about 800 less people but was just as long as like the Valor. It was easy to get around since it felt like it was not crowded even though the ship was full so I do know what you mean by the size and rooms on ship.

 

Well the Sun and Dawn leave from our closest port so now I know more about them if we want to go on them or not.

[woodofpine]

It's interesting that the favorites of "yesteryear" end up in places that actually have more established cruise markets with longer cruise history than the fast growth USA (UK to Australia has been a route for-ever). The cruisers there are perfectly content on those older ships. I think they know something...

[griswalds]

Our first cruise was on the original Star to the caribbean and we are now hooked some 10 cruises later. It was a great ship and we loved it.

 

We have since cruised on larger ships and have found them all to have their advanatages and disadvantages. On the Grand Princess, it does hold a lot of passengers but we loved the ship and found it be spacious. The problem came with tendering into Grand Cayman as we found tender "gridlock" as we sat in the harbour waiting for permission to dock. It was pretty bad as we had to take in the exhaust from all the little boats and there 2 stroke engines.

 

We have also been on the Sun Princess and it was not crowded.

 

Large ships offer more entertainment and dining options. It all depends on personal taste.

 

Griswalds

[holton]

Our first cruise with Princess was on the Star to Alaska in July of 1994.

We particularly loved the captain...he gave us a running commentary

through the staterooms on where we were and history of the area. You

could tell he loved the area and his job. We have not seen a captain do that since and have been to Alaska 6 more times. Our favorite ship is

now the Island...we will be doing back to backs on her to Alaska this May

and Hawaii in 2007.