Fincantieri’s Monfalcone Displays “Regal Princess”

“Regal Princess”, the new flagship of the Princess Cruises fleet owned by the Carnival Group, the world’s largest cruise ship operator, was presented on Sunday at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard.

Attending the ceremony, among others, were the Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, the Governor of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Debora Serracchiani, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Claudio De Vincenti and the Undersecretary of State for Justice, Cosimo Maria Ferri.

In attendance for the owner were Arnold Donald, Chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation, Stein Kruse, CEO of Holland America Group, Jan Swartz, Chairman of Princess Cruises, and for Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, CEO and Vincenzo Petrone, Chairman.

The construction of “Regal Princess” consolidates Fincantieri’s primacy in building the largest passenger ships in Italian shipbuilding history. It has 1,780 cabins, of which 1,438 with balconies (81% of the total), and is able to accommodate 4,200 passengers, with total capacity for over 5,600 people including crew.
At 141,000 gross tons, 330 metres long and 38 metres wide, the new ship is the largest ship ever built by Fincantieri, along with “Royal Princess”, its sister ship delivered last year at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard. Both ships are in the world’s top ten largest cruise ships.

As an innovative ship for a new ground-breaking class of ship, “Regal Princess”, like “Royal Princess”, stands out for its new “future-proof design”, not only in terms of layout and state-of-the-art performance, but also because it complies with the most recent regulations concerning large cruise ships.

Among the keystones of this trend are the rational use of space, with the aim of avoiding any wasted tonnage that would otherwise increase operating costs, and energy saving to reduce emissions into the atmosphere and water. The ship will be able to adapt to every possible type of cruise, operating from Alaska to Australia, even in environmentally protected areas where navigation is restricted.

“Regal Princess” is the 32nd cruise ship built at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard and the 14th for Princess Cruises alone. Fincantieri has built 65 cruise ships since 1990, 42 of which since 2002.

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Press Release, May 16, 2014; Image: princess cruises