| IMO | 9192363 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 108,977 GT |
| Length | 289.51 m |
| Beam | 36.0 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 2600 |
| Service speed | 23 knots |
| Builder | Fincantieri |
| Hull number | 6051 |
| Launched | 2001 |
| Maiden voyage | 2002 |
| Class | Grand-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Carnival Cruise Line |
| Status | Active |
| All names | Carnival Encounter; Star Princess; Pacific Encounter |
Overview
Carnival Encounter has one of the most consequential histories of any ship in this directory, because of what happened to her on a March night in 2006. Built by Fincantieri and delivered in 2002 as Star Princess, the third Grand-class ship for Princess Cruises, she was sailing the Caribbean when a balcony fire swept along her port side, destroying or damaging nearly three hundred cabins and killing one passenger. The investigation that followed changed the rules for cruise-ship balconies worldwide — the combustible plastic partitions that let the fire spread were outlawed in effect, and balcony sprinklers and non-combustible furniture became standard across the industry.
Her later career has been quieter. Transferred early to P&O Cruises Australia in 2020 because of the pandemic, refitted and renamed Pacific Encounter, she entered Australian service in August 2022, then transferred to Carnival Cruise Line as Carnival Encounter in March 2025, on the closure of the P&O Australia brand.
Key specifications
The dataset records 108,977 GT, a length of 289.51 m, a beam of 36.0 m, a capacity of 2,600 and a speed of 24.0 knots. Her own article, citing Fincantieri's fact sheet, rounds the tonnage to 109,000 GT and the length to 290 m, and gives a maximum speed of 23 knots; the dataset's 24-knot figure is the higher claim and the difference is logged in the batch notes. The dataset leaves her class blank; she is a Grand-class ship, the third of the class to enter service.
Her plant is the class-standard diesel-electric system: six Sulzer generators — four of 11,520 kW and two of 8,640 kW — driving two propulsion motors, with 1,299 passenger cabins and 627 crew cabins recorded in her article, a maximum total complement of 4,160, and a draught of 8.05 m. Of her passenger cabins as built, 72 per cent had an outside view and 55 per cent a balcony — the very feature at the centre of her defining incident.
Design and construction
Star Princess was ordered in January 1998, as one of two Grand-class ships in a single $425-million-each Fincantieri order — the other being Golden Princess, now Carnival Adventure, built as the adjacent hull 6050 to her 6051. She was built at Monfalcone. Late in her construction, on 29 June 2001, a fire started in a galley when sparks from a welding torch ignited material; it spread into a dining room, but damage was limited and completion was not seriously delayed.
At delivery she was too large for the Panama Canal, so her positioning voyage to Los Angeles ran eastabout — Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Indian Ocean and a 26-day Pacific crossing. She became the first ship of her size to be homeported in Los Angeles full-time, and in November 2003 the first vessel of more than 100,000 GT to sail in Australian waters.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
She was launched at Monfalcone on 10 May 2001; the dataset's "launched 2002" is her completion year, corrected here and logged. She was christened at the yard on 25 January 2002, the day of her completion, by her godmother Gunilla Antonini, and made her maiden voyage from Los Angeles — a three-day cruise — on 10 March 2002, as the second Princess ship to bear the name Star Princess.
Her second name, Pacific Encounter, was announced by P&O Australia in November 2019, well before her transfer; she carried it from 2021, though she did not enter service under it until August 2022. Carnival Encounter dates from March 2025, and she made her first sailing under that name on 29 March 2025, the same day as her sister's Carnival debut.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002–2021 | Star Princess | Princess Cruises | Maiden voyage 10 March 2002; transferred to P&O in October 2020 |
| 2021–2025 | Pacific Encounter | P&O Cruises Australia | Entered Singapore drydock January 2021 for conversion; debuted August 2022 |
| 2025–present | Carnival Encounter | Carnival Cruise Line | Transferred March 2025 on closure of the P&O Australia brand |
Her Princess years were spent principally on the US West Coast — Mexican Riviera and Hawaii seasons from Los Angeles and San Francisco, Alaska seasons in summer — with interludes including South America and Antarctica in 2008 and Australia in 2003. The transfer to P&O had been announced in August 2018 for late 2021, but the pandemic accelerated it: she joined P&O in October 2020, entered Sembcorp Marine's Singapore yard in January 2021 for a redesign of her interiors in the P&O style, and then waited out Australia's cruise shutdown before debuting in August 2022.
Onboard character
As built, Star Princess was a textbook Grand-class ship: balcony-saturated cabin decks wrapped around a core of multiple restaurants, show lounges and pools, designed for the North American market's expectation of choice at scale. Her P&O conversion of 2021 redesigned the interiors to the Australian brand's design language, and her Carnival transfer in 2025 applied that line's branding and systems; in each case the bones — cabin layout, public-room geography, the class silhouette — have stayed recognisably those of the 2002 ship.
One element of her onboard character was changed by force, industry-wide. After 2006, her balconies — like those on every cruise ship — were rebuilt to the new standard the investigation produced: fire-resistant partitions, non-combustible furniture, detection and sprinkler coverage. Passengers boarding her after the Bremerhaven repairs in spring 2006 were reported to notice mainly new carpet, balcony sprinklers and metal furniture where plastic had been.
Major refits and incidents
The 2006 fire dominates her history. At about 3:00 a.m. on 23 March 2006, en route from Grand Cayman to Montego Bay, fire broke out in the passenger accommodation on her port side, apparently from a cigarette left burning on a balcony. It spread with great speed through the balconies' polycarbonate partitions, polyurethane deck tiles and plastic furniture, scorching up to 150 cabins and smoke-damaging at least 100 more across decks 9 to 12. One passenger died of smoke inhalation and thirteen others suffered significant smoke inhalation. The ship reached Montego Bay under her own power; passengers were flown home and refunded. With 79 cabins destroyed and 204 damaged, she crossed the Atlantic to Lloyd Werft at Bremerhaven for repairs, returning to service on 15 May 2006. The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch report on the fire drove fleet-wide changes to balcony construction and fire protection, on this ship and every other.
Her major refits otherwise are the 2021 Singapore conversion for P&O and the 2025 Carnival rebranding work.
A second controversy followed in March 2012, when passengers sighted a small drifting boat in the Pacific and later alleged the ship had failed to stop for the Panamanian fishing boat Fifty Cent, two of whose crew died. Princess maintained the vessels were never in sight of each other, supported by commissioned drift and photographic analyses, and in April 2013 the Bermuda maritime authorities closed their inquiry after the witness passengers stated the boat they saw was not Fifty Cent.
Sister ships and class
She is the third Grand-class ship, after Grand Princess and her order-mate Golden Princess, now Carnival Adventure — hulls 6050 and 6051 from the same 1998 Fincantieri order, now sailing as Carnival fleetmates in Australia a quarter-century later. The wider class includes Caribbean, Crown, Emerald and Ruby Princess and the Diamond/Sapphire variants; a later Princess ship took the Star Princess name again in 2025, so the present ship's original name now belongs to a different hull.
Fate and where she is now
Carnival Encounter remains in active service with Carnival Cruise Line, status "Operating" in the dataset and "In service" in her own article, in Australian service from Brisbane following her March 2025 transfer. No retirement is announced. Her legacy is already secure in a way few cruise ships achieve: the balcony fire-safety standards now built into every new cruise ship are, in large part, her memorial.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Encounter