| IMO | 9187887 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 30,277 GT |
| Length | 181.0 m |
| Beam | 25.46 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 688 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 826 |
| Service speed | 18.0 knots |
| Builder | Chantiers de l'Atlantique |
| Hull number | N31 |
| Launched | 1999 |
| Maiden voyage | 1999 |
| Class | R-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Azamara |
| Status | Active |
| All names | Azamara Onward; Pacific Princess; P Prince; R Three |
Overview
Azamara Onward is an R-class cruise ship built in 1999 by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, France, as R Three for Renaissance Cruises. She is one of the best-travelled hulls of her generation under different names: after Renaissance failed in 2001 she became Princess Cruises' Pacific Princess — heir to the name made famous by television's Love Boat — and in 2022, after a sale and refit, she joined three of her own sisters at Azamara as Azamara Onward. Few ships illustrate this directory's one-page-per-hull principle better: three brands, four names, one IMO number throughout.
The dataset's record of her was corrected in a late hygiene pass (step 1d) and now gives her 1999 launch; researchers should still note that her ship article dates her launch to August 1999 while a detailed hull history gives 12 March 1999 as the launch date and 28 July 1999 as delivery.
Key specifications
The dataset gives 30,277 GT, 181.0 metres in length and 25.46 metres in beam, matching her ship article, which adds a draught of about 5.8 metres and nine passenger-accessible decks. Her installed power is four Wärtsilä 12V32 diesels totalling about 13,500 kW, driving twin propellers for the dataset's 18 knots.
Capacity is where sources diverge most. Her article gives 688 passengers at lower berths and 826 with every berth filled, with a crew of 373; the dataset's maximum of 777 sits between those two figures and is retained here with the range stated. She was built at a reported cost of about £150 million, as one of eight near-identical sisters ordered by Renaissance at Saint-Nazaire.
Design and construction
The R class was Renaissance Cruises' ambitious standard design of the late 1990s: eight ships of about 30,000 GT, large enough for proper public rooms and balcony cabins, small enough for ports the new mega-ships could not use, and deliberately interchangeable — the ships were near-identical even in furnishings, so the fleet could be deployed flexibly. The design, inside and out, is credited to British designer John McNeece.
R Three was the third of the eight, yard number N31. Her keel was struck in December 1997, she was launched in 1999 and delivered on 28 July 1999, entering service in French Polynesia, based at Papeete, Tahiti, in December 1999.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Renaissance named its ships by number, not name — R One through R Eight — a system that made sense for a charter-flexible fleet and left each hull a blank canvas for later owners. R Three therefore had no naming ceremony of her own as built; her first real name came in 2002, when she was renamed Pacific Princess and christened at Sydney on 8 December 2002 by Gabi Hollows.
Her third naming came two decades later: renamed Azamara Onward on 2 May 2022, in a ceremony in Monte Carlo reported at the time, Onward completing Azamara's set of four R-class ships. Between Princess and Azamara she briefly carried the interim name P Prince while laid up awaiting her new role — the fourth name in the dataset's list.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2001 | R Three | Renaissance Cruises |
| 2001–2002 | R Three | Laid up (Renaissance Cruises failed September 2001) |
| 2002–2021 | Pacific Princess | Princess Cruises |
| 2021–2022 | P Prince | Laid up, awaiting transfer |
| 2022–present | Azamara Onward | Azamara |
Renaissance ceased operations on 25 September 2001, and R Three was arrested and laid up at Papeete before passing, with her sister R Four, to P&O Princess interests. As Pacific Princess from December 2002 she spent her first years shared between Princess Cruises and P&O's Australian operation, then sailed worldwide for Princess — the fleet's small, long-range ship, used for world cruises and ports her larger fleetmates could not enter. Carnival announced her sale in January 2021; the buyer was Azamara, itself newly sold by Royal Caribbean Group to Sycamore Partners, and the ship was handed over in March 2021.
Onboard character
The R class's character is intimacy at real-ship scale: a traditional promenade, a proper observation lounge, a two-level show lounge rather than an arena theatre, and public rooms decorated in a club-like Edwardian idiom of dark wood, brass and upholstered armchairs that Renaissance specified uniformly across the eight sisters. Azamara's refit kept that character and layered its own country-club style over it; the ship's appeal, under all three brands, has been that she feels like a small ocean liner rather than a scaled-down resort ship.
Her Pacific Princess years gave her a second, popular identity: the name connected her to the original Pacific Princess of The Love Boat, and Princess used her accordingly, on the line's most far-flung programmes. She was never the same hull as the television ship — a point this directory is careful to keep straight.
Major refits and incidents
Her defining refit was the conversion for Azamara in 2021–22, carried out after her handover in March 2021 and culminating in her May 2022 renaming and entry into Azamara service; the work rebuilt her interiors to Azamara's standard throughout. Earlier, her Princess career included the normal cycle of drydock refurbishments, none of which altered the hull structurally — no lengthening or added cabin block is recorded for any R-class ship.
No major incident involving this hull under any of her names was found in the sources consulted for this guide.
Sister ships and class
The R class comprised eight Saint-Nazaire sisters built 1998–2001: R One to R Eight. Their post-Renaissance dispersal is a directory in miniature — four of them (R Six, R Seven, R Eight and this ship, R Three) eventually gathered at Azamara as Journey, Quest, Pursuit and Onward, while R One, R Two, R Four and R Five went to Oceania Cruises as Insignia, Regatta, Sirena and Nautica. That all eight survive in service with just two premium brands, more than two decades on, is the class's distinction.
Fate and where she is now
Azamara Onward remains in active service with Azamara, registered in Malta, as the dataset records. Her fate so far is reinvention: built for a line that lasted barely two years in her life, she has outlasted it by decades, and her 2022 reunion with three of her sisters at Azamara closes one of the neatest circles in modern cruise history.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azamara_Onward, https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Azamara-Onward-589?tab=review