| IMO | 9863118 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 177,882 GT |
| Length | 345 m |
| Beam | 47 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 4300 |
| Crew | 1600 |
| Service speed | 22.0 knots |
| Builder | Fincantieri |
| Yard | Monfalcone |
| Launched | 2023 |
| Maiden voyage | 2024-02-28 |
| Class | Sphere-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Princess Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
The Sun Princess delivered in 2024 is the third Princess Cruises ship to carry one of the line's most resonant names, and she is a clean break from her predecessors in almost everything except that name. She is the first ship of the Sphere class, the largest ship in the Princess fleet, the largest ship built in Italy at the time of her delivery, and the line's first ship fuelled by liquefied natural gas.
Her arrival was not smooth. Twice in the weeks before her debut her maiden voyage was cancelled at short notice for technical work that the line did not explain in detail, and she finally entered service on 28 February 2024, twenty days later than first planned. That faltering start is now the most distinctive part of her early biography.
The year suffix in this page's slug is essential: the 1995 Sun Princess is a different hull, still extant and sailing for Peace Boat as Pacific World.
Key specifications
The dataset records her at 177,882 GT, 345 m long with a beam of 47 m, a double-occupancy capacity of 4,300, a crew of 1,600 and a speed of 22.0 knots. Contemporary summaries put her maximum capacity at about 5,189 with all berths filled. At delivery she eclipsed MSC Seashore's 170,412 GT to become the largest ship ever built in Italy, a record that is as much about Fincantieri's Monfalcone yard as about Princess.
The tonnage figure is worth reading carefully. Princess's earlier Royal-class ships were about 145,000 GT; the Sphere class is a step of more than 30,000 tons, achieved not by adding length alone but by building the hull up and out around two large glazed structures.
Design and construction
The Sphere class began with an order announced in July 2018 for two next-generation LNG ships, with the final contract for the first two vessels signed in March 2019. Construction of the lead ship began at Fincantieri's Monfalcone yard in September 2021, and she was floated out in March 2023 — the class article gives the first float-out as 8 March 2023. Sea trials followed in November 2023 and January 2024, and she was delivered on 14 February 2024.
The design is a major update to Princess's established pattern, with a more contemporary exterior and two signature glass elements. The Sphere is a glass-walled, dome-like structure wrapped around the ship's central atrium, the Piazza, across three decks. The Dome, on the top deck, is a glass-enclosed space inspired by the terraces of Santorini, designed to work as a pool space by day and an entertainment space by night.
She is dual-fuel, designed for LNG as her primary fuel — the first Princess ship so built, and the feature that will persist through the Sphere class.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Sun Princess revives a name first used by Princess in 1974 and carried most famously by the 1995 ship that starred in the line's later identity. Naming the new flagship Sun was a deliberate act of continuity for a ship that otherwise broke with the fleet.
Her formal naming came after she was already in service. She was named at Barcelona on 23 April 2024 by her godmother, the actress Hannah Waddingham. The maiden voyage itself had been a moving target: originally expected on 8 February 2024, it was postponed first to 18 February and then again, by mutual agreement between line and yard, with the circumstances unexplained. She finally sailed on 28 February 2024 from Civitavecchia on a Mediterranean voyage — the date the dataset records.
Career by operator
She has had one name and one operator.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2024–present | Sun Princess | Princess Cruises |
Her first season was spent in the Mediterranean, followed by a move to Florida for Caribbean sailing in October 2024. Before that American debut she underwent a refurbishment that moved and reconfigured a number of restaurants and removed attractions from the Park19 family activity area on her top decks — an unusually early and unusually candid admission that parts of the as-delivered layout were not working, and the closest thing to a refit in her short career so far.
Onboard character
The Sphere class's character is defined by light and by the two glazed volumes. Where the Royal-class ships were organised around a conventional, if elegant, atrium, Sun Princess puts a three-deck glass sphere at her centre and a glass dome on her top deck, so that her most important public spaces are daylit and outward-looking. Her three-deck main dining room, Horizons, continues the vertical emphasis.
She was delivered with around thirty dining and bar venues and just over 2,150 staterooms, and with the line's largest casino and a two-storey spa. Read as design rather than as an amenity list, the pattern is clear: Princess used its biggest hull to make its public rooms taller, glassier and more theatrical, rather than to add neighbourhoods in the Royal Caribbean manner. The top-deck Park19 family zone, part of that original concept, was the element that did not survive her first year.
Major refits and incidents
The significant events of her career so far are her two delivery postponements, described above, and the October 2024 refurbishment that reconfigured dining venues and removed the Park19 attractions. Contemporary reporting also noted technical issues after she entered service which delayed an early port call.
No casualty, fire, grounding or collision is recorded in the sources used for this guide.
Sister ships and class
The Sphere class was ordered as a pair. Her sister is Star Princess, the second ship of the class, whose own delivery was delayed by two months and which embarked on her maiden voyage in October 2025. Together the two ships are the largest in the Princess fleet and the line's first LNG generation.
The class sits above the Royal class — Royal, Regal and Majestic Princess and their later sisters — in both tonnage and concept, and it replaces that design as Princess's flagship platform.
Fate and where she is now
Sun Princess is in active service with Princess Cruises, recorded in the dataset as status active and fate "Operating". She is the lead ship of the class on which the line's future flagship capacity rests, and no change of name, operator or status has been reported in the sources used here.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sun_Princess_(2023), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere-class_cruise_ship