Princess Cruises will base its new ship Ruby Princess in the Caribbean next year and is offering longer cruises to target the UK market.
The cruiseline’s 3,100-passenger ship will begin nine-night Caribbean itineraries from Fort Lauderdale, Florida during its winter 2008/09 programme, which has just gone on sale to agents.
Princess Cruises will base eight ships in the Caribbean for the season, which is one more than this year. Head of brand marketing Pieter van der Schee said the vessels will range in size from the 700-passenger Royal Princess through to Ruby Princess.
Van der Schee urged agents to focus on selling itineraries popular with UK passengers, which are the longer cruises from Barbados and Jamaica on Sea Princess. The ship’s 15-night cruises will now include a port of call to Samana in the Dominican Republic.
He said: “Princess has added two regional flights for 2008 – Newcastle and Edinburgh. This is a great selling point.”
Grand Princess also offers a new 16-night itinerary sailing a round trip from Fort Lauderdale, stopping at nine ports including:
- La Romana (Dominican Republic)
- Curacao
- Trinidad
- St Vincent
- St Thomas
- Barbados