Princess Cruises has confirmed plans to base a bigger ship in Southampton for summer 2013.
The 3,080-passenger Crown Princess will replace 2,610-passenger Grand Princess which is switching to run cruises to Alaska from San Francisco.
The line’s booking system has opened early for agents to set up groups business for 2013, enabling them to earn additional commission of up to 6.25% and offer their customers extra benefits straight away.
This is part of a simplification of a number of polices being introduced following agent feedback which includes a single cancellation policy, regardless of the length of the cruise.
Individual bookings open on April 24 for the company’s summer 2013 Mediterranean & Scandinavia, and Alaska Cruises & Landtours programmes.
Princess will have the youngest ever fleet in Europe next year, with seven ships operating in the Mediterranean and Scandinavia.
Newcomer Royal Princess will sail popular Grand Mediterranean fly-cruises after being previewed in the UK.
New off-the-beaten-track Med itineraries are being introduced together with more cruises to the Holy Land, Black Sea, and Scandinavia and Russia.
As part of the deployment, Caribbean Princess will be offer more departures of its 12-day British Isles cruises and will sail to the Norwegian fjords.
Intimate Ocean Princess is to run a new 14-day Iceland and Norway itinerary to off-the-beaten-track ports in Iceland and will offer more eight-day British Isles sailings and a longer Baltic route.
A further seven ships are being deployed in Alaska, with the company offering 20 add-on land tours.
UK director Paul Ludlow said: “With seven ships in both Europe and Alaska, passengers have a great choice to explore these classic summer destinations.
“We are so pleased with the success of Princess in the UK that we are increasing our capacity on cruises from Southampton with the introduction of Crown Princess.
“Following feedback from our partners we are also supporting UK travel agents with some simplifications of our policies to ensure Princess is even easier to book, further enhancing the opportunities that are available through the brand.”