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Princess Cruises launches biggest ever season of UK departures for 2018
Princess Cruises has unveiled its 2018 sailing programme – its biggest ever season of UK cruise departures.
The cruise line will offer over 1 million cruise nights from the UK in 2018. Back in 2014, it offered 911,180 nights in the UK but this dropped below 900,000 in the following three years.
Sapphire Princess will make her maiden visit to Europe, sailing from Southampton to the Mediterranean and northern Europe.
The 2,700-guest ship will sail 16 departures, ranging from three to 14 nights from April to October.
She will also sail from Singapore to Southampton on March 28, 2018 on an Indian Ocean & Europe Grand Adventures 38-night cruise. Ports of call include Colombo, Cochin and Dubai.
After six months sailing Europe roundtrip from Southampton she will return to Singapore, providing two opportunities for guests to sail the unique 38-night itineraries.
Royal Princess will return to the UK offering round-Britain cruises from Southampton. The 3,560-guest ship will return to in May 2018 after five years away.
New to the programme will be late departures from Belfast on every sailing and overnight stays in Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow on select voyages.
Meanwhile, Pacific Princess will sail from Dover with a new 12-night European capitals cruise calling at destinations including Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen and Paris.
There will be 36 voyages in Europe over the school holidays and for the first time in three years summer Caribbean cruises will be available.
The cruise line will also offer more overnight stays at destinations including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, St. Petersburg, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Boston and Venice and late night stays, including Belfast, Berlin and Oslo.
The programme will go on sale on December 1 at 4pm with a reduced deposit of 5% available until February 28, 2017.
Tony Roberts, vice president Princess Cruises UK and Europe, said: "Having seen a significant increase in popularity of Princess cruises from the UK, we are thrilled to announce that our 2018 programme will be our biggest ever season.
"We are very excited to welcome Sapphire Princess, which has never sailed in Europe before and boasts unique features that we are confident our UK guests will enjoy. And the return of Royal Princess will be a special moment as 2018 will mark five years since she was launched in Southampton by HRH, the Duchess of Cambridge."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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