It appears that Princess Cruises might base Sapphire Princess in Shanghai in China for about three months next year.
The company’s itineraries show a 25 night cruise from Los Angeles across the Pacific to Shanghai, with departure 18 May. The next published cruise of the ship will sail from Shanghai on 3 September, with Bangkok as destination. From there, it will sail on to Australia and in the winter 2015 head north to Singapore. The ship will have a season of about three months in the Asian port.
If Princess Cruises will offer a series of cruises from Shanghai next year, it would become the second brand of Carnival Corp & plc to do so. Costa Crociere has two vessels on the Chinese market, Costa Victoria and Costa Atlantica. However, Costa Atlantica will operate a 100 night around the world cruise from China next year and Costa Victoria will spend part of next spring inS ingapore, thus reducing the footprint of the Carnival group on the Chinese market.
Earlier this year, the Carnival group established Carnival Asia in Singapore to grow its business in the region, while Princess Cruises has said it will open a number of offices in China.
