MS Charming

MS Charming (formerly Sea Princess and Adonia) is a Sun-class cruise ship formerly operated by Princess Cruises. She had three sister ships Pacific World, formerly Sun Princess in the Princess fleet, MV Queen of the Oceans (formerly Oceana) in the P&O Cruises fleet and Pacific Explorer (formerly Dawn Princess) in the P&O Cruises Australia fleet.

For the ship named "Sea Princess" from 1979–1995, see MV Kungsholm (1965).
History
Name:
  • Sea Princess (1998-2003)
  • Adonia (2003-2005)
  • Sea Princess (2005-2020)
  • Charming (2020-present)
Owner:
Operator:
  • Princess Cruises (1998-2002)
  • P&O Cruises (2002-2005)
  • Princess Cruises (2005-2020)
  • V.Ships Leisure (2020-present)
Port of registry:
Builder: Fincantieri – Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., Monfalcone, Italy
Yard number: 5998
Laid down: 1 December 1997
Launched: 26 January 1998
Out of service: 2020[1]
Identification:
Status: Sold[1]
Notes: [2]
General characteristics
Class and type: Sun-class cruise ship
Tonnage:
Length: 261 m (856 ft)
Beam: 32 m (105 ft)
Draught: 8.11 m (26.6 ft)
Decks: 14
Deck clearance: 9.290 m (30.48 ft)
Installed power:
  • 4 × GMT Sulzer 16ZAV40S (4 × 11,520 kW)
  • 46,080 kW (combined)
Propulsion:
Speed: 22.4 knots (41.5 km/h; 25.8 mph)
Capacity: 2,000 passengers
Crew: 900
Notes: [2]

History

The vessel was delivered to Princess Cruises from Fincantieri and began operation in 1998 under the name of Sea Princess.

Sea Princess was transferred to P&O Cruises in late 2002/early 2003. P&O renamed her Adonia on 21 May 2003 (not to be confused with a different P&O vessel of a different class which was also given the Adonia name later in 2011). The Princess Royal and her daughter Zara Phillips renamed the vessel to Adonia at a launching ceremony with sister ship Oceana, in the first double ship naming ceremony ever in the UK.[3] Adonia filled the gap left in the P&O Cruises fleet in the period between Arcadia leaving the fleet to become Ocean Village and the launch of the new Arcadia in 2005, when the vessel was transferred back to Princess Cruises.

When Princess Cruises reacquired her in 2005, the vessel was once more named Sea Princess, in a ceremony by Joanna Lumley.[3]

As of 2019, Sea Princess is homeported in Australia and will sail from new homeports in Fremantle and Adelaide for the 2020-2021 calendar season.[4]

In September 2020 Princess Cruises announced that it had sold the Sea Princess to undisclosed buyers.[1]

On 13 November 2020 Sea Princess was officially handed over to Sanya International Cruise Development and renamed Charming.[5]

Accidents and incidents

Norovirus outbreaks

At the end of May 2006, 250 people, including 18 crew, were affected by a norovirus. Evidence of a gastrointestinal virus had been found during the last two days of the previous cruise, but the company stated that it did not believe the two outbreaks to be linked. The passengers were notified of this occurrence by a letter found in their cabins after boarding. Although the ship's itinerary had been altered, and the vessel ordered to dock away from other vessels, no other countermeasures were effected. Sea Princess returned to port in Southampton a day early, and the vessel underwent a complete sanitisation and decontamination before resuming cruising. Passengers were offered a 30% refund and a £150 voucher for use on a later Princess cruise; some demanded a full refund. A norovirus outbreak occurred again on the following cruise, although to a lesser extent, and visible precautions included waiter service at the buffets and the absence of salt and pepper shakers. This cruise was also affected by force 11-12 winds in the vicinity of Ushant, causing the first scheduled port to be missed, while the remaining itinerary remained unaltered. The ship was undamaged, the nearby Legend of the Seas suffered broken windows, and Pride of Bilbao terminated her Spain-bound voyage in France due to storm damage. It is likely that the rough seas caused increased use of the handrails, contributing to the difficulty of eradicating norovirus.[6][7]

In January 2018, about 200 passengers were reported to have been infected with norovirus during a two-week round trip from Brisbane to New Zealand.[8][9]

Drug smuggling

On 28 August 2016, three Canadian nationals were arrested after Sea Princess berthed in Sydney Harbour. After the ship docked Australian Border Force officers along with drug sniffing dogs boarded the ship. During a search of the ship 95 kg (209 lb) of cocaine was found packed in suitcases. The estimated value of the cocaine is $30 million AUD ($22 million USD). The maximum penalty for this offense is life in prison.[10] The three arrested were André Tamine (63), Isabelle Lagacé (28), and Melina Roberge (22), all from Canada.[11] They were arrested on day 51 of a 68 day cruise.

References
  1. "Sun Princess and Sea Princess to Leave Princess Cruises Fleet". 21 September 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  2. "Sea Princess (IMO: 9150913)". VesselTracker. 1 October 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  3. "Joanna Lumley names cruise ship". 27 May 2005 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  4. Tore, Iuliia (10 May 2019). "Princess Cruises Launches Largest Australia & New Zealand Deployment". Rus Tourism News. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  5. "Chinese start-up buys Sea Princess; V.Ships Leisure to manage ship". seatrade-cruise.com. 13 November 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  6. Will Pavia; Steve Bird (3 June 2006). "In sickness and in health ... but mainly sickness". The Times. Retrieved 3 July 2010.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. "Disinfected virus ship sets sail". BBC News. 4 June 2006. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  8. Roe, Isobel (4 January 2018). "Sea Princess cruise gastro: Passengers tell of staff 'sanitising everything' after outbreak". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  9. "Ship docks in Qld after gastro outbreak". SBS News. Special Broadcasting Service (source: Australian Associated Press). 4 January 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  10. "Cruise ship raid nets 95kg cocaine and three arrests in Sydney". 28 August 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  11. "Three Quebecers charged with smuggling $30M in cocaine on cruise ship in Australia | Toronto Star". thestar.com. Retrieved 1 September 2016.

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