Pacific Dawn

Following delivery, Regal Princess sailed to New York City where she was officially named by the former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on 8 August 1991.[13] Subsequently, Regal Princess entered service by joining her sister ship Crown Princess in cruising out of Fort Lauderdale to the Caribbean during the northern hemisphere winter, transferring to the Alaskan trade for the summer months.[1] In 1992 the ownership of the vessel was transferred from Astamar to Princess Cruises and she was transferred from the Italian registry under Liberian flag.[14]

In 2000 Regal Princess received a major refurbishment.[15] From the same year until 2003, she spent the southern hemisphere summer months cruising out of Sydney, taking over Princess Cruises' Australian itineraries following the transfer of another former Sitmar ship, the Sky Princess, to P&O Cruises Australia as Pacific Sky.[16]

For the 2003 northern hemisphere summer season, Regal Princess was repositioned for cruises on the Mediterranean Sea and Baltic Sea.[17] While on a repositioning cruise from Copenhagen to New York in August 2003, a number of passengers and crew on board Regal Princess were infected by the Norwalk virus. The number of infected people on board eventually rose to 217, and the decision was made for the ship to drop planned calls in Greenland and Newfoundland in favour of sailing directly to New York. By the time the ship arrived in New York on 2 September 2003, one day ahead of schedule, only four people on board were still suffering from the virus. The ship was again disinfected and was able to depart on her next scheduled cruise without problems.[18]

In 2004 Regal Princess was planned to join her sister ship A'Rosa Blu (ex-Crown Princess) in the fleet of A'Rosa Cruises, P&O Cruises' brand aimed at the German market, but the transfer was cancelled following the sale of A'Rosa Cruises to Arkona in 2003.[18][19] In late 2006 Regal Princess was due to transfer to the fleet of Ocean Village, but this too was cancelled.[19] Instead, Regal Princess was transferred to the fleet of P&O Cruises Australia in late 2007.[2][19]

Following an extensive refurbishment, Regal Princess was renamed Pacific Dawn and christened on 8 November 2007 by Olympic gold medalist Cathy Freeman.[20] In December 2009, Pacific Dawn was moved to her new home port in Hamilton to allow Pacific Jewel and Pacific Pearl to be based in Sydney.

In May 2010, Pacific Dawn went into dry dock in Brisbane for extensive refurbishment.

In November 2014, the ship was dry-docked in Sydney, Australia for the addition of "The Edge" activities (including a zip-line, "crow's nest experience" and rock-climbing wall), a refurbishment of the Waterfront Restaurant and a cosmetic make-over of the pool deck. During this time it was known among the crew as "Salvatore Lupo's private yacht", after the captain who had served on the ship since its launch, making his way from 3rd officer to Captin while serving on the vessel over its history.

In November 2019, P&O Cruises Australia announced Pacific Dawn and sister ship, Pacific Aria, were to be retired in February and April 2021, respectively, with both being replaced in November 2021 by the larger Pacific Encounter which is currently sailing as Star Princess.[21] Her final voyage under the P&O Cruises Australia was scheduled for 8 February 2021, travelling from Melbourne to Singapore. There the ship would be officially handed over to Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), which intended to rename her Amy Johnson, after the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia.[22][8]

Following the failure of CMV in July 2020, on 28 September P&O Cruises Australia announced that they had retired the ship earlier than planned as the pause in their schedules due to the COVID-19 pandemic offered an opportunity to sell her.[23]

The ship was sold in November 2020 to Marshall Islands company Ocean Builders Central Inc.[24] It was planned that the ship will host a floating community of 2,020 people anchored in the Gulf of Panama 22 kilometers from the coast.[25] Residents would purchase their cabins to have access to all of the ship's amenities. The commercial spaces would be operated by individual companies and in keeping with the crypto-spirit and technology incubator, all businesses would have to accept bitcoin for purchases on board. A 30-minute ferry ride by tender would connect the ship to Panama City. Ship operations would have been run by a spinoff company called Viva Vivas.[26]

Due to the impossibility to secure insurance for the ship in Panama, she was sold for scrap in Alang, India in December 2020.[27][28]

While on a cruise from Sydney to destinations in Asia on 15 March 2001, Regal Princess experienced difficulties when entering the port of Cairns, due to high winds. While she made it safely to the harbour, it was decided to postpone her departure by eight hours, allowing the winds to subside and use more favourable tidal conditions. Despite these precautions Regal Princess was grounded while outbound from Cairns, but was able to free herself under her own power after just four minutes. The ship then returned to Cairns for preliminary inspections.

Due to sea conditions the hull of the ship could not be inspected by divers in Cairns, and the ship was allowed to sail to Darwin for a full inspection of the hull. In Darwin minor damage to the ship's bulbous bow was discovered, but this did not threaten her safety and Regal Princess was cleared to continue her cruise. A subsequent study to the causes of the accident concluded Regal Princess was too large to safely traverse the narrow channel leading into Cairns, and that "commercial incentives ... may have influenced the approval process to exceed the limits of a reasonable safety envelope."[16]

In February 2007 on the Panama Canal cruise (G705), following a brief scheduled stop at the pier in Huatulco harbor in Mexico, Regal Princess ran aground, making contact on her port side while backing out of the harbor due to high winds from the southeast, and listed at least five degrees to starboard. The ship freed itself and continued on to Acapulco at reduced speed and later was seen from the air severely listing to starboard, during inspection/repair in the harbor there. The subsequent scheduled cruise was cancelled due to the damage repair/inspection.

On 25 May 2009, Pacific Dawn docked in Sydney Harbour. It was reported that 130 of approximately 2,000 passengers had flu-like symptoms and two five-year-old boys subsequently tested positive for swine flu. New South Wales Health authorities ordered all 2,000 passengers from the ship to stay at home, or in hotel rooms, for seven days as a form of self-imposed quarantine.

The cases of swine flu from Pacific Dawn were the first reported contagious cases of swine flu in Sydney.

On 26 May 2009, it was reported that 14 passengers from Pacific Dawn had tested positive for swine flu. At the time, as measured against the confirmed cases for nation states, Pacific Dawn carried the 14th largest number of confirmed cases. It ranked ahead of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Brazil and New Zealand.

On 10 April 2010 Pacific Dawn lost power on the Brisbane River on approach to the Gateway Bridge. The pilot and tugs brought the ship to a full stop within 70m of the newly built second structure and the disabled ship was towed back to Portside Wharf in Hamilton, Queensland, where an investigation later determined a failure was due to a blown fuse from a saltwater leak.[29]

On 12 April 2018, at 4pm Natasha Schofield, 47 at the time, fell 40 meters over the side of the ship. Her husband was with her at the time and was quick to raise the alarm. The ship left its set course and began a search, which lasted until 8am the following day. She had three children who were on the cruise but were not there to witness the event. The ship returned to Brisbane, Australia on 15 April 2018. By reviewing security footage, police determined that the event had been a suicide shown by Schofield's leap over the railing.[30]