Floating city comes to town

The Grand Princess has a theatre, casino, library, and a wedding chapel

print this

The cruise liner Grand Princess, which visited Helsinki for some hours on Tuesday, is like a foreign city.
      Foreign, because for security reasons, visitors have to show their passports before being admitted onboard the vessel.
      A city, because the cruiser offers its 2,600 passengers a broad range of services and features - almost anything that a human being needs.
     
The 290-metre cruise vessel, with a crew of 1,100, offers a wide variety of onboard facilities, amenities and services, including restaurants, shops, a fitness centre, a full-service spa, a library, an art gallery, a disco, a photo shop, an 800-seat theatre, a casino, a nine-hole putting course and a golf simulator, as well as five swimming pools (including one resereved for the crew).
      In addition, the Grand Princess offers a wedding chapel featuring a wedding-at-sea programme officiated by the ship's captain. The chapel is equipped with cameras making it possible for even far-away relatives to follow the wedding on the Internet.
     
The Grand Princess will be cruising on the Baltic Sea until September. Four out of five of her passengers are Americans.
      They first flew from the United States to Copenhagen, from where they started their 10-day Scandinavia/Russia cruise, featuring two days in St. Petersburg. The cruise also includes Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Gdansk, and Oslo. The fare for a holiday onboard cost them about USD 1,800-8,400 (EUR 1,000-7,000) depending on the category of cabin.
      Currently, holidaymakers who plan to take a cruise find the northern part of the globe very interesting.
     
"The primary destination for  Americans and Canadians is Alaska. As for other destinations in the world, the Baltic Sea is the most sought after, while the Mediterranean as well as the Caribbean come next", says Sales Manager Constanza Villalobos of Princess Cruises.
      Currently, all Baltic Sea cruises onboard the Grand Princess have been sold out. No sooner has one gigantic cruise liner left but another sails in: today sees the arrival of the 293-metre Costa Atlantica (who is incidentally returning to the city where she was built), and tomorrow, Thursday, it is the turn of the 294-metre Constellation. The procedure is the same in all cases: dock at 9 a.m. and depart once more at 6 p.m.


Links:
  Princess Cruises
  Grand Princess

Helsingin Sanomat