It comes after the line’s UK and Europe vice president Tony Roberts revealed that Princess had seen 50% year-on-year growth in UK homeport passengers after a “incredibly strong year”.
The line will increase its ex-UK capacity by 15% in 2018 compared with 2017, with Sapphire, Pacific and Royal Princess all homeporting in the UK.
Both Royal and Sapphire Princess will sail out of Southampton, with the latter offering sailings to the Mediterranean and northern Europe and Royal Princess sailing round-Britain itineraries.
Meanwhile Pacific Princess will offer round-trip voyages from Dover, sailing to northern and southern Europe.
“We’ve made a really great start on our 2017 programme, and our ex-UK sailings are particularly strong, so we wanted to get behind this opportunity. It will be our largest ever UK season, with four extra sailings compared with 2017.”
Roberts told TTG the move demonstrated “real confidence” in the UK market, despite concerns over Brexit and currency concerns. “We’ve had two years of double digit growth.
“Brexit and currency challenges are all things that we consider, but we believe there is great potential in the UK market, and we’ve had great support from the trade.”
Roberts acknowledged that currency challenges “made anywhere with changes from pounds to dollars less attractive, but we haven’t seen any impact since [the EU referendum in] June,” he said.
“2016 was one of our biggest years ever and for 2017 we’re ahead in the UK, and we’ve not had to bring our prices down. September was our best month ever in the UK.”
Roberts attributed the line’s success in part to ITV’s The Cruise, which was filmed onboard Regal Princess and aired last March. “The TV show really helped – it got an audience of five million on a regular basis, and about 1.8 million people take a cruise annually, so a whole new audience were introduced to cruise,” he said.
“It drove people to search out Princess online and when speaking to their travel agents. Our business through the trade has grown at a fantastic rate,” he added.
Also unveiled in the line’s 2018 programme is a return to summer Caribbean sailings – the first time the line has offered it in three years.
Alaska will also have its largest ever deployment with seven ships sailing in the region between May and September.
Certain itineraries will additionally offer increased “More Ashore” late night stays at a number of destinations including Belfast, Berlin and Oslo.
The line’s 2018 programme will go on sale from December 1, with a reduced deposit of 5%, offered until February 28, 2017.
