The Sapphire Princess has been a cruise ship since July 2004 of the American shipping company Princess Cruises , which belongs to Carnival Corporation & plc , the largest cruise company in the world. The only sister ship is the Diamond Princess . The Sapphire Princess has over 700 balcony cabins and the stern pool with a stepped stern typical of Princess Cruises.
In February 2000 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was awarded the contract to build two cruise ships for the shipping company Princess Cruises, which should be delivered in July 2003 and May 2004. Construction of the Diamond Princess , which was to be delivered in July 2003, later the Sapphire Princess , began in June 2001.
Fire 2002
On October 1, 2002, a fire broke out on deck 5, causing the hull to burn out to about 40 percent. As a result, timely delivery could no longer be guaranteed. In order to approximately meet the delivery date, the client and shipyard agreed to swap the names of the ships. The original Diamond Princess has now been rebuilt as the Sapphire Princess . For this reason, the sister ship originally planned as the Sapphire Princess was delivered to the shipping company as the Diamond Princess with only seven months delay. After elimination of the fire damage ", renamed" could Sapphire Princess of the agreed time of delivery Sapphire Princess to be delivered.
After delivery, the ship was christened on June 10, 2004 in Vancouver .
