Pacific Dawn (ship)
Pacific Dawn is a cruise ship owned by Carnival Corporation and operated by P&O Cruises Australia. She was built in 1991 by the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy as Regal Princess. The ship was ordered by Sitmar Cruises, but delivered to Princess Cruises, and later deployed to the fleet of P&O Cruises Australia.
After her multimillion-dollar refurbishment in Singapore from Regal Princess to Pacific Dawn, she operates from Australia to South Pacific destinations. Her renaming coincided with P&O's 75th anniversary in Australia. In February 2021, Pacific Dawn will leave the P&O fleet. She was intended to be handed over to Cruise & Maritime Voyages and renamed as Amy Johnson.
Concept and construction
had started an ambitious new building programme for the North American cruise market in 1985. Following an abortive attempt to order ships from the Italy-based Fincantieri, the company had placed an order for one ship, Sitmar Fairmajesty, with the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in France. Sitmar were planning to order additional vessels however, and the Italian government—owners of Fincantieri—were eager to have these ships built by an Italian shipyard. Following negotiations between Sitmar and Fincantieri, the former placed an order for two cruise ships with the latter, to be delivered in 1990 and 1991. Although the ships maintained the same basic layout of Sitmar Fairmajesty, their exteriors were redesigned by the Italian architect Renzo Piano.In 1988, while the two new ships ordered from Fincantieri were in the early stages of construction, Sitmar Cruises was sold to P&O Group and the three Sitmar ships under construction were transferred to the fleet of P&O's subsidiary Princess Cruises. The second of the ships under construction at Fincantieri was launched from drydock on 29 March 1990 and named Regal Princess. Following successful sea trials on 5 June 1991 Regal Princess was delivered on 20 July 1991 to Astamar, a subsidiary of P&O Group.
Service history
1991–2007: ''Regal Princess''
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. 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. 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.In 2000 Regal Princess received a major refurbishment. 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.
For the 2003 northern hemisphere summer season, Regal Princess was repositioned for cruises on the Mediterranean Sea and Baltic Sea. 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.
In 2004 Regal Princess was planned to join her sister ship A'Rosa Blu 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. In late 2006 Regal Princess was due to transfer to the fleet of Ocean Village, but this too was cancelled. Instead, Regal Princess was transferred to the fleet of P&O Cruises Australia in late 2007.
2007–2021: ''Pacific Dawn''
Following an extensive refurbishment, Regal Princess was renamed Pacific Dawn and christened on 8 November 2007 by Olympic gold medalist Cathy Freeman. 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, a refurbishment of the Waterfront Restaurant and a cosmetic make-over of the pool deck
In November 2019, P&O Cruises Australia announced Pacific Dawn and sister ship, Pacific Aria, are to be retired in February and April 2021, respectively, with both being replaced by the larger Pacific Encounter which is currently sailing as Star Princess in November 2021 Her final voyage under the P&O Cruises Australia banner is scheduled for 8 February 2021 and will see her travel from Melbourne to Singapore, where she will end her voyage and be officially handed over to Cruise & Maritime Voyages.
''2021 Attempted Transfer to CMV''
In November 2019 it was announced that Pacific Dawn would transfer to Cruise & Maritime Voyages. For the Cruise & Maritime Voyages fleet, Pacific Dawn was intended to be renamed Amy Johnson in February 2021, after Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. However on July 20th 2020 it was announced that CMV would he placed into Administration and would subsequently end operations.Design
The distinctive curved forwards superstructure of the ship, designed by Renzo Piano, was inspired by the dolphin. Unlike the previous P&O Cruises Australia ships, Pacific Dawn has an all-white hull, to mark P&O's 75th anniversary in Australia.Incidents and accidents
2001 grounding in Cairns
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."
2007 Huatulco mishap
In February 2007 on the Panama Canal cruise, 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.2009 Sydney swine flu outbreak
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 the nations of mainland China, Hong Kong, Brazil and New Zealand.