Sapphire Princess returned to service in September.
RICK FRENDT
PRINCESS CRUISES
After being laid up for two and a half years, the final ships in the Princess Cruises fleet have returned to service. The Japanesebuilt 2,600-passenger sisters Sapphire Princess and Diamond Princess resumed operation in September and November respectively, with the former sailing from Los Angeles on a series of cruises to Mexico and Hawaii.
Sapphire Princess has spent the previous eight years sailing from Asian ports, so this is also a return to US cruising for this ship after a long gap. It will be remembered that, in the early stages of the pandemic, it was Diamond Princess, in Japan with a large number of positive cases on board, that really started the worldwide port bans on almost all cruise ships.