Grand Princess
| Grand Princesss | |
| Placed in Service: | May 26, 1998 |
| Status: | in service |
| Tonnage: | 109,000 gross tons |
| Call Sign: | ZCBU5 |
| Official Number: | 10853 |
| Length: | 951 feet |
| Beam: | 118 feet |
| Draft: | 26 feet |
| Height: | 201 feet |
| Cruising Speed: | 22.5 knots |
| Decks: | 18 |
| Complement: | 2,600 passengers, 1,100 crew |
| Registry: | Hamilton, Bermuda |
Grand Princess is a large cruise ship owned by Princess Cruises. Built by Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani in Monfalcone, Italy, at a cost of approximately US$450 million, she was the largest and most expensive ship ever built at the time, a distinction now carried by Royal Caribbean International's Freedom of the Seas. Grand Princess departs out of Galveston, Texas.
She is the sister ship of the Star Princess and the Golden Princess. The Grand Princess was the setting for a task in the second series of the UK version of the reality TV show The Apprentice.
In March 2007, Two people, a 20 year-old and a 22 year-old (both reported to be intoxicated) fell off of their balcony stateroom (D308 on deck 9) the Grand Princess at 1:06AM CDT on March 25th 2007. As soon as the captain, Edward Perrin was notified, the ship was stopped and 2 lifeboats were lowered to search, while the ship was turned around and began to retrace its course. The ship was on its first night of the 7-day, Western Caribbean cruise, and was in the Gulf of Mexico en route from Galveston, Texas to Costa Maya (Majahual), Mexico. The nearby Carnival Ectasy also stopped and turned around to aid in the search. At approximately 2:30 AM, the captain notified the passengers and stateroom stewards went to each cabin to search, per maritime procedure. Coast guard helicopters and jets were called in from Houston and New Orleans to aid in the search. At about 5:30 AM the man was recovered, and at 6 AM the woman was recovered as well. Both were in acceptable condion, except for an abundance of jellyfish stings and a lack of clothing, and the woman suffered a broken rib. The woman was named Clairesse (Claire) and is from Colorado, and attends University of Colorado. The man, Ernesto Guzman (age 22) was from Colorado Springs, CO and attends the US Air Force Academy there. He credits his survival training from the academy as an important factor in their survival. Claire was sent to a hospital when the ship arrived in Costa Maya, while Ernesto chose to stay onboard. Originally, rumors were circulating both in the press and onboard the ship as to reasons why the couple went overboard. Two of the most common were that the woman was dancing on the table on their balcony and lost her balance and fell over, and Ernesto jumped over to save her. Another being that they were reenacting the famous Titanic scene, and Clairesse fell over (Ernesto was also rumored to have jumped in after). However, these were disproven when a Denver travel agent came forward on 9News (NBC) on April 3rd, claiming to be a witness several seconds before the fall. She also showed a picture that she took on her son's camera of what she described as "Hanky-Panky" taken approximately 30 seconds before the fall. She said "I tried to take a picture with the flash to alert the two that they could be seen, but it was my son's new camera, and I could not get the flash to go off, so I briefly stepped inside to try and figure out how the controls to turn the flash on, and in the brief moment inside I heard the splash and ran outside to find another woman yelling "Claire, Claire". At that moment, I knew someone had gone overboard, and I called to alert the ships staff as soon as possible" Ward Lucas, the anchorman who conducted the interview claimed that the travel agent may have "Saved their lives" because when the photo was snapped, a timestamp appeared on the camera, that allowed the ships captain to retrace its course to exactly where the ship was at that time (1:06 AM)([1].
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