Royal Princess is a operated by Princess Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc, and is the third ship to sail for the cruise line under that name. The largest ship to have been built for Princess at the time of delivery in 2013, she became the flagship of Princess. As the lead vessel of the Royal class, she lends her name to the company's Royal class, which will consist of six ships upon the last ship's delivery in 2021. The ship measures and has a capacity of 3,560 passengers. Design and specifications Royal Princess measures , has a length of , a draught of , and a beam of . She is powered by a diesel-electric genset system, with four total Wärtsilä engines, producing a total output of . Main propulsion is via two propellers, each driven by a electric motor. The system gives the vessel a service speed of and a maximum speed of . The ship houses 1,780 passenger cabins and 751 crew cabins. Of the 1,780 passenger cabins, 81% have a balcony. The ship has a maximum capacity of 5,600 passengers and crew. Royal Princess was one of the first passenger ships built to comply with the safe return to port requirements. As the largest ship in the fleet at the time, an increase in overall volume and decrease in space allocated to pools allowed for more venues than on any other Princess ship. Among the offerings onboard are two sets of cantilevered walkways extending over the port and starboard sides of the ship known as the "SeaWalk," three swimming pools, a dancing water fountain, a movie screen designed by Daktronics, a nightclub, and several entertainment lounges. Construction and career On 17 February 2010, Carnival Corporation & plc reached an agreement with Italian shipbuilder, Fincantieri, to build two prototype ships for Princess. The ships were designed to measure approximately 139,000 GT with a passenger capacity of 3,600 and had scheduled debuts for spring 2013 and 2014, respectively. These two vessels would become the largest vessels to be built by Fincantieri and also the largest vessels built for Princess to date. The final contract for the two ships was signed on 4 May 2010. The ship is reported to have cost $735 million. On 15 March 2011, Princess and Fincantieri celebrated the cutting of the steel for the new-build vessel at the shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy.