TL;DR
- Princess Cruises launched its first Destination Experience fam trip series in 2026.
- 30 agents hosted so far across three programmes: Marseille, La Spezia and Naples.
- Marseille and La Spezia were on Sun Princess; Naples was on Enchanted Princess.
- The new format blends onboard ship time with a full excursion ashore, not one or the other.
- The reasoning: more customers now stay longer in ports or add hotel time either side.
- As Cruise Trade News reports, agents visited the Lotus Spa, Princess Arena, and Les Agnels Lavender Distillery near Lourmarin.
What’s Happening at Princess
If you sell cruise, you already know the drill on ship familiarisation. Deck plans, cabin categories, the specialty dining line-up. What you don’t always get is a day in the port itself. Princess Cruises has decided that gap is worth closing, and it started closing it this year.
According to Cruise Trade News, the line has hosted around 30 agents so far across three Destination Experience fam programmes: Marseille and La Spezia on Sun Princess, and Naples on Enchanted Princess. It is Princess’s first fam series built this way, and the framing is worth noting. Time on the ship, then time off it, treated as one experience rather than two.
A Closer Look
The Marseille itinerary gives a good sense of the shape. Agents toured Sun Princess, one of the line’s Sphere class vessels, taking in the Lotus Spa, the Princess Arena, the Casino and the Atrium. Then they walked Marseille Harbour. The next day they joined the excursion to Les Agnels Lavender Distillery near Lourmarin, out in Provence.
Dinner was Love by Britto, one of Sun Princess’s eight specialty dining restaurants, inspired by the artist Romero Britto. Michelle Hannigan from Abbey Travel told Cruise Trade News: “The restaurants are excellent. Love by Britto wasn’t just a meal, it was a genuine experience. From the love heart-shaped bread to the romance-inspired cocktails, it was incredible.” She also flagged that while she had cruised with Princess before, she hadn’t seen Sun Princess yet, which is a fair reflection of where a lot of agents sit.
The Agent Angle
The reasoning behind the format is worth sitting with. Princess’s read is that more customers are extending cruises with hotel stays or spending longer exploring ports, so ship confidence on its own isn’t quite enough anymore.
Pierre Liggett, team manager for Cruise Nation, put it plainly in Cruise Trade News: “The destination is so important when it comes to selling cruises. A lot of the time the customers ask about the ports, we already know a lot about the cruise line and the ships, but destination knowledge can take a bit more time to get to grips with unless you’ve been there.” It’s a small but honest observation about how selling cruise has changed.
Where This Shows Up in Real Life
For a sense of where these fam impressions translate to the brochure, Princess has a 14-day Mediterranean sailing on Sun Princess, Barcelona to Athens via Greece, Italy and Turkey, departing 26 March 2028 from £1,360pp. Full details are at princess.com, and one to bookmark if a client asks about the Sphere class experience with a decent stretch of ports.
