Many North American fans of Princess Cruises as sad to see the line deploying the Sun-class ships on more exotic itineraries that are far from US shores. They say they enjoy the "smaller" ships because they are "more intimate." Princess earlier this year announced that Sun Princess would be homeported in Australia year round, and just last week they said that Dawn Princess would also remain there year round beginning late next year.
Sun Princess made its maiden call at Fremantle last week (actually the occasion was when the line announced Dawn would also be homeported in Australia), and it was interesting the way the local media covered it. The 77,00-ton ship that fans North America see as a "small ship" made headlines in The West Australian as the "giant cruise ship" arriving at Fremantle. The article then went on to refer to it as "one of the world's largest cruise ships."
It's all a matter of perspective.
