Royal Princess, the 141,000 ton cruise ship named in Southampton by the Duchess of Cambridge in June last year, is set to return to the city today.
The spectacular vessel was expected to be alongside the Ocean Terminal in the Eastern Docks just for the day but the vessel will be back in Southampton where she will be based next year for a complete season of summer voyages.
Award winning Royal Princess was due to arrive in port at 7am after completing a transatlantic crossing from Fort Lauderdale in Florida.
Her brief port-of-call visit to Southampton is to allow passengers to take shore excursions before the ship leaves again at 8pm.
Royal Princess will set sail for Copenhagen, Denmark from where she will cruise to Scandinavia and Russia in the coming months.
Later this year Royal Princess will reposition back to the other side of the Atlantic where she will undertake a programme of Caribbean cruises.
Southampton will see Royal Princess again next spring when she will begin a number of round Great Britain voyages and a cruise to the Baltic from the city.
Royal Princess, which can carry up to 3,600 passengers, was officially named by the Duchess of Cambridge, her last solo public appearance before the birth of Prince George, in a dazzling quayside ceremony in Southampton.
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