Episode 12 - Skywalkers Removal

Check out the amazing footage of the removal of Skywalkers from Grand Princess. Truly an unforgettable sight!
What happens when a ship goes into dry dock?

Sometimes, pretty dramatic stuff.

As in this week, when an iconic 160-ton chunk of the Grand Princess was sawed off and spirited away by a giant crane.

What Princess Cruises buffs know as Skywalkers Nightclub, perched high above the stern, a dizzying 18 decks over the sea, was sliced away. The structure that some people likened to a race car spoiler and others to a shopping cart handle is no more.

When the Grand Princess debuted in 1998, Skywalkers Nightclub was a curiosity, the AquaTheater or ice rink of its day. Passengers rode elevators to the ship's top deck then hopped onto a moving walkway that whisked them through a long, clear tube to reach the club.

With its floor-to-ceiling glass windows, disc jockey and throbbing music, Skywalkers was the late-night hot spot. Sitting beside the back window and gazing down at the ship's wake far, far below was a giddy experience—even without a cocktail.

But Princess decided to remove the nightclub to improve the ship's fuel efficiency. And so it came off this week, documented in a dramatic video as part of a daily journal the line is keeping of the 24-day dry dock at Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport, Bahamas.

It's the biggest transformation of a ship in Princess history. Apart from extracting Skywalkers, workers are adding a piazza-style atrium like that on the newer Princess vessels, a Crown Grill steak house, a sit-down pizzeria, a martini bar and seven suites.

The Grand Princess is also gaining a feature that no other ship in the fleet has: a combination library/tea lounge with a selection of 500 tea blends.

Oh, and in place of Skywalkers is the new One5 Lounge, a nightclub tucked neatly into Deck 15.

The dry dock video journal and photos are at princess.com/granddrydock.Amazing work being done at the Grand Bahama Shipyard.

Episode 11 - The Freeport Rugby Club & Port Lucaya

Martyn ventures off Grand Princess to the Freeport Rugby Club and Port Lucaya to show you what the crew are up to during their time off during the drydock.