A private dining room, destination-inspired menus, and poolside food-and-beverage service are at the core of Princess Cruises' expanded Sanctuary Collection, which the line is rolling out across five Royal Class ships beginning with Royal Princess, where bookings opened October 22, 2026.
The Sanctuary Collection was first introduced aboard Sun Princess and Star Princess as a ship-within-a-ship concept bundling select suites and staterooms with exclusive spaces and an all-inclusive amenity package. The expansion marks the first phase of what the company describes as a multi-year fleet modernization initiative.
The Dining Proposition
For hospitality operators tracking premium cruise F&B strategy, the Sanctuary Restaurant is the clearest signal of intent. The venue offers an intimate setting with menus tied to the ports Princess visits — a localization approach increasingly common in upscale hotel and resort dining, where destination-driven programming commands higher guest spend and stronger loyalty scores. Guests in Sanctuary suites also receive a dedicated concierge to coordinate dining and entertainment reservations, mirroring the butler-service model seen at luxury land resorts.
At the pool level, Sanctuary Club guests receive curated food-and-beverage service delivered to upgraded loungers, with shaded cabanas available at an additional charge — a revenue-layering tactic familiar to any operator managing a premium pool deck.
What the Bundle Includes
Every Sanctuary Collection booking automatically includes Princess Premier, the line's top-tier all-inclusive package. That bundle covers premium unlimited beverages, specialty and casual dining, high-speed Wi-Fi, crew appreciation gratuities, complimentary room service, and OceanNow on-demand delivery. The approach mirrors the all-inclusive bundling strategies gaining traction across upscale resort and hotel operators, where packaging beverage and dining costs upfront reduces friction and lifts total per-guest revenue.
Guests already holding Reserve Collection staterooms on Royal Princess booked before October 22, 2026, will be automatically upgraded to Sanctuary Collection amenities at no additional cost, though the Princess Premier package is excluded from that complimentary transition.
Rollout Timeline
Four additional ships go on sale over the following two months. Regal Princess opens November 5, 2026, with a Transatlantic voyage from Port Everglades departing April 17, 2027. Discovery Princess follows December 4, covering a seven-day Mexico itinerary from Los Angeles beginning April 24, 2027. Sky Princess goes on sale December 10 for a 14-day Baltic voyage from Southampton on May 29, 2027. Enchanted Princess rounds out the phase, on sale December 17, leading with a seven-day Mediterranean sailing from Civitavecchia on June 12, 2027.
"The Sanctuary Collection has quickly become one of the most distinctive and desirable ways to experience Princess," said Gus Antorcha, Princess Cruises president. "Expanding Sanctuary Collection across five additional Royal Class ships allows more guests to enjoy the privacy, personalized service and premium amenities they would expect from an intimate luxury resort, while still having the destinations, entertainment and choices of a Princess cruise just steps away."
The expansion reflects a broader trend in hospitality toward tiered premium experiences that preserve access to the full property while layering exclusive touchpoints — a model that food and beverage operators across cruise, resort, and hotel segments are increasingly adopting to drive yield without adding physical square footage.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
