The cruise ship Crown Princess is returning to Apia this Friday with close to 2500 passengers four months after her last visit to the Samoan capital.

The local agent Betham Brothers Enterprises Ltd (B.B.E.) advised in a media release issued Wednesday morning that the 113,561-tonne vessel set sail from Long Beach, California on 16 March 2023 and Samoa is her second to last port of call before she makes the return trip to the U.S.

The Ms. Crown Princess will call into Pago Pago, American Samoa before coming to Apia and has 2,496 passengers from 39 different nationalities most of them American. The cruise ship, which last visited Samoa in November last year, will berth at the Matautu wharf at 6.45 am and depart at 4 pm on Friday afternoon (Samoa local time). Its next port of call will be Papeete, French Polynesia. 

According to the B.B.E. media release, Margarets Tours is the "shore excursion operator" for the cruise ship and its passengers and the Samoa Tourism Authority (S.T.A.) is preparing entertainment for the vessel's arrival. The Samoa Ports Authority will also organise a flea market at Matautu for the vessel's passengers and crew.

"We take this opportunity to thank the Samoa Tourism for their ongoing support by way of complimentary arrival entertainment and visitors information services, we also acknowledge the efforts of the Samoa Ports Authority in arranging a marketplace on the pier," stated the B.B.E. media release. 

The total number of crew members on the cruise ship is 1,201 with the total number of people onboard the vessel (including the passengers) standing at 3,697. The captain of the Ms. Crown Princess is Italian Master Tony Ruggero. The vessel is owned by Carnival Corporation, which is one of ten cruise lines owned by the world's largest cruise ship operator, the American-British Carnival Corporation.