Princess Cruises to put 'sick' ship in dry dock during sanitation process

Princess Cruises plans to get the Diamond Princess cleaned, sanitized and ready for new passengers by the end of April ... though it remains unclear whether passengers will still WANT to experience a vacation on that same ship that’s left dozens sickened and two Japanese citizens dead from a coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship while in Japanese waters.

The Diamond Princess has become the world’s most famous cruise ship ... but for surely all the wrong reasons.

First put in the water in 2004, the $500-million ship is only halfway through its expected operating lifespan.

Now, Princess Cruises has announced they plan to take the ship out of service for the amount of time needed to give the ship a thorough sanitation and cleaning. And it’s not going to just be a quick clean. Instead, Princess plans to take the ship completely out of the water in a dry dock while they process the cleaning.

“The expectation is that the ship would be fully sanitized and then taken into dry dock for a period of time,” said Negin Kamali, public-relations director for Princess Cruises, according to Bloomberg News.