The ship was ordered by P&O Princess in December 1999 to be constructed at Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in France.[2] The placement freed up additional passenger space allowing the two lower decks dedicated to public amenities where most other ships offer only one.[5] On 2 May 2013, Coral Princess suffered a fire when some flammable material in the engineering spaces accidentally ignited in the middle of the night.Coral Princess experienced an engine fire at approximately 2130 local time on 15 January 2020 while in the Drake Passage en route to Stanley, Falkland Islands.At the time of the fire, Coral Princess was 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) north of Elephant Island in Antarctica.