Sox Fan Cruiser

We were never able to book ahead of time but did so when we got on the ship. It wasn’t a problem. It’s not advertised too much so if you know about it, just book when you get on the ship.

And yes, Spellbound is open. Search these threads. I did an extensive walk through of the experience without giving anything away.

We didn’t eat at either on the Sun but the ambiance in Crown Grill is much better. On this ship they stuck Catch at the back of the buffet and people were saying that it felt like eating at a cafeteria. The Crown is more of a real restaurant. Catch was wonderful on the Sky but not interested in it on the Sun.

It doesn’t happen very often. The one time they moved our cabin was on my 50th and they upgraded us to a suite. You can mark “do not upgrade”. We’ve sailed 35 times with Princess and never moved other than the above.

If you have a tour they tender you to the old port and you take a bus up the caldera. But then they drop you in Fira and you have to take the cable car down. Because of the line problem they ended up taking the late tours back to the old port and tendering them back to the ship. And I will say this again… We were the only ship in port!!

Also I think the other Santorini stops on future cruises were cancelled before we even went there. I’m not 100% sure but I think so. I truly think that the cable car experience with a lot of ships in port is so bad that Princess wants to avoid it. Things started to get really tense up in the line that we just walked down. Not an option for older folks but we talked to people who waited 90 minutes in line, in the heat and with tempers boiling over. We heard a fight almost broke out. We walked down in 25 minutes. And we were the only ship in port.

Kotor was canceled before we even flew to Rome. We were notified about a week before we were scheduled to get on the ship. And the port in the itinerary was before Santorini.

We were the 5th cruise and it almost near perfect. For the things that we want out of a cruise we were very happy. And their suite service was beyond exceptional.

I usually don’t like the cruise directors. Their over the top happiness and their annoying interruptions over the loud speaker bother me. So I’m not a good one to ask. We don’t go to any events where we see their staff so they are not part of our cruising experience. And yes, she was as annoying as her counterparts on other ships. Probably more so. Again, as you can probably figure out, I’m the worst one to ask that question! 🤪

I love how they said "Private dinning room with no waiting". Tell that the folks currently in Reserve Collection. There was waiting every night. That's what made the Wheelhouse bar so crowded! And kudos to the bar staff there! I've never seen Princess bartenders serve drinks so fast. They are the best on the ship!!

We stopped in Santorini on April 14th using the Santorini tender boats. They took Princess shore excursions to the far port as they boarded buses to then go on their excursions and then took the rest of us to the cable car port. All shore excursions were supposed to drop their passengers at the top of the cable cars to get back to the ship but since the line was so long the took some back by bus to the other dock and they ran tenders from there as well. They even pulled up anchor and moved the ship close to the dock to make the tender ride shorter! I've never experienced that before. And again, we were the only big cruise ship in port! Full disclosure: There was one smaller ship that got there in the afternoon and was saying until 11 so they weren't in our queue to leave the island. To answer your other question, tendering seemed as normal as any other ship. We were the first ones off the ship on the first tender (a suite perk) but didn't notice any difference either to the island or back to the ship.

But now that I look at the article they did say for "tendering reasons" so I am confused too. But I really think that Santorini is because of the cable car experience when there are a lot of ships in port.

I was on the Sun Princess April 8th voyage and we went to Santorini using tenders. It is not a tendering issue. (And please don't respond that we didn't use the ships tenders so they must be broken.) It's a cable car issue in Santorini.

Yeah, Princess has been pulling out of Santorini because of the cable cars. It's a mess when there are a few ships in port. We were the only ship in port and things started to get tense with the people waiting in line. The long waits back to the ship leave a bad taste in peoples' mouths and they come back to the ship angry. Princess is trying to avoid that negative experience. But will STILL have never gotten and explanation for why they are skipping Kotor. Very frustrating.

Bar is still Montenegro but I understand what you meant.

We skipped Kotor and went to Bar instead. The change was last minute and they had excursion online for us to book before the cruise. They also had excursions in our cabin when we arrived. No one complained that there was a “mad rush” to get tours. It was fine. We stayed on the ship as our Kotor guide told us that Bar was nothing special. Most people coming back confirmed that. Kotor was too far away to try and visit even though our guide was willing to come pick us up. We tendered in Santorini. There is nothing wrong with the ships tendering system because they could not sail if there was as it is also part of their emergency system. The landing is not for suite guests but an open area for all folks leaving the ship. There are seats for people to relax and a bar for selling water and other drinks. It’s used for both port stops and tendering. We never see the need for this space because we are never in the huge crowd waiting to go ashore. We always wait for most people to leave the ship and then we walk right off.

I really don't know. The folks need to be tethered as they make their way around the course so maybe that is not set up yet? I mean, they still don't have the prime rib "trolley" in the Signature restaurant even though they are serving it. I think some things haven't made it to the ship yet.

The burgers, pizza, tacos and salads seemed to be an elevated food choice from the other ships. Should be able to satisfy a lot of main pool passengers. I do appreciate the new beeper system for the burger stand so people aren't standing in a long line. I hope they roll that out to the other ships.

Still nothing. Ropes course is not open yet (as of a week ago). One day they were testing out the RollGlider but they were just trying to run the "cart" around the track. Some were succssfull and some where not with them getting "stuck" on the track. Maybe that was the test? But it didn't have anyone on it and didn't even have the swings attached except for one. Not optimistic.

Agreed. There are no facilities there. With Deck 8 and 9 being cabin decks, there is little going on in those white spaces.

Yes. But it wasn’t working on our cruise! 🤪

Check out my extensive walk through of Spellbound: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2998028-sun-princess-spellbound-question/page/6/ And yes, it was $149 per person. We also really enjoyed Teppanyaki. It was something different to do a ship than we have done before. Our table wasn't as "rowdy" as some of the other tables but that was more the passengers than the chef. One warning: Do NOT fill up on the fried rice. They make a ton of it but the meal is served in stages with the meat coming last. The rice was served first, then veggies and then meat. We were already full by the time our meat was served. 🙂

Can I ask that you all take the Sanctuary Collection change to another thread? I was trying to answer specific questions about the current suite experience as I just got off the ship. There are threads already started. Sorry.

It’s the same with Celebrity. The Retreat Sundeck doesn’t accommodate every suite passenger. Some cruises it’s more crowded than others.

And the name change is also to distinguish the Sanctuary as a Suite Sun Deck and not the Sanctuary we think of on other ships. It truly is now equal to the Retreat Sun Deck on Celebrity. I would probably see no options to buy into the Sanctuary now for non suite guests. Maybe Princess read my thread!! 🙂