dides

Well the scaffolding has now moved back from the Sanctuary towards the middle of Park 19, leaving just the pylons in place And we have a completed sign. Can hear a mix of Sanctuary music and some background thumping from the main Lido deck.

Day 5 - Seville (Cadiz) Patter: The ship docked right in the centre of Cadiz and a lot of passengers either stayed local or elected to do the nearly 2 hour drive to Seville. We saw long lines of people outside the port entrance around 10:30am - maybe for buses? The Sanctuary had 6 passengers - 2 of them were us,! As mentioned, there was painting happening on the Sun Deck earlier that morning and then later overlooking the Sanctuary in deck 19 where they started to add a big Sanctuary logo. And the dismantling work continued with the grinder to remove part of the roller track. It was nice and hot but then started to get more windy so we escaped again to the Suite Lounge for some hot drinks. I hadn't slept too well (perhaps too overstimulated by the quizzes!?,) so we headed back to the room for a nap. We decided not to go to the Signature Restaurant for dinner - the menu options didn't suit us So we went down to the Promenade on deck 9 just as we left Cadiz - it was great to catch a bit of the Love Boat Horns. First up, we grabbed some of the rustic pizza. They had Margherita, Pepperoni, Vegetable or Four Cheese. We chose a piece of the latter two. We didn't like this pizza as much as we did in April. Then we went over to the other side of the ship for some Signature Burgers. These were cooked to order for us The fries were super and Chris said the burger was juicier than the same one he had on embarkation day in the Signature Restaurant. By this time the wind had whipped up.so much.that I was eating my hair more than the burger! Chris had discovered Newcastle Brown on tao so he was past caring! i I managed to get us inside so we could pick up.some dessert at International Cafe. This was our first visit this cruise and I was impressed with the wider choice - for those with a sweet tooth! I selected a slice of Chocolate Torte and a Pasteis de Nata each. Really yummy. We then legged it to Princess Live! for the 7pm Tri Bond Trivia. We went a different route however just to see how busy the corridors were outside the Cabana deck between the Piazza and the forward elevators. This area is full of staterooms and and the corridor has heavier foot traffic as well as the usual room steward cleaning carts. A lot of stopping to let folks pass. We teamed up with Vinnie and Tena again for the Tri Bond - and were thankful we did because they are total champions at the cryptic thinking needed to link to the three items in each question! We were joint first and yes, were given yet more wine stoppers as prizes! We stayed on for two more game shows where each side of the room was pitted against the other. Lots of music themed questions and running around which was good fun. We escaped back to our room by 10pm for an earlier than usual night. To be continued

We are in Cadiz this morning and it's all new ports for Sun Princess now, ever since she passed through the Straits of Gibraltar at around 6:30 pm last night:

The painters are out in force today Touching up the white paint on the Sun Deck in the Sanctuary and we are getting some new branding above the jogging track area:

They have moved to the other side to remove the rail this morning with the same constant grinding noises. Will be interesting to see how they intend to dismantle the pylon structures that are left.

So this past evening was 80s night which is our decade of choice for any trivia questions. And there are 2 Princess Live! events on the schedule which are of interest. The first evening quiz however is movie soundtracks at 7pm so we decided to head for that as a warm-up We left our room slightly later than usual aand decide to try out Italian night at the Suite Restaurant hoping we can squeeze in a couple of courses so we can grab a seat a Princess Live! for the 7pm start. The midship elevators were totally against us and we had to wait ages for a car that wasn't packed out. We sat down in the restaurant at 5:45pm and told the staff we needed to make a swift exit with one main dish and maybe a dessert! Here is the menu: Chris ordered the Lasagne and I ordered the Chicken Parmigiana. I noted that the trolley was now present for the Prime Rib and was pretty popular: In the meantime, we tucked. Into the very tasty fresh bread from our basket (the French bread slices went first!) Our mains arrived within 20 minutes: We were offered fresh Parmesan and pepper - all very tasty. One of the waitstaff. Sheena, asked what entertainment we were looking to make and offered to take our dessert order instead. She was so quick we didn't have time to photograph the menu! Here are the options from the app: Chris chose the Chocolate and Whiskey Torte and I selected the Lemon Meringue Cheesecake. Our order arrived within 2 minutes at 6:25pm! One advantage of having a galley so close to the restaurant! Chris said his torte was nice but he couldn't taste the whiskey! We managed to get to Princess Live! In good time but it was pretty packed out so we had to sit at the side and move round to a more central spot later in the evening. Vinnie and Tena joined us for the Movie Soundtracks trivia and we got a respectable 15/20 with the winners getting 18/20. Our teammates then headed off for an early night as they had a 7am excursion the next day for Seville. Next up was the All About the 80s quiz - we were doing really well on this even though we guessed a lot of the answers on American topics. We managed to get 19!20 and won! We were given some more wine stoppers to add to our collection On the We Play You Say quiz we had to complete the lyrics of songs from different genres. Chris amazed himself by guessing the answer in Korean for Gangnam Style but we got the answer wrong for Man in the Mirror. A couple of teams got full points however. For the final quiz on 80s music trivia we got one missing artist for the song Maniac and came joint second. We wrapped up the evening with the PG16 set from Tucker, the comedian we saw the previous night. He was pretty funny and riffed off the audience a lot. One risque joke had us almost crying with laughter. To be continued

Day 4 - Sea Day Patter: We decided to sleep in today and wake up when when we wake up! I woke at 9:30am and Chris an hour later. I went to sit our on the balcony and thought I would get to listen to the sound of the sea. Well I did and much more! I also heard the sound of people putting down plates and eating with cutlery. It sounded so close but I eventually worked out it drifting up from the deck 9 tables all the way up to 17! : We had decided to go to Americana for breakfast and it opened at 11:30am so we popped into the Suite Lounge for 20 minutes so that we could let our steward into our stateroom. I must say that our steward Stephen has been very quick and efficient thus far We had a coffee and hit chocolate in the Suite Lounge in some lovely china Then we made our way down the scenic elevators to deck 8. We have a new interest in the layout now we know it will be coming the new Sanctuary Collection restaurant This is one of the doors you will see: If you come in from the left door then the Spellbound area is directly on your left as you walk into the dining room: or You then need to walk up to the Main entrance desk and kind of go out to come in and wait to be seated. There were about 8 people in line ahead of us already. The decor isn't that bad. Although Chris did bash his head on one of those low lampshades! And this view of the Wake View Terrace isn't the best. Here is the walk out to the other door: Here is the menu for Americana for that day: We both chose.a milkshake each since they didn't have them back in April. Chris had.t he Coffee and Donuts and I had the Strawberry Shortcake. So thick and delicious! Then Chris had the All American Breakfast minus the eggs and I had the 3 egg omelette. We wrapped up a dessert each - Apple Pie for Chris and more Strawberry Shortcake fur me. Service was quick and so was the food! Next we went up to The Sanctuary and it was a lot busier today. We sat in some seats in the shade - the staff always lay a new towel on your selected seat or lounger to indicate it's occupied. Although some clearly were not any longer! It was very overcast initially and then the sun burned through. We chilled out and spent a lot of the time commenting on the workmen on scaffolding cutting away at Park 19.,The grinding of the metal was quite loud at times. It's going to take some time at their current work rate! At one point. the staff in The Sanctuary started taking orders for lunch so we checked out the menu and ordered s couple of bento boxes. Food menu: Drinks menu: Chris chose the Waffle Sensation and I went for the lighter Tropical Fruit Melange: Both were pretty sensational actually! it started to get too hot for us so we went back to our cabin for a nap. To be contiuned

Yes we watched from the Sanctuary as they cut away a section around lunchtime today - was a bit noisy. It's going to take a while we think!

Day 3 - Cartagena Patter for today: We elected to stay onboard again - Chris wants to rest his feet after developing a big blister so we are taking it easy. We had the Suite breakfast by door hanger again. Bang on time but my order included a grapefruit half which I did not request and cannot eat I had only asked for one type of melon which I did get - the room service delivery guy came back 5 minutes later with 2 more types of melon as an apology and to make sure I was happy! After breakfast we went up to the Sanctuary again - it was much hotter today and even our shadier seating felt exposed. Chris had spotted a UK vlogger couple around the corner on a big Sun Deck day bed so I popped around for a natter as we followed each other. They had been upgraded to an Owners Suite a week before the sailing and said it was amazing! I went back after 40 minutes and Chris was snoozing away and knocked out by the heat. However he said it had been really noisy with workmen cutting and grinding while dismantling Park 19. He also said he spotted someone settling into a Cabana! Oh I did ask one of the Sanctuary wait staff if they were getting in any umbrellas to provide more shade and they said it wouldn't work as it's too exposed to the wind. He did say the sun changes position as you could move to a different lounger - I think that might lead to some fisticuffs lol Next we went down.the Suite Lounge to cool down a bit. Although I did have a comforting hot chocolate! We noticed the nibbles on the bar hadn't changed ,- the Suite Concierge said the sweet bites stay the same but they do try and swap in some local themed food depending on the port. e.g. hummus. As it is there is only around half a dozen choices and it's not as extensive as the Royal Class offerings. I also needed to change our Sabatinis booking to a slot 2 days later and the Suite Concierge was able to do that in.a few minutes without me having to fiddle with the app. Which showed no availability of course! We went back to our stateroom for a shower and a nap. Love the showers in the suites - so roomy with a great power wand! We decided we didn't like the look of the Signature Restaurant menu so headed to Alfredo's instead for an early dinner. Sun Princess has a very different Alfredo's menu to the rest of the fleet: I love their mozzarella so opted for this as a starter. Then we had the same pizza we usually go for - Pepperoni for Chris and Tara Tina without mussels for me. For dessert, Chris went for Torta Caprese and had the Cannoli. The pizzas were tasty and very filling. The desserts were a bit of a miss though. - prefer the tiramisu and apple thing they do on the other ships. By 6:15om we had decamped to Crooners for some cocktails and to listen to the piano man. Yes he played Piano Man too. It was rammed. I was happy to get my favourite cocktail as an off-menu request - the Flamingo. Although the first one they gave was green and the second one red - the second one was the best! By this time we had moved down to a sofa overlooking the piazza so we could watch the Yes No game show. It was enjoyable as usual although I think Corinne and Niamh could have done a bit better with their line of questioning. We then went to Princess Live! for the rest of the evening where we watched the 10 in 60 game show, a male UK comedian called Tucker (bit old fashioned but provided some laughs) and then joined up with another couple Vinnie and Tena (who is on cc) for a fun Classic Rock Trivia. We got 39 out of 40 but there were 4 teams with 40! Niamh the ACD did an excellent job with the rock songs and stopping spoilers. To be continued.

Nope. We think that some had found themselves into people's luggage however - hence me missing out on one on the April sailing. They had to use a standard martini glass then!

Absolut Elyx, Lemon, Strawberry. It's listed on this menu

Hi Dr J We are disembarking in Southampton - wish we could spare the time off work to do the TA! Your answers - 1) Director of Restaurant Operations is Indeed Claudio 2) Suite Concierge position.is that certain dining venue changes will be done our of hours so as to avoid disruption to passengers. Some heavier renovations will need to be done at ports like Southampton and FLL. All will be completed for 14th Oct 3) Nothing much known about Park 19 other than they are dismantling it now and will be installing a full Sports Court Will keep our eyes and ears open!

So so - a bit too strong for me. But I am a lightweight with alcohol - prefer fruity vodka and rum based long cocktails. Am I wrong for getting this for the glass it comes in? 😉

Day 2 ,- Palma We opted to stay on the ship and relax today We will eventually get to the proper Suite Breakfast but went for the door hanger option this time. It arrived hot and on time. The most awkward part was finding a surface to place the trays and then eating from it. No easily moveable side tables so we put our plates on some chairs at ate from there. Not great! After breakfast we went up to the Sanctuary - af 10am there were a handful of people in the Sun Deck area and that's all. We settled into the easy chairs in the shade as we aren't sun bunnies. Had to wait a bit for drinks service as there was a crew drill going on. Our view: The delightful Benni came over and we said we remembered her from our April visit when she told us she was leaving the ship in Southampton. She bought Mark the Sanctuary Manager over to us again and he said he was handing it over to a new manager once it arrived in FLL. Some changes were expected in the Sanctuary: - a new 'ring for Champagne' bell - a new small buffet area on the other side from the bar to compliment the bento menu - more loungers - no more daily walk-ins Later on more people started taking up more spaces around the pool and hot tubs . I also noticed some workmen setting up some scaffolding around Park 19. When it got a little too windy in our corner we went down to the Suite Lounge for a couple of hours. Very relaxing with attentive bar staff. Chris had much better hearing than me and overheard one of the Concierge Managers telling a passenger that they could not book them into the Crown Grill on the penultimate day of the cruise - the 22nd - because it was moving location. Didn't think it was happening that soon so will try and find out more. We came back to our suite for a nap then headed off to O'Malley's to grab a bench seat for our evening meal. We dressed smart but not flashy and didn't want to do the formal night thing. We swapped Starters this time - Chris had the Onion Stack and I had the Onion Soup. He loved the onion rings and I regretted not having them too. For mains, Chris had the O'Malley"s Burger and I had the Steak, Ale and Mushroom Pie. The burger and fries were good - I found the pie a bit strange with the gravy seemingly tomato based anf the fries should have been mash or new potatoes. We both had the Irish Apple Cake for dessert and it was tasty but heavy on the stomach! The pub got very busy at times over the next 2-3 hours - we had some live music but it a male singer and not the Irish group. Next we went to Good Spirits ,(spotting Chef Rudi en route) and Chris went through his top 3 drinks from their menu and we were there for one of the cocktail demos. That got really busy at times too We ended the night next door watching karaoke until we hit the 2nd Sinatra song; Chris has overdone it a bit on the draft beers and cocktails and may well regret it tomorrow morning 🙂 To be continued

And here, finally, is The Rose in its fancy glass

Vanilla Vodka, Chocolate Liqueur, Irish Cream and Franglico. It does taste like Ferraro Rocher and is on the Crooners menu. Also on the Princess Live menu too.

Not on the Sun Princess - no card access and Medallions control access to the Suite Lounge.

Here are the patters for the first 2 days,:

Well that was weird - I just hit the post button and we headed over to Good Spirits. On the way, I spotted Chef Rudi himself getting some gelato. I asked if I might take his photo for everyone on cruisecritic and he laughed and said ' of course!,' He then came over to shake our hands and we complimented him on the meal we had at The Catch. Here he is:

So we headed down to The Catch by Rudi for our embarkation night dinner. I forgot to mention that we have the Premier package (original( so have 2 other specialty meals this cruise. I had to persuade Chris to come along because he won't touch fish (no Britto for us!) and the meat options are pretty limited at Catch. It was already half full when we arrived in the aft area of deck 9. The staff were very attentive and we didn't feel it lacked atmosphere. But they will certainly have difficulty squeezing the same numbers into the Signature Restaurant space. There was nothing for Chris for starters so he ordered the fish stew for me to try and I went for the Shrimp on the Rocks. Then he chose the Poivre Perfection and I splashed our on the whole Lobster for the mains. He chose Chantilly Lace for dessert and I selected Delights in the Air. The bread they served was delicious - I left that for Chris to nibble along with the garlic bread from the stew. I really enjoyed the shrimp but the fish stew wasn't my thing at all. The lobster was delicious but way too much food for me! Chris lived both his steak and dessert - enough to come again when we go in Sky next month; And my dessert was sublime - so much like my favourite summer dessert if Eton Mess. Mmmm For the rest of the evening we watched a game show with the CD called Port or Starboard and then watched the Jeopardy type game in Princess Live! before heading to bed. We also received our first ever towel animal on a Princess cruise! To be continued

Here are the times for the first port day

Were are in Sun Princess now and have got some more info on the upcoming changes The Sanctuary will have: - A 'ring for Champagne' bell - A small buffet area the other side of the bar in addition to the bento menu (Source: Mark the Sanctuary Manager) And my other half overheard a Suite Concierge Manager saying they could not book a suite passenger into the Crown Grill on the penultimate day of this cruise - 22nd - because it was moving location. So I have not verified this but it looks like some changes may be in place for some on the TA. Will try and get some more info.

During lunch in the Signature Restaurant another couple from the UK were seated next to us. We started nattering and discovered we were both on the cruisecritic roll call and both successfully got upgraded to S4 Penthouse Suites. *Waves to @LWhit* Chris and I had watched our muster videos on our phones in Crooners earlier so were all set to check.in at Horizons on deck 7 for our muster station. The Piazza area was rammed but we managed to squeeze through and walk past the ships to get to muster checkin. We hadn't heard an announcement about cabins being ready but it was 1:20 so we thought we would head up to deck 17 and try our luck..... Our medallions didn't work on our door,! We went along and down to the Suite Lounge entrance on deck 15 and they didn't open the door there either. We managed to get inside when someone came out. After sitting down and ordering some sparkling water we got talking to Sebastian one of the Concierge Managers about our medallions. Sebastian checked on his system and said we needed replacement medallions He said he would go to Guest Services at the other end of the ship and sort it out. What amazing service! We had to wait about half an hour in the end but we were then all sorted. And the Suite Lounge is a wonderful spot to relax So we finally get to access our penthouse suite. It's an obvious upgrade to the deluxe balcony but it does feel like a downgrade to the suites on Royal Class. A little too compact and it feels like there isn't enough usable desk or counter surface in the lounge area - the balcony furniture is lovely though! Here are some pics: Here we have our Suite welcome letter: And the Suite Lounge Team flyer: Our luggage had already been delivered so we unpacked a little and had short nap before heading back to the Suite Lounge for pre-dinner drinks. We had The Catch by Rudi booked for 6:30om and there was a Champagne Sabreing demo at 5:30pm. The Suite Lounge was packed when we arrived so we went and sat upstairs and looked down at the demo. Chris enjoyed the free glasses of Piper Heidsieck!!! To be continued...

Hi, thought I would sneak in a little Live from for this repositioning leg as Sun Princess heads from Europe over to to FLL. This is our second time on Sun Princess but are now in a Penthouse Suite rather than deluxe balcony (the category we booked on the original cancelled inaugural).So hope to record the suite experience before the Sanctuary Collection changes My other half and I flew in from London Heathrow to Barcelona two days before the cruise. We had torrential rain on arrival but it turned pleasantly warm and sunny for the next couple of days. Having visited all the main sights before, we stayed in a hotel north of the city and just relaxed. We took a taxi to the port and arrived at 10am. We, handed off our cases to the porters, went through security and the blue lane with no lines and directed to the priority area to wait for boarding. We were onboard at 10;40. First stop was Crooners. I wanted to order The Rose cocktail only because they didn't have the special stemmed glass in stock when I asked back in April. But was thwarted because they were waiting for the special Rose flower supplies to come onboard later . So Chris got his Ferrero and I had a Mai Tai as our first drinks Our next move was to go back down to deck 7 and grab lunch at the Signature Restaurant. We never usually do a dining room lunch but we thought we would grab the chance to experience it before the suite guests get bundled into a shared dining area again with the new Sanctuary Collection changes. We were greeted at the door and taken to the far end of the room. All the tables by the windows were taken and it was to become 70% full by the end of the lunch period. Here is the lunch menu: Chris chose the Signature Burger and Sundae and I chose the Plant-based Burrito and Lime and Mango Cake. Chris though the burger and fries were really nice. My burrito was a bit bland but I enjoyed the mango cake. We asked to see the menu for that evening even though we were booked in The Catch. Here is The Sailaway Dinner: The Restaurant Manager came around to introduce himself and go through the opening times. We mentioned the upcoming changes but he didn't offer up anything additional. To be continued...

Boarding tomorrow so will try and upload some. If anyone has any burning questions then do ask. We are in a penthouse suite and hopefully getting a decent suite experience before the Sanctuary Collection changes 😆