deultgen

We have booked "balcony Guarantee" rooms twice. Once we received a nice balcony room about mid level maybe a bit forward. It was fine, just what we paid for. The second time we were given the same category balcony stateroom about mid ship on Ruby with the room immediately below the Salty Dog burger seating. Chairs were moving from 7 am to 10pm above us. It was exactly the room we paid for. I would not want that room again though.

Seems difficult to say. The Sanctuary area on Sun is MUCH larger and holds over 300 guests as opposed to 50 on a "normal" Sanctuary. There appears to be a lot of standard (not padded) lounges by the pool and absolutely no shade. A quick youtube search for something like sun princess sanctuary will pull up a video tour

We are currently looking at the possibility of booking an Aqua Class stateroom next January to the Caribbean. Every time I search on the Celebrity website "find a cruise" I enter "January", "7 night" and "Caribbean" . The site comes up with the 20 or so choices for cruises. BUT it seems like the search results do not show the prices for the cruise, you need to go an search within each cruise (2 or 3 more clicks) for the specific prices for each category. Then start over again with another cruise to find their AQ Class price. Is there a way on the X site (or some other site) that I can just see the price of Aqua Class staterooms listed with all 20 January Caribbean cruises. There are tons of sites where I could see the standard Veranda price listed with each cruise for instance. Maybe I am doing something wrong ???

Yeah, I could have missed some of the promotional materials for the cabin. This is the pic from the Princess website pre-launch. I wish the reality would have turned out more like this for the individual "cabanas"

Nope, just dashing to the Sanctuary at the beginning of the cruise to reserve it

I am not trying to complain, just disappointed. So we are a couple in mid 50’s who typically sail either Celebrity or Princess. When we sail Celebrity, we book Aqua Class, enjoy the Solarium type area in the afternoon, dine in Blu every night. When we sail Princess, we generally book a standard balcony stateroom and play the silly game (admittedly, I play it) of running immediately to the Sanctuary to try to reserve a couple of lounges for every afternoon of the cruise in the partly shaded area. The Sanctuary is our favorite part of the cruise. We enjoy doing things in port or activities on the ship in the morning, then relax in the quiet and comfort of the Sanctuary for the afternoon with a good book, a couple of drinks, looking out on the ocean or port etc. Then book a specialty restaurant most nights. Admittedly, we don’t spend much time on our balcony. It’s nice in the early morning to look out at sea with some coffee, watch for whales, dolphins, or pelagic birds. Same in the evening before dinner with a drink while waiting patiently for my wonderful wife to get ready for the evening. But we rarely “sit” or “relax” on the balcony. I find sitting in the balcony chairs/loungers uncomfortable after about 10 minutes. With the current crazy prices of Celebrity Aqua Class, we can easily book a Princess balcony room, Sanctuary every day, Specialty restaurant every night for less than the cost of an Aqua Class stateroom with extra $$ left over. I like that. Yes, I am getting to my point ………. I was thrilled when Princess announced they would have “Cabana Class” staterooms on the new Sun Princess. Wouldn’t it be great to book a room with your own Cabana? The promotional pictures from Princess (Pic 1 below) gave me some hope and excitement. I was envisioning a stateroom with your own “Sanctuary” cabana area outside, partially shaded with of a couple of padded lounges with access to a quiet deck area of seating, hot tubs, etc with the convenience of being close to or attached to your room. This would be my idea of a relaxing cruise. I would pay for this. I was disappointed to see the pictures this morning from people on Sun Princess. The room looks very nice. The first outside room has a type of daybed and television. A TV is not for us, but I can see how it would be appealing to have an “outdoor” tv area to some people. Then your rooms “cabana” area is a partially covered area with a glass gate to separate your cabana from the outdoor deck area if you are directly on the cabana deck (pics 5/6) or a “balcony” area if your are in a cabana room with access to the cabana deck (pics 2,3,4) Your “cabana” area has 2 standard balcony chairs. I am not sure how it is any different than any other balcony. If you are one of the 30 staterooms who have direct access to the “cabana deck” you look further out onto this deck, if you are one of the 50 staterooms which has “access” to the cabana deck but not directly on the deck then it looks very similar to a standard balcony. I can't see us using this type of stateroom if you did not have your own "cabana lounges" but instead had ordinary balcony chairs. The Cabana Deck area with some padded lounges (in direct sun) and different types of seating areas looks very nice (last of the pics). I hope there are enough lounges and seating areas for the 80 rooms of people who have access to the area. We enjoy cruising, like Princess cruises and will likely sail with them again, just not in a Cabana stateroom. I really was excited at the possibility of this type of stateroom. Ok, done with my post, I suppose I will need to begin training for my next cruise with a balcony and my “dash” to the Sanctuary area.

My own review from earlier this month

My experience of times are exactly the same as those above. I would also ad: The staff is VERY busy between 12:00 noon and 1:00pm, between changing many loungers from the morning people to getting them ready for the afternoon people, people who are in there in the morning or all day who are ordering lunch, then having a group of people arriving around 1pm for afternoon use, it can be a bit hectic. We have had success when we book the afternoon and nobody has booked the same loungers in the morning, getting into the Sanctuary a bit early especially on port days when there are very few rentals in the morning.

Discovery Princess - January 27 Mexican Riviera – 7 night Trip Report We are in our 50’s and regularly cruise Princess and Celebrity. We were on this cruise with my parents. Itinerary: We live in Great Falls, Montana and like this itinerary to Western Mexico ports. On our cruise, the weather was sunny and warm every day until day 6 which was windy and cooler. Embarkation: We fly into LAX a day early and stayed at the Sonesta at LAX. It was fine for the night but nothing special. It is fun to sit by the pool and watch the planes landing/taking off at LAX. We arrived at the San Pedro Port about 10:00am and after a short wait, picked up our medallions and then to the “elite waiting room”. We boarded Discovery about 15 minutes later. Very easy “The Run” – I think I was about the tenth person to board the ship (after the back-to-back cruisers). I immediately went to the Sanctuary and was second in line to make reservations for the week. Is there a reason in 2024 that you can not make reservations possible for the Sanctuary pre cruise??? Public Areas of the ship: We have sailed Discovery a couple of times and have always found the ship to be beautiful. The Piazza is a great gathering space, International café is wonderful, and the clubs/bars looked modern and nice. Cabin D-707: We were in D707, which is a standard balcony stateroom with an oversized balcony. For those who would enjoy the large balcony, it’s a valuable room. As with many Princess standard balcony rooms, I find them small and very basic. For those who spend a lot of time in their cabin, I would not book a standard balcony room since there is no couch, table, chair, etc. Personally, we don’t spend a lot of time in the cabin so it does not really bother us. Our cabin steward was excellent. Cruise Critic Meet and Greet: I was our organizer for the meet and greet. We met with “Laura” who was the officer in charge of group events after boarding the ship to set up any details. She was outstanding. The meet and greet had about 60 people at it. People had a chance to interact with others before the event started, introduce themselves once the event began (I wish I would have passed around the microphone), then the Cruise Director introduced the officers. Finally, the Captain spoke to us for about 10 minutes. There were about 15 officers attending. They did not want to take questions, but did want to mingle with those attending. The Captain and officers stayed for about a half hour and talked personally with everyone who stayed. Food: The International Café, slice pizza, and outdoor burgers were excellent as always. We regularly had breakfast in the main dining room which was well done. Lunch for us was always in the Sanctuary which we appreciate. Dinner in the main dining room was fine. Some nights the menu was better than others. I find dinner on Princess in the main dining room to be very basic and bland. The staff in the MDR was excellent. The Catch by Rudi – We ate dinner at the Catch twice. I found the menu creative and the food excellent. If we would have been on the cruise without a group, we likely would have had dinner at the Catch every night. Entertainment – I though the music groups, comedy, and events we attended were very good. Technology and Internet: I found the new “app” easy to use, appreciated being able to find my “shipmates” and the internet to be fast and reliable. The Sanctuary: In many ways, the Sanctuary is the primary reason we like Princess. It’s a wonderful place to relax in a very comfortable setting, with good food, excellent service, and great people. We generally book every afternoon. The Sanctuary was fully booked every day of our cruise with many on the waiting list. It always seems odd to me that in 2024 there is not a way to reserve the Sanctuary prior to boarding the cruise, but it’s the system that is in place. Something extra: We did receive a tour of the Ships Bridge by the Captain Overall: An excellent cruise – Pics below – Any questions?

So, I try to answer the questions the posters is asking. The policy on the Princess website and Passenger Contract says, Guests agree not to bring alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages on board for consumption or for any other use except as follows: For Guests of legal drinking age, an allowance of one (1) bottle of wine or champagne (750 mL in volume or less) per Guest per Voyage may be presented to security during embarkation. A US $20.00 corkage fee will be charged should Guests wish to consumer their wine or champagne in the ship’s public areas. A US $20.00 corkage fee (which is subject to change without notice) will apply to each additional bottle (750 mL in volume or less) beyond the one-bottle per Guest per Voyage allowance. Limitations apply, and wine brought in quantities deemed to be excessive by the vessel or security will be refused. So, the policy states exactly what you thought. If you board with a case of wine, you can pay the corkage on the extra bottles and consume the wine at dinner. The policy says this is on during embarkation, so I would say, NO you can't take on additional bottles of wine at different ports without them being stored and given back to you on the last day of the cruise. All the others are opinions, ........ might security be lax and allow you to bring bottles on board at ports ...... Maybe. Can you get around the corkage ...... possibly. Personally, knowing the policy, I would ask the "security" before getting off the ship at the first port what they are doing on this cruise. I bet they will give you the honest answer.

First, I think there are groups (some larger than others) on every single cruise. When a group is large enough to have their own events on a ship, like closing a bar, I have never seen it as a bad thing, since it opens up space at the other venues. I ALWAYS do an internet search before booking a cruise for groups. They are pretty easy to find.

Lots of good information here on this topic. My own thoughts below considering the questions in the original post: As a loyal and long-term Celebrity cruiser, I am starting to do some due diligence for other cruise lines. Of course, I have a lot of research to do but thought I'd ask you experts who have also been Celebrity cruisers. We too have been on multiple Celebrity cruises over the past 10 years and consider it our cruise company of choice. At the same time, for many we are interested in, Celebrity is out of our price range. Some info about us. We are in our 60s/70s, typically travel with friends of similar age, looking for interesting itineraries, excellent meals (we like the size and ambiance of BLU), lounge spaces with live music of various kinds, nice seating spaces to relax, chat, have a cocktail or coffee, somewhat reasonable pricing (whatever that means for you) for balcony cabins (don't need suites.) We are in our 50's, typically sail Aqua Class, appreciate Blu, the Solarium, live music, and a good cocktail. Would love to hear your thoughts with some details, and thank you in advance. We have found we can take a Princess cruise in a Balcony stateroom, on a newer ship, spend (and pay for) every afternoon relaxing in the Sanctuary, dine every night in a Specialty Restaurant, and drink all we want for FAR, FAR less than an Aqua Class stateroom for a similar itinerary. We are booked on a Princess Cruise this winter and the cost is less than half for similar accommodations and ports.

We regularly cruise last minute and are generally very happy. For us, the only occasional problem is when the only available last minute rooms in a category (like a balcony) is only being sold as a "guaranteed room". When the last 2% of rooms are rooms nobody else wants that can be a problem for some people. An "obstructed view" balcony, a room above a late night club, a room below the pool deck, or a room below the treadmills would be difficult for some people.

I would bring good Binoculars, dress in layers, and remember you do not need to do a ship excursion in every port. A day of just walking around town, experiencing and talking with people, and stopping in local places can be fun as well.

We regularly cruise on Princess and Celebrity. One of the primary reasons we sail Princess is the Sanctuary. I hate having to compete on the first day and would gladly pay more to not have to. Or have the comprehensive reservation system put forward by someone a couple of pages ago. Personally we will likely not book Princess until the new Sun comes out and we can just pay to be on the Cabana Deck and not have to deal with all the silliness. 🙂