WonderMan3

On 3/13/2024 at 2:05 PM, memoak said:

It is possible that they have oversold the cruise. I would not want to have a guarantee on this one

It was my understanding that some cabins were out of commission due to the flooding issues on the first cruise. Also, they may need cabins to accommodate workers who are working on the unfinished venues.

14 minutes ago, Fortunate 2 travel said:

The Sanctuary is a place people make a beeline to when they board (us included) to reserve.  And they are beautiful spaces, from the videos and photos I’ve seen not so much on the Sun.  Why mess with a great product?   Cruise ships are the business of Princess.  How do you launch a new ship and have no clue how to manage amenities that are on current ships?  Sounds like the powers that be don’t have cruise backgrounds.  We booked a suite on a 14 night for the first time so we don’t have to make the mad dash.  We have decided to go ahead and try it.  All our flights are booked, plans made for the week in Europe before the cruise, but we have lowered our expectations for the cruise experience.  It would be great to be pleasantly surprised.  

I like the fact that as a suite guest now I don't have to race to some desk on boarding day to possibly get a lounger on a nice sundeck.

34 minutes ago, CatMom72 said:

I will be interested in hearing about your experience. I suspect it will be closer to the “hot mess” scenario because of the added confusion related to suite passengers.  As several of us have pointed out already, the math doesn’t add up and Princess’ answers don’t make sense.  I hope they figure it out before I get on the ship because I don’t want to waste any part of my vacation stressing about whether or not I am going to get the Sanctuary spot I already paid for as a suite passenger.  Unfortunately, I am not that good at the Serenity breathing thing, but I’ll give it a go.

For a suite passenger, what would be confusing? You have guaranteed access to the Sanctuary and can use any area of the space or any available lounger/sunbed. Now you may get up there and find that there are no loungers/sunbeds available, or the preferred area you want to sit is not available because they are all occupied, but that just means getting up there earlier in the day to guarantee getting one, which is the same as any sundeck. Obviously the exception to that is the Sanctuary on the other ships where you can pay and reserve a lounger in advance; but with that process it's always first come first served too and not everyone can book it because you're competing with the entire ship for access as opposed to just suite guests (and a limited number of additional passengers on lower capacity days). But that is not happening on this ship for suite guests so you know that going into it and there should be no confusion about that process. I mean what does one do when wanting to use a sundeck on any other Princess ship if missing out on booking The Sanctuary because reservations all filled up right away; you go early to get a chair at the sundeck to guarantee you get one.

For non-suite guests, there could be a level of "confusion", but to me it's more of a level of the unknown because we haven't seen that process in action yet. Non-suite guests who want to use the Sanctuary won't know until day of apparently if they can pay to access the space. But as a suite guest I personally wouldn't be stressing over that since I have guaranteed access.

Not sure if this has been mentioned before but it appears that they have occasional entertainment in the Signature Lounge. This image shows a guitar and microphone set up in the lounge in preparation of a performance. Photo from Laila V.

Sky Suite video. (Doesn't show the balcony)  From Debbie I.

Sky Suite video tour. Unfortunately they don't show the balcony. From Debbie I.

Not keen on the shower curtains in the bathrooms, but I guess it's necessary to make it disabled accessible?

Video of Owners Suite from Laila V.

Here's a video tour of one of the Owner's Suites. Video from Laila V.

1 minute ago, Honolulu Blue said:

From Cruise Industry News:

 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/03/royal-caribbean-suspends-all-visits-to-labadee-in-haiti/

Thanks

31 minutes ago, voljeep said:

RCL is going to stop going to Labadee - private island

While I wouldn't be surprised if that happens, where has there been official confirmation of this?

2 hours ago, suekel said:

It is.  My husband often orders 2.  The joy of being 6' 7".  

This is good to know. Thanks.

3 minutes ago, CaptainKirk said:

@nasa1974

 

Hope all is well.

 

Since we are not getting much activity on this thread would you kindly reconsider opening the original thread.

 

The original thread you started had so much awesome and very useful information on it from nice people like @dides

 

Think we are all looking for as much information on the Sun Princess as possible.

 

Thanks so much.

????? Not much activity? The thread is at 4 pages already in 5 days with lots of updated info each day like menus, videos of onboard venues, etc. There are also other threads specifically about Sun cabins (pinned by moderator at top of group) and the Sanctuary. Lots of info is being posted.

3 hours ago, CruiseCriticAaron said:

Here's my latest missive from the ship:

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/is-sun-princess-the-future-of-princess-cruises

 

We were able to road-test Spellbound last night in its basic form. It will open for reservations on March 19 and debut on April 8. Overall, a really fascinating experience.

 

 

Does Spellbound include a meal? Maybe I missed seeing that mentioned.

1 hour ago, CatMom72 said:

 

First, if non-suite guests have their own adults-only space then I won’t have to worry about how/when Princess will determine whether they are going to limit my seating options on any given day by selling day passes in the Sanctuary.

 

Second, if the Sanctuary really does wind up being an official (or de facto) adults-only, suites-only area, it will limit my future opinions for cruising on Sun Princess or other ships like it.  Sure, I am in S4 for both cruises I have booked on the Sun, but what if I wanted to explore more affordable options in the future?  Knowing I will never have access to any adults-only space unless I buy a suite would definitely limit my options, and I might be less likely to choose the Sun.

I am definitely excited to be on the Sun Princess for the two cruises I have booked.  But at first glance, there are some things that are concerning to me, particularly given that there have been some major departures not only from what Princess has done in the past, but also from what Princess has advertised about this ship.  There are many mixed messages about the Sanctuary, mostly because it seems like Princess is still on the fence about whether it is really going to be suite-only or not.  Right now, they are talking out of both sides of their mouths.  As a graduate of the Mr. Miyagi school of decision-making, this greatly annoys me.  As Mr. Miyagi once said, walk down road left side, okay; walk down road right side, okay; walk down middle, sooner or later…squish, just like grape.

 

I don’t think there’s anything particularly unreasonable about my point-of-view. The whole point of discussing my concerns on these boards is to get feedback from people who are on the ship ahead of me and see if I can learn anything that might alleviate those concerns.  So far, no dice on the Sanctuary questions.

 

Yes, you have made your concerns quite clear from basically your first post on the subject. That’s the point of these forums for us to share our points of view. But what is productive about complaining here about same the issue again and again though when none of us has the power to change anything? 

You know what the situation is onboard now that we have gotten information straight from the Sanctuary manager (via someone onboard now) so if it is not acceptable to you and you feel it would ruin your cruise then pick another ship that works better for you. Or even better contact Princess directly with your concerns. Then changes might be made in time to impact your cruise. I have seen multiple times where cruisers have complained loudly and often directly to the cruise line and the company has backed off from changes (examples: Celebrity cutting back on buffet options or eliminating individual butlers in Sky Suites)

I avoid ships that don’t have the amenities I’m looking for. I pay a lot of money to cruise, so

why would I want to put myself in a position to go on a ship that’s just going to make me unhappy because it’s missing amenities that are important to me? 

10 minutes ago, CatMom72 said:

As of last year, NCL still wasn’t doing reservations for Haven cabanas, so the hogs were out in force.  I really hope they change this.  That said, aside from the cabanas, there were plenty of lounge chairs available. I think there will be plenty of lounge chairs available for Signature Collection suite passengers on the Sun, too…as long as the ENTIRE THING is converted to a suite-only space…not just the Signature Sun Deck.  But that will mean no adults-only relaxation space at all for non-suite passengers.

It has already been stated here multiple times based on information received from the Sanctuary manager on board Sun that suites are the priority guests for the ENTIRE Sanctuary. They will only let it in paying guests on days where it looks like suite guests are not fully utilizing the deck. If you are a suite guest that should alleviate your concerns as the space was designed to accommodate all suite guests (based on total seating) and as we know not every suite guest utilizes an included sun deck or lounge space every day. Not sure why, if you are a suite guest, you would be concerned about whether non-suite guests have an adults only space. 

Here’s a look at The Catch by Rudi.

12 hours ago, Mud_Shark said:

We are also booked for a 14 day (booked as a single voyage but bookable as 2 7 days).  Our summary also says specialty dining two nights $117.60.  I thought dining was $39 per night plus 18%, but that figure does not fit in as a factor of 2 or 4 into $117.60

 

We sail in April, so if someone has not provided the first hand experience definitive answer by then, I will let you know how it turned out for us.

Thanks!

13 hours ago, jagoffee said:

I have a seven day cruise with the Premier that says Speciality Dining 2 nights-quantity 1-$58.80 for each of us.  I assumed the Specialities were $29.40 per visit per person.

the $117.60 is exactly twice of the dollar amount shown.

 

Obviously I cannot say for certain.  I did not even notice until I chickened out and cancelled the 14 day cruise and booked a B2B.

 

Did you book prior to December 1.  I guess we will know for sure next January 2026.  

Interesting. So it looks like you were right from your earlier comment and we will have 4 specialty dining experiences included since the value is double what you show on your 7 nighter. Plus the bonus embarkation night if we take advantage of it. That’s great. 

8 hours ago, Womble99 said:

Still paying full price for the passenger who cannot access all the perks they have paid for then though haven't they?

Kids are often the third or fourth passenger in a cabin which come at a reduced rate and don’t necessarily include the same amenities such as with the packages.

12 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

 

 

But how many of those should they have? Does the Celebrity Retreat, NCL Haven or even MSC Yacht Club assign you a lounger?  I think many want to merge the reserved systems with a suite area but how are they supposed to provide a lounger for every single suite cruiser? Do other lines do this?

 

 

I have sailed in The Retreat on Celebrity Edge class, MSC Yacht Club and NCL’s Haven. No, none of them allow you to reserve seating (except for cabanas on MSC…not sure if NCL is doing that yet…my last cruise with them was 2018). And getting a shaded seat could be a challenge at times on all of those that required getting out there early to grab a lounger. Getting a lounger period I have never found to be an issue unless you lollygag and don’t get out to the sundeck until like noon. I think there will not be a problem getting space in Sun’s Sanctuary. Remember that not all suite guests will use the sundeck all at the same time. There is lots of unnecessary preemptive panicking here by some folks.

If people don’t like the layout or positioning of the Sanctuary on Sun, feel it is not a value add for suites and prefer the old Sanctuary style on the other ships then there is a simple solution; don’t book Sun Princess or any other Sphere Class ship.

12 hours ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

I’ve said all along that Princess’ version of “ship within a ship” is going to be lacking. The fact that the suite dinning room is the same menu as the MDR (with a few additions) proves that they just can’t get it right. Still going in with the same reserved-not expecting much-open mind mentality and will enjoy my cruise. But I’m staying with Celebrity. Edge class ships know how to treat their suites!

 

 

Celebrity was my go to for years but their pricing has gone out of control on top of them taking away things that used to be included (like gratuities and onboard credit from the suites). I recently booked 2025 and 2026 cruises on Oceania and Princess respectively because Celebrity was around $8K more expensive for similar itineraries/cabins. All the cruise lines have gone up in price and removed things but with Celebrity it’s exponential so I’m trying other cruise lines to see what my new go to might be. 

34 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

 

 

So, at what point during the day do they determine that there will be room for non-suite guests?

 

To be determined. They just haven’t been busy enough, due to the cool weather, to have faced this issue yet.

3 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

Yes, it is definitely different strokes for different folks!   But, I do think that this 'diner' will be popular.   I have heard good reviews of the burgers, ribs, and that you have to try that banana split.  (that is on our list!)

I would check it out for lunch.

3 hours ago, 555 said:

Does anyone know for sure if the menu's for the anytime restaurant and the traditional restaurant are exactly the same each evening?

If you're referring to the American Diner section of the MDR, then yes, the menu is the always the same.