Sun Princess - Original

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

2 hours ago, infoteknerd said:

I read this as: 

 

 

To be honest, I enjoy the demographics of the Princess ships being more Adult focused. Recently been on Carnival and Royal... 

 

Found Carnival to be an "all-inclusive", Royal to be a bit higher-quality family focused, and Princess to be that Adult kick-back without breaking the bank.

 

Do we have any other options for an Adult focused line, without going to the extreme of Virgin, or the Priceline of Seaborne? Would it be Celebrity?

 

Funny thing is that I had to check which board this thread was on.  Celebrity is having a major identity crisis as well and the loyalists are not happy about it.  X is also pushing towards a younger generation as well with the Edge class ships and their changing of itineraries.  Celebrity's demographic history is even slightly older than Princess.  There is already a lot of talk on that board about moving somewhere else.  Funny thing is that some folks are saying to go to Princess.

[HBCcruiser]

36 minutes ago, dides said:

Someone has posted on another site that the Secret Door has been just revealed as a partnership with the Magic Castle. "Spellbound".

HA! I called it!! Magic Castle is amazing!  Love that piano...

[Familycruzer11]

8 hours ago, ldtr said:

Yesterday on the Island Princess I sat through a brief presentation on the Sun.

 

What was interesting is that it focused 90% on the new family areas and the areas reserved for the suites and certain other cabin classes.  With maybe 10% on other new features.

 

It gives me the feeling that with the new ships Princess will be changing its market focus, from primarily adult to a combination of adult/family as a step up from Carnival. Creating the Carnival family, Princess adult/family, HAL adult market positioning for its 3 mass market US focused lines. Clearly positioning Princess as a step up for families from Carnival.

Did they happen to mention how the Signature Suite area of the Sanctuary will work?  Sanctuary = adults only and families could be in suites?

[PacnGoNow]

2 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

HA! I called it!! Magic Castle is amazing!  Love that piano...

Wonder what they will charge?  Will it be complimentary for suite guests?  Hmmm🤔

[HBCcruiser]

16 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

Wonder what they will charge?  Will it be complimentary for suite guests?  Hmmm🤔

And can you book it ahead of time on the App? 

[Guest ldtr]

14 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

I think this is right, (as is the observation made by @ldtr about the three tiers of experiences offered by Carnival Corp's three mass market lines.)  I tend to look it like this:  When it comes to grabbing a market share of the family cruise sector, there are families who take their family vacations going to Cedar Point, Six Flags Parks or Wolf Lodge Water Slide resorts and there are families who take their family vacations going to museums in Paris, horseback riding in the Waipio Valley and snorkeling in the Virgin Islands.  And there are families who do a mixture of both.  Or stated differently, there are families who go to Disney World and stay at the Grand Floridian Resort and families who go to Disney World and stay at the All-Stars Movie Resort.  And some who mix it up each time they go.  All are great options depending on what one is looking for. The point of all this being that just because Princess is trying to grab a slice of the family cruise market, we shouldn't assume that it is trying to move Carnival cruisers over to Princess or somehow downshift the overall experience that we have come to expect.  There is nothing whatsoever that is incompatible with Princess keeping up its current standards and also focusing more on families.  "Family" ≠ "Disruptive Rabble."   

From what I gathered from my conversation with the future cruise folks it seems like CCL is concerned that passengers moving up from Carnival are more likely to go to NCL or RCCL instead of Princess and they would like to retain them by making Princess a bit more family friendly.

[Guest ldtr]

15 hours ago, infoteknerd said:

I read this as: 

 

 

To be honest, I enjoy the demographics of the Princess ships being more Adult focused. Recently been on Carnival and Royal... 

 

Found Carnival to be an "all-inclusive", Royal to be a bit higher-quality family focused, and Princess to be that Adult kick-back without breaking the bank.

 

Do we have any other options for an Adult focused line, without going to the extreme of Virgin, or the Priceline of Seaborne? Would it be Celebrity?

HAL

 

[Guest ldtr]

10 hours ago, Familycruzer11 said:

Did they happen to mention how the Signature Suite area of the Sanctuary will work?  Sanctuary = adults only and families could be in suites?

No.

 

Since suites share the pool with sanctuary one would expect that the pool would be available to children that have access to the suite area.

Edited October 13, 2023 by ldtr

[Guest ldtr]

15 hours ago, sandyoftheseas said:

I just hope Princess doesn't start having the sexy legs competition or the beer drinking competition if they do I will be finding another cruise line.  

Do not confuse family focus with the more party focus of the booze cruise variety. The two are not the same. 

[Nemanoxer]

Upscale families exist, and they do not all go on the 5 star brands. Actually that eventuality could be a smart move. Who else focuses on "upscale families"? Celebrity? Not too much, I would say.

 

It will be my first Princess cruise next year. As Celebrity just recently won me back, I am really curious what Sun Princess will be like compared to Celebrity Edge. 

[Wishing on a star]

I too wonder about the Sanctuary, the Suite area that is along with the Sanctuary,  the pool at this area, and the lack of an open adult only retreat area.

 

Make no mistake....

Princess is aware of this.   in a MAJOR way.

Their deafening silence is NOT a good omen.

 

Do they not realize that the lack of any adult only area is gonna be a HUGE factor, and end up costing them loyal customers.

I believe that they know this well and good.

They are banking on filling these ships with Carnival cruisers.

Uggggghhhhh  : (

 

[Wishing on a star]

A disclaimer here.  I have NO problem with kids.  Just entitled parents raising entitled children.

I know that all it takes is one or two families who are entitled to ruin an experience for everyone else.

Our last cruise was off season, not when families usually travel, kids back in school, etc...

ONE family and their young ( 5 year old ) daughter thought that the main floor in the Piazza was completely and totally their entitled child's playground. EVERY evening.  Completely running amok...  even interfering with the evening entertainment.   It was the Princess pre-school day care club.  : (

 

It was the same experience at one upscale golf resort.  Even during off-season.

 

It has become inescapable.

 

[Guest ldtr]

On 10/12/2023 at 11:19 PM, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

 

Funny thing is that I had to check which board this thread was on.  Celebrity is having a major identity crisis as well and the loyalists are not happy about it.  X is also pushing towards a younger generation as well with the Edge class ships and their changing of itineraries.  Celebrity's demographic history is even slightly older than Princess.  There is already a lot of talk on that board about moving somewhere else.  Funny thing is that some folks are saying to go to Princess.

My experience differs. Celebrity made a move to younger demographics a number of years ago.  10 years ago the age demographics was similar  between Celebrity and Princess. Over the last 10 years Celebrity passengers have gotten younger with current average in mid 50s. Princess has continued to get older and is more like mid 60s.

 

Recently most of the complaints seem to have been about the food.

 

Celebrity is still going to be adult focused, even if they are aiming for younger adults 35 +. Where as it appears that Princess will be more multigenerational, family focused with the sun.

 

Celebrity also has shorter average itinerary length and visits fewer total ports than Princess, yet both have shorter average itinerary length and lower port count than HAL.

[Citizenxnz]

On 10/12/2023 at 10:02 AM, sandyoftheseas said:

I just hope Princess doesn't start having the sexy legs competition or the beer drinking competition if they do I will be finding another cruise line.  

Too late! It was on Royal Princess yesterday, haha

[sandyoftheseas]

19 minutes ago, Citizenxnz said:

Too late! It was on Royal Princess yesterday, haha

OH NO!  I hope this isn't a  regular thing.

[vividharp]

My husband and I are not against children either. But we prefer a calm relaxed environment. We picked princess because it was mostly older adults. We’re only in our 40’s however, we fit in better with the 60’s crowd. I tend to believe it was because we were raised by an older generation. We don’t have kids, don’t like loud parties with a lot of drinking, and very much enjoy a nice sit down dinner with good conversation. We might try one of the other cruise lines you guys have mentioned here if we see princess going down the Royal Road. 

[Familycruzer11]

6 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

I too wonder about the Sanctuary, the Suite area that is along with the Sanctuary,  the pool at this area, and the lack of an open adult only retreat area.

 

Make no mistake....

Princess is aware of this.   in a MAJOR way.

Their deafening silence is NOT a good omen.

 

Do they not realize that the lack of any adult only area is gonna be a HUGE factor, and end up costing them loyal customers.

I believe that they know this well and good.

They are banking on filling these ships with Carnival cruisers.

Uggggghhhhh  : (

 

They market it as "a private area of The Sanctuary" - It is misleading in that the Sanctuary is Adults Only.  We specifically booked a Signature Suite so we don't have to worry about racing to the Sanctuary for space on embarkation day.  We don't go until Jan 2025 (and school in session), so looking forward to hearing what the experience will be. 

[CruizinSusan70]

On 10/12/2023 at 10:02 AM, ldtr said:

Creating the Carnival family, Princess adult/family, HAL adult market positioning for its 3 mass market US focused lines. Clearly positioning Princess as a step up for families from Carnival.

It's needed in order to fill all of the extra berths considering the size of the Sphere Class ships compared to the rest of the fleet.  If the new marketing scheme is not to the liking of the old guard, they can stick with sailing on the older ships in the fleet.  Many didn't like the changes with the Royal Class, so there will be a percentage that will hate the new changes with the Sphere Class.

[CruizinSusan70]

13 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

A disclaimer here.  I have NO problem with kids.  Just entitled parents raising entitled children.

I know that all it takes is one or two families who are entitled to ruin an experience for everyone else.

Our last cruise was off season, not when families usually travel, kids back in school, etc...

ONE family and their young ( 5 year old ) daughter thought that the main floor in the Piazza was completely and totally their entitled child's playground. EVERY evening.  Completely running amok...  even interfering with the evening entertainment.   It was the Princess pre-school day care club.  : (

 

It was the same experience at one upscale golf resort.  Even during off-season.

 

It has become inescapable.

 

Here's two options for you.  Virgin or Viking, both kid free.

[Guest ldtr]

6 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

It's needed in order to fill all of the extra berths considering the size of the Sphere Class ships compared to the rest of the fleet.  If the new marketing scheme is not to the liking of the old guard, they can stick with sailing on the older ships in the fleet.  Many didn't like the changes with the Royal Class, so there will be a percentage that will hate the new changes with the Sphere Class.

Not really Sphere Class 4200

 

Royal Class 3660  not exactly a huge increase.

 

They are not making the changes to fill the Sphere Class,

 

More the opposite cause and effect, they designed the Sphere Class because they had made decision to change the market position of the brand.

[dides]

A couple of pics from a shipyard visit posted by Carnival Chairman Micky Arison.   A lot more balcony and door glass in place now!

 

 

 

[deliver42]

Very informative. Thank you for the time and effort put in.

[Fortunate 2 travel]

On 10/12/2023 at 4:19 PM, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

 

Funny thing is that I had to check which board this thread was on.  Celebrity is having a major identity crisis as well and the loyalists are not happy about it.  X is also pushing towards a younger generation as well with the Edge class ships and their changing of itineraries.  Celebrity's demographic history is even slightly older than Princess.  There is already a lot of talk on that board about moving somewhere else.  Funny thing is that some folks are saying to go to Princess.

Interesting that they are trying for the can’t/won’t pay for their college loan age group instead of the have time and money group.  

[Pixelskaya]

43 minutes ago, Fortunate 2 travel said:

Interesting that they are trying for the can’t/won’t pay for their college loan age group instead of the have time and money group.  

Hey, not all of us are based in North America 😂  30-something Europeans without college loans want to cruise too! 8 of us will see you on board Sun Princess next year 💃🏻

[Fortunate 2 travel]

9 minutes ago, Pixelskaya said:

Hey, not all of us are based in North America 😂  30-something Europeans without college loans want to cruise too! 8 of us will see you on board Sun Princess next year 💃🏻

So right you are!  My mistake.  We always enjoy sailing in the Med with more Europeans.  We can’t wait to sail the Sun Princess next summer and the Star in 2025.