Sun Princess

[WonderMan3]

This thread has proven to me to never book a new ship within a couple months of launching. I did it once on Celebrity Edge for a maiden voyage and got lucky that everything was operating but Sun has been a bit of a debacle. I think folks who have been on it so far and have been very disappointed shouldn’t write the ship off entirely. I don’t think we’ll be able to fully judge the ship for several more sailings once all the venues are operational. 

[dog]

Does the American Diner have all day breakfast?  Is that one of the MDR? What hours are they open?

[FLAlaska]

1 hour ago, nasa1974 said:

Definitely some growing pains with this new build. Posts show some absolutely love the ship others not so much. I understand the disappointment with a large portion of the entertainment venues not completed yet. Hopefully things will get better as the inaugural year continues. Maybe they can make some minor tweaks with the Star.

I remember people complaining about the new Royal class when it came out.

Many still do…

[dides]

A video review of the test Spellbound experience with some actual footage from the parlour (spoiler alert)

 

 

[CanadianBurger]

16 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

From the photos I’ve only seen 2 Teppanyaki tables. Are there more than that in the venue? Hoping to eat there in November but if there are only 2 tables it might be difficult to get a reservation.

Two sets of double-ended tables, so actually four. The Hot Pot tables run down the side. 
 

 

 

[rexdillinger]

 

[555]

13 hours ago, rexdillinger said:

 

We've discovered you on the YouTube channel just recently since the Sun Princess has been sailing. Although we're not so much interested in other cruise lines, we'll be checking in from time to time about future Princess sailings. 

Thanks for pointing out some of the cons on the new Sun Princess, after all everything can't be perfect all the time. 🤗

[WonderMan3]

All about Sun Princess ice cream options

 

 

[WonderMan3]

Premium Deluxe Balcony 11249. Photos/video from Kin D.

 

 

[WonderMan3]

Views from Premium Deluxe Balcony 15320. Photos from Colleen D.

[WonderMan3]

Photos from inside Spellbound and drink menu. From Ade R.
 

[ceilidh1]

My teen just boarded yesterday. I’m not hearing much, so I’m taking that as a good sign. I did get a 5am ;my time) FaceTime tour of the cabin yesterday and it looked great! I’m beginning for pictures but I just don’t rate as highly as her 200 internet followers that she doesn’t know. Lol.

 

So far I’ve been told 

- boarding was not great. Bags had to be taken inside and there was no separate elite line so it took them an hour of lines to get to the ship

 

- lots of teens (at least 30) but too many Canadians and not enough Australians (?!?)

 

- the ship is full but doesn’t feel crowded

 

- the hot tubs are awesome 

 

- there is no movement on the ship. So smooth

 

- steak at dinner was amazing 

[I object 2]

On 3/17/2024 at 1:23 AM, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Thank you for sharing this. Did they get rid of the club sandwich? That was my favorite.

 

The club sandwich was our favorite too!  I'm happy to see spaghetti has been added back to the kids menu.  It was my go-to when nothing on the dinner menu appealed to me.  😋

[Cdude]

Final thoughts from 3/9 sailing:

 

The good…

*Embarkation and disembarkation were very easy and I love the medallion system.
*Service was great except they were mostly indifferent in the MDR.

*The layout and comfort of our D1 Premium Deluxe Cabin.

*Great selection of liquor.

 

The bad…

*Never received final folio explaining charges but my cc was charged.

*Numerous attempts to rectify incorrect charges for drinks when I had the premium package and was assured all would be taken care of.

*We were told we got $50 for switching from Santorini to Crete. I asked about still not having theater production shows, cirque shows in dome, deck 19 activities, and Spellbound. Their tune changed and said that was what the $50 was for. I pushed back but they wouldn’t budge.

*Ship layout especially the whole process of queuing at International Cafe for coffee and mimosas combined with queuing deal at Eatery buffet for food. 
*Half the jets weren’t working in the Enclave all cruise and only given 10% back which will arrive in 6 weeks via a paper check; it is 2024, right?

*Entertainment options were lacking.

*temperature of ship too hot and crew admitted they were also uncomfortable but doubted it could be corrected which leads me to believe it is a known issue. I couldn’t get a crew member to say the climate control system was broken explicitly but it was easy enough to read between the lines.

*15 drink limit on booze package. Judge if you will, but it really isn’t a lot on a long sea day while on vacation. It stinks keeping tabs and RCL doesn’t nickel-and-dime like this.

 

The mediocre…

*The food. Some of it was good and some terrible. Not much was great IMHO.

 

Final verdict…

It was a wonderful vacation seeing some interesting places, taking a break from diet and exercise but none of that was specifically owed to Princess. I am moving on from Princess despite a $300 pp casino offer.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 21 by Cdude

[dog]

Thanks for sharing.

re: temperature- same issues on Royal in September. Finally told me they turned off ac at that time of year.  Only had it in some public areas.

[555]

1 hour ago, Cdude said:

Final thoughts from 3/9 sailing:

 

The good…

*Embarkation and disembarkation were very easy and I love the medallion system.
*Service was great except they were mostly indifferent in the MDR.

*The layout and comfort of our D1 Premium Deluxe Cabin.

*Great selection of liquor.

 

The bad…

*Never received final folio explaining charges but my cc was charged.

*Numerous attempts to rectify incorrect charges for drinks when I had the premium package and was assured all would be taken care of.

*We were told we got $50 for switching from Santorini to Crete. I asked about still not having theater production shows, cirque shows in dome, deck 19 activities, and Spellbound. Their tune changed and said that was what the $50 was for. I pushed back but they wouldn’t budge.

*Ship layout especially the whole process of queuing at International Cafe for coffee and mimosas combined with queuing deal at Eatery buffet for food. 
*Half the jets weren’t working in the Enclave all cruise and only given 10% back which will arrive in 6 weeks via a paper check; it is 2024, right?

*Entertainment options were lacking.

*temperature of ship too hot and crew admitted they were also uncomfortable but doubted it could be corrected which leads me to believe it is a known issue. I couldn’t get a crew member to say the climate control system was broken explicitly but it was easy enough to read between the lines.

*15 drink limit on booze package. Judge if you will, but it really isn’t a lot on a long sea day while on vacation. It stinks keeping tabs and RCL doesn’t nickel-and-dime like this.

 

The mediocre…

*The food. Some of it was good and some terrible. Not much was great IMHO.

 

Final verdict…

It was a wonderful vacation seeing some interesting places, taking a break from diet and exercise but none of that was specifically owed to Princess. I am moving on from Princess despite a $300 pp casino offer.

 

Thanks for an honest opinion.

I'm getting tired or reading that everything was just great. 

 

[Wishing on a star]

Thanks Cdude !

I am glad that we have a while yet to see if some of these issues are addressed before our Final Payment.

 

Princess...  No way are we inclined to board a ship in the Caribbean without functional AC.

If there are still reports of no / inadequate AC this Spring and Summer, are we to take a risk?

[Wishing on a star]

33 minutes ago, dog said:

Thanks for sharing.

re: temperature- same issues on Royal in September. Finally told me they turned off ac at that time of year.  

And, did you buy that???  Hahaha!

Reminds me of non-functional toilets and somebody reported that they were actually told (paraphrased from memory here...). "Well,  the toilets are not supposed to flush in the morning..."

 

[dog]

Yes, my cruise was Vancouver to Honolulu. No AC. After, Honolulu to Australia the reports were the same. 

[chisoxfan]

On 3/17/2024 at 12:07 PM, Cdude said:

Here’s an example, you walk through the MDR to get to Wake View Terrace. How does that work when it’s summer and everyone is parading around in wet clothes? The corner(s) in the wake view are obstructed with the stairs wasting prime real estate and they blocked off the sides for other operational purposes. It’s bizzare. I don’t recall if it’s Wake View, but at least one other deck is accessible via old school doors that you have to manually open instead of the circa 2002 auto sliders, so if carrying drinks good luck. Another oddity.

I appreciate your view of the ship and you have great insight actually being on it. But every ship I have ever been on has a pool area bar(s) if you are in a wet suit. I saw the Wake View Terrace and if a side access is blocked off for operational purposes that isn't ideal but it is not typical?

It would appear you could go down from the buffet area by steps or elevator. 

 

I also saw your later 'expanded' review and understand you disliked the ship layout and and the food was 'some good, some terrible'.... OK not much to go on here. The ship's entertainment is 'missing'- totally get the frustration, maybe to be expected on new ship but Princess should make good on this. However not a harbinger for future cruisers. Too hot... well not  drawing immediate conclusion that Princess has fatal flaw in their new ship design... maybe they do but let's wait to see this out. Non working jets in the Enclave and you complain that they send a paper check as reimbursement. As far as the 15 drink rule...... this has been in place forever and while you may not think it adequate not sure what the deal is.

I am not a huge Princess fan and after many trips we had a terrible Panama cruise on Caribbean Princess  'swore them off' but did have somewhat redeeming Enchanted Princess transatlantic. Excited to try the Sun suites (mostly a X Retreat option) and will keep eyes posted on reviews to ferret out the true pros and cons of the groundbreaking (for Princess) ship. Certainly respect your right to leave Princess and be unhappy, just personally waiting for more measured reviews of the Sun. 

[RNRcruisers]

On 3/20/2024 at 10:52 AM, ceilidh1 said:

 

- the ship is full but doesn’t feel crowded

 

 

 I'm happy to see this. Crowding is always one of my biggest concerns.

 

[LittleTinker]

On 3/12/2024 at 4:55 AM, Cdude said:

Last night (1st sea day) was formal. A lot more people got dressed up than I expected. Quite a few men in suits, but this is a med sailing during school so the crowd is fairly old, to be kind.

The MDR had beef tenderloin with a couple of smallish shrimps on top. It was good for the MDR. My expectations were not high.

 

we enjoyed the uncrowded thermal suite after dinner before retiring early for a busy start in Sicily.

 

I noticed yesterday there were some kids enjoying the fun of the indoor/outdoor dome pool. They proceeded to shout “ring around rosey” over and over and here’s the good thing, the acoustics in the dome are impressive as every sound from the pool is amplified. A lot of adults trying to relax on the padded dome loungers were not impressed, nor were we trying to play cards at the tables up top. I feel kids will be playing in the dome pool often given that the other pools are boring. To my earlier point, I don’t think some things were well thought out. They could/should make the dome adults only including the pool area outside of the dome. 

And where do the children go then, if the other pools are boring?

[LittleTinker]

On 3/12/2024 at 7:37 PM, CruizinSusan70 said:

Doesn't really matter.  This generation of parents think nothing about the ramifications of taking their little darlings out of school for a week or two.

There are no ramifications.
Its beneficial to take children away when its available.....even if thats outside of school holiday time.
 

[Citizenxnz]

1 hour ago, dog said:

Thanks for sharing.

re: temperature- same issues on Royal in September. Finally told me they turned off ac at that time of year.  Only had it in some public areas.

We were on that sailing - it was confirmed that there was an AC fault that impacted various parts of the ship. One night the MDR had no aircon - it was like a sauna.  I understand a number of people had stateroom changes as it was unbearable 

 

Absolutely was not an intentional turning off of the AC

[JimmyVWine]

Here are menus that I found on another site.  (Not sure if I can post the link to that site.)  I will try to post the remaining menus as well.  The link below for the MDR menus are from Horizons and the document contains the menus for each of the 10 days of the cruise. 

 

 

 

Sun-Princess-Americana.pdf Sun-Princess-Horizons-Breakfast.pdf Sun-Princess-Horizons-Lunch.pdf Sun-Princess-Horizons-Vegan.pdf Sun-Princess-Main-Dining-Room-Wine-List.pdf Sun-Princess-menus-MDR-10-Day-Med-Dinner.pdf