Live from the Sun Princess: Rome to Barcelona - 8 June

[Drdarkknight]

 

I can’t believe I’m finally writing this Live From. This trip has been FIVE years in the making. We originally had booked this cruise back in 2019 to go in summer 2020 (can’t remember what ship) but that obviously was cancelled. Once things reopened my family decided to look at rebooking. They found the same itinerary but this time on a new ship called Sun Princess. That was more than 18 months ago and now, tomorrow, I depart for Rome! 

 

I (32F) am travelling with my husband (39M), my sister (29F) and her boyfriend (35M), my parents (60F and 59M) and my aunt and uncle (both in their 60’s). So we have a big group that has certainly added to some of the planning complexities. This is quite the celebration cruise as we celebrate both my parents’ 60th birthdays, my aunt and uncle’s 40th wedding anniversary, and my sister’s 30th birthday (she actually celebrates her birthday in Barcelona). All of us are experienced cruisers with the exception of my husband (he’s done one Princess cruise to Alaska with me last year) and my sister’s boyfriend (total newb). The rest of us have cruised Disney, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Norwegian and Celebrity, though not all together. The closest we got to the bulk of us was a Mediterranean cruise with Royal Caribbean back when I first turned 18. I have been on the most cruises out of everyone and also have the most experience with different cruise lines. 

 

We picked Princess as my family did a Scandinavian cruise with them back in 2019 and my parents loved it. This is my third Princess cruise in the last year (Alaska and Caribbean). I’m very interested to see how Sun Princess is going to work since it’s significantly different from the other Princess ships I have been on (Regal, Sapphire and Caribbean). I don’t feel like I’m particularly married to one cruise line or another. Even when planning this cruise we definitely considered a couple lines.  

 

I also must admit I wasn’t too thrilled with the itinerary initially. I have been lucky to do a ton of travelling in my life so far and so despite how port intensive this cruise is there’s actually no new countries for me. And after the cancellation of Santorini and Kotor there was only barely one new city for me (Istanbul, though I’ve been to Turkey). I was pretty choked and I will discuss more about the rollercoaster ride of waiting to sail in other posts. But I love showing people around and nobody else has been anywhere so I can at least enjoy playing tour guide a bit. And where I have been before I’m trying to get out and see something else or go to another town for the day to keep things different for myself(I.e. skipping Pompeii when we’re in Naples). 

 

It’s a good thing I love playing tour guide because my family are nervous travellers in Europe. I am responsible for planning everything and making sure I know how to get from Point A to B, any cultural considerations such as making sure everyone has appropriate clothes to visit churches, etc. Then they just blindly follow me around. We’ve travelled this way for years and it’s what works for us. 

 

So you can understand my worry when they all decided to fly into Rome two days LATER than my husband and I. I’m interested to see how that pans out but I have given them instructions on how to board the train at the airport, where to switch trains, etc. So we will see Friday if I manage to find them or not. Will be interesting. 

 

As my husband has never been to Rome and I have more vacation days than I can ever reasonably take (thank you overtime!) we decided to take a full three weeks of vacation and spend some time in Rome beforehand. Not to mention I wasn’t keen on flying in the day before the cruise and spending only half a day in Rome. At that point I’d probably have just headed straight to Civitavecchia for the night. 

 

So we fly out Wednesday and the cruise leaves Saturday for two weeks. We will stay an additional four full days in Barcelona, mostly because we couldn’t find good airfare back to Canada until the Wednesday. We’ve got Air BnB’s rented in both Rome and Barcelona that can accommodate the full group. For our excursions there is a mix of Princess and doing our own thing:

 

Naples - Sorrento & Amalfi Coastal Cruise/Pompeii and Amalfi Drive (we’re splitting up the group)

Chania - self exploration 

Istanbul - Best of Istanbul with Bosphorus Cruise 

Mykonos - self exploration

Athens - Athens Foodie Walking Tour

Bar - private tour to Kotor and Budva 

Corfu - self exploration 

Sicily - Godfather Tour

Naples - Capri

 

Well I feel like I’ve rambled on enough. I swear it will be more focused moving forward haha. I’ve also noticed there hasn’t been a lot of ‘Live From’ the Sun so hopefully this can shed some light on how the June voyages are going. 

[phabric]

Following along.  Enjoy our cruise with your family.

[spethstation]

Interested to hear about your experience, I'll be following along! The Sun looks so pretty!

I also am always the designated travel planner for my family and I desperately want someone to take over my role one day 😂 Not to mention, I'm always the one documenting with photos/videos and am never in them!! 

[Esprit]

Have a safe uneventful flight to Rome.

I will read with interest your postings as we board the Sun this August.

[jwattle]

Thank you for taking us with you!

 

[GK95]

We sail on the Sun Princess in a little over a week (half way through your trip - we board in Athens), so excited to follow along. If you can post a few Patters during the first week, that would be much appreciated. I know some have been posted previously, but things on the ship keep changing. Enjoy your trip!

Edited June 4 by GK95

[ISABELLA]

9 hours ago, Drdarkknight said:

 

 

I can’t believe I’m finally writing this Live From. This trip has been FIVE years in the making. We originally had booked this cruise back in 2019 to go in summer 2020 (can’t remember what ship) but that obviously was cancelled. Once things reopened my family decided to look at rebooking. They found the same itinerary but this time on a new ship called Sun Princess. That was more than 18 months ago and now, tomorrow, I depart for Rome! 

 

I (32F) am travelling with my husband (39M), my sister (29F) and her boyfriend (35M), my parents (60F and 59M) and my aunt and uncle (both in their 60’s). So we have a big group that has certainly added to some of the planning complexities. This is quite the celebration cruise as we celebrate both my parents’ 60th birthdays, my aunt and uncle’s 40th wedding anniversary, and my sister’s 30th birthday (she actually celebrates her birthday in Barcelona). All of us are experienced cruisers with the exception of my husband (he’s done one Princess cruise to Alaska with me last year) and my sister’s boyfriend (total newb). The rest of us have cruised Disney, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Norwegian and Celebrity, though not all together. The closest we got to the bulk of us was a Mediterranean cruise with Royal Caribbean back when I first turned 18. I have been on the most cruises out of everyone and also have the most experience with different cruise lines. 

 

We picked Princess as my family did a Scandinavian cruise with them back in 2019 and my parents loved it. This is my third Princess cruise in the last year (Alaska and Caribbean). I’m very interested to see how Sun Princess is going to work since it’s significantly different from the other Princess ships I have been on (Regal, Sapphire and Caribbean). I don’t feel like I’m particularly married to one cruise line or another. Even when planning this cruise we definitely considered a couple lines.  

 

I also must admit I wasn’t too thrilled with the itinerary initially. I have been lucky to do a ton of travelling in my life so far and so despite how port intensive this cruise is there’s actually no new countries for me. And after the cancellation of Santorini and Kotor there was only barely one new city for me (Istanbul, though I’ve been to Turkey). I was pretty choked and I will discuss more about the rollercoaster ride of waiting to sail in other posts. But I love showing people around and nobody else has been anywhere so I can at least enjoy playing tour guide a bit. And where I have been before I’m trying to get out and see something else or go to another town for the day to keep things different for myself(I.e. skipping Pompeii when we’re in Naples). 

 

It’s a good thing I love playing tour guide because my family are nervous travellers in Europe. I am responsible for planning everything and making sure I know how to get from Point A to B, any cultural considerations such as making sure everyone has appropriate clothes to visit churches, etc. Then they just blindly follow me around. We’ve travelled this way for years and it’s what works for us. 

 

So you can understand my worry when they all decided to fly into Rome two days LATER than my husband and I. I’m interested to see how that pans out but I have given them instructions on how to board the train at the airport, where to switch trains, etc. So we will see Friday if I manage to find them or not. Will be interesting. 

 

As my husband has never been to Rome and I have more vacation days than I can ever reasonably take (thank you overtime!) we decided to take a full three weeks of vacation and spend some time in Rome beforehand. Not to mention I wasn’t keen on flying in the day before the cruise and spending only half a day in Rome. At that point I’d probably have just headed straight to Civitavecchia for the night. 

 

So we fly out Wednesday and the cruise leaves Saturday for two weeks. We will stay an additional four full days in Barcelona, mostly because we couldn’t find good airfare back to Canada until the Wednesday. We’ve got Air BnB’s rented in both Rome and Barcelona that can accommodate the full group. For our excursions there is a mix of Princess and doing our own thing:

 

Naples - Sorrento & Amalfi Coastal Cruise/Pompeii and Amalfi Drive (we’re splitting up the group)

Chania - self exploration 

Istanbul - Best of Istanbul with Bosphorus Cruise 

Mykonos - self exploration

Athens - Athens Foodie Walking Tour

Bar - private tour to Kotor and Budva 

Corfu - self exploration 

Sicily - Godfather Tour

Naples - Capri

 

Well I feel like I’ve rambled on enough. I swear it will be more focused moving forward haha. I’ve also noticed there hasn’t been a lot of ‘Live From’ the Sun so hopefully this can shed some light on how the June voyages are going. 

If you booked " Best of Istanbul" with Princess, you will be OK. If you booked private tour, keep in mind that Traffic in Istanbul is terrible. It took us 2 hours to get to the ship from Grand Bazar, normally 20 min ride. 

[Drdarkknight]

2 hours ago, ISABELLA said:

If you booked " Best of Istanbul" with Princess, you will be OK. If you booked private tour, keep in mind that Traffic in Istanbul is terrible. It took us 2 hours to get to the ship from Grand Bazar, normally 20 min ride. 

 We did book it with Princess

[Jemnibabe02]

Thank you so much for taking us along on the beautiful new Sun.  We have to wait until Sept. and I am counting the days. Went to Istanbul on my last Med cruise and I loved every minute of it.  Amalfi Coast is my favorite place on earth and have been there at least 3 times but can never get enough.  Enjoy your cruise and I will be following every post.  Thanks again.

 

Judy from SW Florida

[RNRcruisers]

What a great trip! I'll be following!

 

 

[deladane]

Great start to the review!  Your writing style reminds me of my own reviews haha  Wishing you a wonderful trip and I can't wait to follow along.  We just booked this same itinerary for 2026 for our 10 year anniversary.  When I looked at the travel agent list of the ports, it included Santorini, Istanbul, and Kotor.  When Princess officially posted the itineraries on their website, they dropped Santorini and Istanbul and replaced it with Naples and Kusadasi.  I was heartbroken as they replaced 2 of my bucket list places with 2 places I have already visited!  And now I am hearing that Kotor is being replaced with Bar.  I seriously considered booking something else, but Princess doesn't have any other similar itineraries, so I'll make this itinerary work.  Plus, DH hasn't been to most of these ports so it will be fun to see them through his eyes.  My cruise is still over 2 years away, so I look forward to living vicariously through you!  Safe travels!

[Drdarkknight]

 

The nice thing about flying to Europe as opposed to within North America is for once I don’t have to wake up at 3am to catch my flight.  We don’t have a direct flight to Rome so we’re flying Air Canada to Toronto then onward to Rome. So we had a couple hours this morning to double check we have everything. Did I built a checklist day by day for what we’d need? You bet. 

 

We left for the airport around 9am. It’s been awhile since I’ve flown Air Canada so I wanted to make sure we would have enough time for baggage and security. I have a nexus card to jump the security line but my husband does not. 

 

Our flight to Toronto wasn’t until 12:15pm so we had some time to kill and went to a wine bar called Vino Volo in the airport where I enjoyed a couple wine flights and a charcuterie board. I’m just getting my body ready. 

 

Boarding went efficiently and then everything went to hell. We went to takeoff and suddenly the brakes were rammed. It was pretty scary. And then we sat on the plane for 2 1/2 hours waiting to see what would happen. Two tires blew and something was wrong with the navigation. Finally the flight was cancelled but there was no way we’d make our connecting flight in Toronto. 

 

We were rebooked to 5:30am the next morning via Montreal and wouldn’t land in Rome until 7:30am Friday so I got pretty upset and we looked at other options. We ultimately decided to rebook with Westjet for later in the afternoon. It was a direct flight at 6:45pm and we’d only be landing an hour later than originally scheduled. We submitted a refund claim for our original flights. No premium economy but at least it didn’t mean another full day of flying. We are hopefully leaving shortly and in a few long hours we’ll be in Rome. 

[dickinson]

Hopefully things will go smoothly now!

[Drdarkknight]

 

We made it safe and sound, landing at 12:20pm. Customs had a massive line but it moved quickly and efficiently and we were on a train to Trastavere within one hour. The train was definitely the most economical option at €8 per person. We could buy the tickets right at baggage claim. The train itself was clean and air conditioned (a huge plus). We reached Trastevere with no issue but when it came time to change lines I totally blanked. Google Maps was my saviour. 

 

Once we reached San Pietro station it was a fifteen minute walk to our accommodations. I was hot, tired and hungry and couldn’t appreciate my surroundings at all. But once we laid down in some air conditioning for twenty minutes we decided it would be a waste to stay at the apartment so we changed our clothes and off we went. 

 

We bought some bus tickets and first went off in search of food. We went to a place called Osteria Pizzeria Come Va, which had gorgeous views of St. Peter’s Basilica. If I wasn’t nearing heat exhaustion I would have loved to sit outside but we chose air conditioning for our own wellbeing. We went full Italian with our meal choices: we shared some spaghetti carbonara, meatballs and a spicy salami pizza, as well as a bottle of Chianti. Despite being close to a tourist attraction it is very affordable, only costing us €60. 

 

Then we hopped on the bus and headed to Castel Sant’Angelo. Every time I go to Rome I say my number one priority is to visit Castel Sant’Angelo and every time it doesn’t happen for some reason or another. So today, jet lagged or not, I would be going. Mostly because I had prepaid my tickets. 

 

We ended up getting there a little before 6 and it was great because it wasn’t very busy and there was a lot of shade. I wish we hadn’t been so tired or I would have suggested a drink at their rooftop bar with views overlooking Rome. Maybe next time. 

 

Now we’re back at our apartment about to go to sleep. It’s been a wild two days and I think we deserve a rest. With what I’ve got planned for tomorrow, we’re going to need it. 

[mthomp5]

Following.  Thanks for taking us along!

[KimberlyC]

On 6/4/2024 at 8:58 AM, Drdarkknight said:

 

 

I can’t believe I’m finally writing this Live From. This trip has been FIVE years in the making. We originally had booked this cruise back in 2019 to go in summer 2020 (can’t remember what ship) but that obviously was cancelled. Once things reopened my family decided to look at rebooking. They found the same itinerary but this time on a new ship called Sun Princess. That was more than 18 months ago and now, tomorrow, I depart for Rome! 

 

I (32F) am travelling with my husband (39M), my sister (29F) and her boyfriend (35M), my parents (60F and 59M) and my aunt and uncle (both in their 60’s). So we have a big group that has certainly added to some of the planning complexities. This is quite the celebration cruise as we celebrate both my parents’ 60th birthdays, my aunt and uncle’s 40th wedding anniversary, and my sister’s 30th birthday (she actually celebrates her birthday in Barcelona). All of us are experienced cruisers with the exception of my husband (he’s done one Princess cruise to Alaska with me last year) and my sister’s boyfriend (total newb). The rest of us have cruised Disney, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Norwegian and Celebrity, though not all together. The closest we got to the bulk of us was a Mediterranean cruise with Royal Caribbean back when I first turned 18. I have been on the most cruises out of everyone and also have the most experience with different cruise lines. 

 

We picked Princess as my family did a Scandinavian cruise with them back in 2019 and my parents loved it. This is my third Princess cruise in the last year (Alaska and Caribbean). I’m very interested to see how Sun Princess is going to work since it’s significantly different from the other Princess ships I have been on (Regal, Sapphire and Caribbean). I don’t feel like I’m particularly married to one cruise line or another. Even when planning this cruise we definitely considered a couple lines.  

 

I also must admit I wasn’t too thrilled with the itinerary initially. I have been lucky to do a ton of travelling in my life so far and so despite how port intensive this cruise is there’s actually no new countries for me. And after the cancellation of Santorini and Kotor there was only barely one new city for me (Istanbul, though I’ve been to Turkey). I was pretty choked and I will discuss more about the rollercoaster ride of waiting to sail in other posts. But I love showing people around and nobody else has been anywhere so I can at least enjoy playing tour guide a bit. And where I have been before I’m trying to get out and see something else or go to another town for the day to keep things different for myself(I.e. skipping Pompeii when we’re in Naples). 

 

It’s a good thing I love playing tour guide because my family are nervous travellers in Europe. I am responsible for planning everything and making sure I know how to get from Point A to B, any cultural considerations such as making sure everyone has appropriate clothes to visit churches, etc. Then they just blindly follow me around. We’ve travelled this way for years and it’s what works for us. 

 

So you can understand my worry when they all decided to fly into Rome two days LATER than my husband and I. I’m interested to see how that pans out but I have given them instructions on how to board the train at the airport, where to switch trains, etc. So we will see Friday if I manage to find them or not. Will be interesting. 

 

As my husband has never been to Rome and I have more vacation days than I can ever reasonably take (thank you overtime!) we decided to take a full three weeks of vacation and spend some time in Rome beforehand. Not to mention I wasn’t keen on flying in the day before the cruise and spending only half a day in Rome. At that point I’d probably have just headed straight to Civitavecchia for the night. 

 

So we fly out Wednesday and the cruise leaves Saturday for two weeks. We will stay an additional four full days in Barcelona, mostly because we couldn’t find good airfare back to Canada until the Wednesday. We’ve got Air BnB’s rented in both Rome and Barcelona that can accommodate the full group. For our excursions there is a mix of Princess and doing our own thing:

 

Naples - Sorrento & Amalfi Coastal Cruise/Pompeii and Amalfi Drive (we’re splitting up the group)

Chania - self exploration 

Istanbul - Best of Istanbul with Bosphorus Cruise 

Mykonos - self exploration

Athens - Athens Foodie Walking Tour

Bar - private tour to Kotor and Budva 

Corfu - self exploration 

Sicily - Godfather Tour

Naples - Capri

 

Well I feel like I’ve rambled on enough. I swear it will be more focused moving forward haha. I’ve also noticed there hasn’t been a lot of ‘Live From’ the Sun so hopefully this can shed some light on how the June voyages are going. 

Happy Cruising! I’m on the September 7th sailing. Would you be so kind to advise when Princess notified you of the port change from Kotor to Bar, Montenegro?

 

Our Itinerary is still scheduled to arrive in Kotor on my actual birthday, but I was trying to book a private excursion when the local tour operator said that Princess has been switching the port to Bar (2 hours away). I called Princess this morning and they insist it’s still Kotor but from what I’ve read here there were last-minute switches on the April and May sailings. I’m trying to gauge how much notice we will get IF they switch. 
 

Thanks!

[Drdarkknight]

25 minutes ago, KimberlyC said:

Happy Cruising! I’m on the September 7th sailing. Would you be so kind to advise when Princess notified you of the port change from Kotor to Bar, Montenegro?

 

Our Itinerary is still scheduled to arrive in Kotor on my actual birthday, but I was trying to book a private excursion when the local tour operator said that Princess has been switching the port to Bar (2 hours away). I called Princess this morning and they insist it’s still Kotor but from what I’ve read here there were last-minute switches on the April and May sailings. I’m trying to gauge how much notice we will get IF they switch. 
 

Thanks!

we found out on 28 April

[Drdarkknight]

 

My plan to beat jet lag is always to force myself to stay awake until 8pm the day I land and then sleep through the night to reset my internal clock. Was my husband mad? Absolutely. Did he sleep twelve hours and is now back to normal one day in? Also yes. I myself woke up at 2am but managed to fall back asleep around 4am. I woke up for good at 7:30am and began getting ready for the day ahead. 

 

We left the apartment around 8:30am and headed to a sandwich shop I’d found in my research, Bono Bottega Nostrana. It was so cute and we got a shady table outside looking at St. Peter’s Basilica. We each tried a sandwich (both were divine) and my husband had the greatest cappuccino of his life, while I had an iced cappuccino. The two coffees and sandwiches cost us €26. 

 

From there we walked to Vatican City. While the lines to get in the basilica were huge we were able to get some amazing photos outside of it with nobody in them as the throngs of tourists seemed to have not yet arrived. 

 

Then we hopped the metro and went to Cipro station for the start of our Roman Food Tour - A Taste of Trionfale. Over the course of this 4 hour tour we tried coffee, pizza, suppli, pesto, cheese, vegetables, balsamic vinegar, wine, pasta, prosciutto Di Parma, buffalo mozzarella and tiramisu. We received so much for the cost of the tour and it was informative as well. Our guide, Georgia, was terrific. 

 

And then it was time to find my family. That was a very hot, tiring adventure and took about an hour out of the day. By the time we handed over the apartment keys all I really wanted was a beer so we went next door for some Italian beer. Before we were done my mom and aunt had managed to get themselves together and came and met us, so I took them into the city with me. 

 

We first went to Piazza Navona to see my favourite fountain, Fountain of the Four Rivers only to find the whole square under construction. What a bummer. We grabbed some gelato to make us feel better. Next up was the Pantheon followed by a quick round of cocktails nearby. Our final stop was Trevi Fountain before we started heading on our way to dinner. 

 

Dinner was going to be a special treat: a wine pairing dinner at Rimessa Roscioli. We had six courses, each paired with wine. Everything was delicious, even if sometimes the pairings weren’t quite there for me. I definitely recommend it for wine connoisseurs. 

 

Full and exhausted, we took the bus back to the apartment. We finally board the Sun Princess tomorrow so I best be getting some sleep!

[Drdarkknight]

 

We woke up at 7:30am to repack our suitcases and head to the train station. We were catching the train to Civitavecchia at 9:30am. Everything was going smoothly until we hit Maccarese-Fregene when there was a medical emergency and we stopped for ages (which they didn’t announce in English and I only knew because I speak some Italian). We sat for ages with no clue what was happening or when we might be able to leave. In the end it was a 40 minute delay. 

 

We reached Civitavecchia at 11am and found a taxi that could fit all 8 of us (and our bags) almost immediately. It was super quick to get onboard. About twenty minutes from getting out of the taxi. The elevators were more than a bit chaotic but we made it to the Horizons Dining Room for lunch. I had the potato soup (bland) and mac and cheese (delish) with an ice cream sundae. 

 

Our rooms were ready, including luggage, by 1pm so we went and dropped our stuff off, found our muster station and then headed up to the pool deck. We managed to find a couple chairs and set up shop. There was an aperol spritz station and I’d never tried one before so we grabbed a couple. Once we were done it was time to swim! The pool was unexpectedly deep. I couldn’t touch the bottom at all. 

 

Sailaway activities started at 3:30pm, first with the house band, followed by the DJ and finishing with the Sailaway show with the entertainment staff. They have a new routine for the Sailaway which, after three cruises in the last year, was nice to see. 

 

We left about halfway through to head to dinner. It was really challenging to get a table for eight people. We called Princess several times to ask and they told us to wait until we came onboard. We asked when we were at lunch and they could only accommodate on nights where dinner was before 6pm. Mildly annoying. 

 

For dinner I had the crab seafood cocktail, chicken croquette, salmon and creme brulee. It was nice to see some changes on the menu, but the food continues to be on the bland side (minus the salmon which was cooked to perfection). The vegetables need a lot of work. The green beans weren’t edible. Service also needed a bit of work. A little out of sync. 

 

Dinner finished shortly after 7:30pm and we went to Princess Live to compete in Music Through the Decades Trivia. We actually did really well and were very obnoxious (to my chagrin). We scored 52/60 and were beat by another large group who managed 55/60. 

 

We decided to stay afterwards for the Laugh Lounge. The comedian was a British guy named David Kristian. He was pretty funny. A lot of marriage humour. We lost most of our group after his set. Only three of us headed to the Princess Arena for the later production show. 

 

I’d read so much about accommodation troubles in the arena I was shocked to see it was only maybe 20% full fifteen minutes before the show. Even five minutes before it had only grown slightly to maybe 35%. The show was Powerhouse: Featuring Zoe Hearn. We stayed for half of it. She was a pretty good singer but my mom and aunt got tired and decided to leave. 

 

Off to Naples tomorrow!

[smeck]

Looking forward to this report, on the same cruise the beginning of May 2025 

[Wishing on a star]

Wow, thanks!!!

Did you have your reservations linked for dining?  Had you all requested the same dining time and a large table?

 

I see the photos of those hot-dogs (from the pool deck...). and I hate to say, they do not look good to me.   I used to love getting the wurst...  Too bad that is gone.

The photo that looks kind of like a crab cake... was that the Chicken Croquette?

 

I am thinking that uncrowded show in the theater might be because it is first night, boarding day, for many, with so many being travel worn and tired?

 

Happy cruising!!!

[Drdarkknight]

4 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

Wow, thanks!!!

Did you have your reservations linked for dining?  Had you all requested the same dining time and a large table?

 

I see the photos of those hot-dogs (from the pool deck...). and I hate to say, they do not look good to me.   I used to love getting the wurst...  Too bad that is gone.

The photo that looks kind of like a crab cake... was that the Chicken Croquette?

 

I am thinking that uncrowded show in the theater might be because it is first night, boarding day, for many, with so many being travel worn and tired?

 

Happy cruising!!!

Yes, we had everything linked for our dining reservations. We have booked two tables of 4 for the same time every night. 
 

and yes, that was the chicken croquette 

 

there are a surprising amount of people that boarded in Barcelona last week, at least from what I heard at some of the entertainment venues 

[beg3yrs]

3 hours ago, Drdarkknight said:

...

 

there are a surprising amount of people that boarded in Barcelona last week, at least from what I heard at some of the entertainment venues 

We're two of those people who boarded in Barcelona last week. I heard the CD say it was about 2,000 who boarded there so almost a 50% turnover. What I was surprised at was how many of those were only on board for seven days. We'll be with you until Barcelona.

 

Once we got more familiar with the ship's layout, we're definitely enjoying it. I will say that after a week, it was only last night we saw the Dome and the performance by the acrobatic team. It was great. A word to the wise though, seating can be limited so arrive a little early as we didn't do that the first week and were turned away.

 

We're loving the new elevator system where you simply select your desired floor in the elevator lobby and the indicator lets you know which car to take. It was quite odd not to board the car and have to quickly turn and select your floor. Last week there was no ability to change your mind and select a different floor but as of yesterday it seems there was a software upgrade and now there are "buttons" on the display panel so you can now do this.

 

Staff on board is top notch. They were all hand-picked for this assignment and it shows. Captain Paolo Arrigo is a hoot, an Italian that makes announcements with a British accent that according to some Brits we've met, is from nowhere. CD JaYson (yes that's how he spells it) is really out there but does a great job along with his staff.

 

The passenger mix is wildly all over the map. Lots of families with kids ranging from infants to teens. Lots of young couples too and of course us older boomers. The cabin next to us has now been occupied by a family with young children. Seems the parents left them in the cabin last night and I suspect with jet lag the night time here was their morning so the noises coming through the wall made us think they were jumping from the beds onto the floor. DW had a nice word with them at 11PM and they quieted down.

 

It's warming up quite a bit now and I think this will be a test for the AC systems on board. Our cabin is far aft and so far we've been ok but while the full cool setting is nice, it's barely cool enough. We'll see how that goes as the outside temperatures rise into the mid-to-high 90s F this coming week. I notice coming down the halls the temperature can vary wildly so there's definitely some rebalancing that needs to happen. I'm hope as this new ship encounters more varying weather this will eventually be worked out.

 

Park 19 is still non-operational. We were walking the track up there yesterday and saw lots of young disappointed faces checking things out.

 

Princess' focus on getting younger families on board seems to be working but with Park 19 out of the picture for now they'll have to overcome some bad PR I'm sure will come from this. Conversely as a Boomer, we're disappointed there's no sports court with basketball or pickle ball.

 

We love the outside dining on the promenade deck! It's wonderful!

[Esprit]

Hi @Drdarkknight

Thanks for the embarkation report.

Any chance you can give your impressions of the ship please or it just as you expected like any other Princess ship!

[InFullertonCA]

Thank you for all the information and I'm loving the updates.  I was supposed to be joining you (Rome to Barcelona), but on June 5th, about 24 hours before my flight to FCO, I received a "Move Over Offer" and accepted.  I'm now re-scheduled for August 10th with the same original itinerary, still showing Santorini and Kotor.  I will be watching this post to learn all I can so thanks again for sharing!