Sun Princess Changes?

[dog]

1 minute ago, JimmyVWine said:

I think that is correct. I thought that they were changing the “D” designation to an “S” to coincide with “Sanctuary” to avoid confusion. But I guess the opted to keep it confusing!

I do not see it confusing now- the D0-aft is called Sanctuary Collection. it clearly states what it includes now- private dining, use of Sanctuary and the premier bundle if booked after the last changes were announced- seeing a big jump in price. op will see items listed in his Travel Summary.

 

The uncertainty lies with the D0-aft booked prior to the changes as discussed in earlier posts.

 

The OP booked yesterday for cruise Oct 3/26- he gets sanctuary use, private dining, premier bundle.  He does not get use of the suite lounge.

[Suite Susie]

TBH it was bad design to put these two speciality restaurants in part of the buffet, but to move this all around so soon is really bad. We have a booking for a Full Suite (S2) for next Autumn. When we booked we were promised the Signature restaurant only for Suite guests and exclusive use of the Sanctuary apart from paying guests who would only get in if space is available. Sounds as if we won’t be getting either of these benefits.  Sanctuary class is devaluing the full suite experience. I think it is a good move for those in the mini suites and balconies that book Sanctuary class, but for full suites it is not. If this had been announced before we booked, we would never have considered this cruise and will almost certainly be cancelling, particularly if the Signature restaurant is moved and combined into a Reserve restaurant.  

[Wishing on a star]

Suite Suzy....  There is no longer any 'RESERVE'.

It does seem to be true that the Suite Restaurant is combined with the Sanctuary Class restaurant.  The Suite Lounge remains Suite ONLY.   

The SANCTUARY is very spacious.  I do think the experience seems diminished from what it has been on other ships.   But, we will have to wait to see how this pans out.

Nobody really knows what all Princess might do when it brings in all of these changes.

 

Don't be too concerned too early.

The reviews on the Suite experience will start coming in after October 14.

[Hobby3333]

The Sanctuary area on the Sun was a very nice experience.  The service was great and the loungers were as nice as MSC YC.   There was never an issue finding an area to relax.   As far as not having the lounge….well there are a couple of bars that are very nice and convenient.   We only used the lounge 3 or 4 times in July and only for a drink before dinner.   That is why I believe the D0 is a better value.   We used the Sanctuary every day during sea days and after a very hot excursion.   The dining was very enjoyable.  No wait and 5he service was spot on.

Edited August 11 by Hobby3333
Additional

[dog]

2 hours ago, Suite Susie said:

TBH it was bad design to put these two speciality restaurants in part of the buffet, but to move this all around so soon is really bad. We have a booking for a Full Suite (S2) for next Autumn. When we booked we were promised the Signature restaurant only for Suite guests and exclusive use of the Sanctuary apart from paying guests who would only get in if space is available. Sounds as if we won’t be getting either of these benefits.  Sanctuary class is devaluing the full suite experience. I think it is a good move for those in the mini suites and balconies that book Sanctuary class, but for full suites it is not. If this had been announced before we booked, we would never have considered this cruise and will almost certainly be cancelling, particularly if the Signature restaurant is moved and combined into a Reserve restaurant.  

When Sun bookings opened up I booked a D0-aft with the description- includes Signature upgrades & benefits. On-board the Regal in February I was told this meant use of Signature Restaurant and use of Signature  Sanctuary area.  It did not include the Signature lounge.

 

So, this is the information I now see in my Travel Summary for October 19/24.

 

 

[dog]

3 hours ago, Suite Susie said:

TBH it was bad design to put these two speciality restaurants in part of the buffet, but to move this all around so soon is really bad. We have a booking for a Full Suite (S2) for next Autumn. When we booked we were promised the Signature restaurant only for Suite guests and exclusive use of the Sanctuary apart from paying guests who would only get in if space is available. Sounds as if we won’t be getting either of these benefits.  Sanctuary class is devaluing the full suite experience. I think it is a good move for those in the mini suites and balconies that book Sanctuary class, but for full suites it is not. If this had been announced before we booked, we would never have considered this cruise and will almost certainly be cancelling, particularly if the Signature restaurant is moved and combined into a Reserve restaurant.  

If you have a refundable deposit & if you are prior to final payment you can cancel.

 

There are Now many more cabins getting the Sanctuary benefits and upgrades, since You & I first booked.

[Hobby3333]

First let me state that the S9 and service that we received on the Sun Princess was very nice.   The room was great although I really didn’t need or use the second TV.   Even though we didn’t use the lounge very often, I thought it was a good touch.  However, the YC experience, in my opinion is more of a suite experience.  We are booked on the Sun Princess in Oct 26 and looking forward to the cruise.  We also are booked on the Rotterdam July 25 in Club Orange and MSC YC from Galveston in Dec 25.   There are good reasons to book each line.  Don’t panic about the service, stateroom or dining.   You might miss one of the best cruises of your life.   Enjoy.

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, there are MANY more cabins that are now Sanctuary benefits.  

I am wondering...  I have not checked too many sailings, but these Sanctuary Mini-Suites do not seem to be getting booked up.   Hhhhhmmm????

[rebeccac]

17 hours ago, Suite Susie said:

We have a booking for a Full Suite (S2) for next Autumn. When we booked we were promised the Signature restaurant only for Suite guests and exclusive use of the Sanctuary apart from paying guests who would only get in if space is available. Sounds as if we won’t be getting either of these benefits.  Sanctuary class is devaluing the full suite experience. I think it is a good move for those in the mini suites and balconies that book Sanctuary class, but for full suites it is not. 

 

Personally, I don't think that the Sanctuary has been devalued at all since nobody outside of a Sanctuary cabin will be able to get into the area at all.  As someone in a regular cabin, I am disappointed that I no longer have the option of paying for the Sanctuary, which also means that I no longer have access to an adults only pool on the Sun.  Luckily, I am going when most kids should be in school, so hopefully the other pools won't be too bad.   

[FLAlaska]

2 minutes ago, rebeccac said:

 

Personally, I don't think that the Sanctuary has been devalued at all since nobody outside of a Sanctuary cabin will be able to get into the area at all.  As someone in a regular cabin, I am disappointed that I no longer have the option of paying for the Sanctuary, which also means that I no longer have access to an adults only pool on the Sun.  Luckily, I am going when most kids should be in school, so hopefully the other pools won't be too bad.   

There used to be a suite only area in the Sanctuary, this , from my understanding , will be eliminated.

For those of us that booked Suites before the change announcements it definately was devalued. When they announced the changes, they gave access to the Sanctuary to those that had booked Reserve Minis which became Sanctuary Minis. This was at no additional cost to them. Suite folks paid extra for that perk and we were given zero compensation but more people and now more crowded dining.

[rebeccac]

7 minutes ago, FLAlaska said:

There used to be a suite only area in the Sanctuary, this , from my understanding , will be eliminated.

For those of us that booked Suites before the change announcements it definately was devalued. When they announced the changes, they gave access to the Sanctuary to those that had booked Reserve Minis which became Sanctuary Minis. This was at no additional cost to them. Suite folks paid extra for that perk and we were given zero compensation but more people and now more crowded dining.

 

From what I could tell, the suite only Sanctuary area was far too small to accommodate all the suite passengers, so now you get the whole area with only 75 other cabins able to enter instead of the entire ship getting the opportunity.  Seems like a good deal to me, but what do I know my budget does not allow for me to book a suite.    

[Suite Susie]

1 hour ago, rebeccac said:

 

Personally, I don't think that the Sanctuary has been devalued at all since nobody outside of a Sanctuary cabin will be able to get into the area at all.  As someone in a regular cabin, I am disappointed that I no longer have the option of paying for the Sanctuary, which also means that I no longer have access to an adults only pool on the Sun.  Luckily, I am going when most kids should be in school, so hopefully the other pools won't be too bad.   

I agree with you that there should be an adults only area on the ship available to all categories of cabins and you should be able to pay to come into The Sanctuary. This was the original intention last year when we booked before the ship was finished. TBH the whole Sun design is really bad and they now plan on making so many changes. The Sanctuary will be overwhelmed with all these extra Sanctuary mini suites and balcony guests and it will become a towel race early morning to bag a place. There were not enough sunbeds for all the full suite guests in the first place. We are on Sun next month before these changes take place, so will enjoy it while we can. We have now decided to cancel our two Sun Princess cruises for next year and will be moving on to another line. Hope you have a great cruise though. 

[dog]

5 minutes ago, Suite Susie said:

I agree with you that there should be an adults only area on the ship available to all categories of cabins and you should be able to pay to come into The Sanctuary. This was the original intention last year when we booked before the ship was finished. TBH the whole Sun design is really bad and they now plan on making so many changes. The Sanctuary will be overwhelmed with all these extra Sanctuary mini suites and balcony guests and it will become a towel race early morning to bag a place. There were not enough sunbeds for all the full suite guests in the first place. We are on Sun next month before these changes take place, so will enjoy it while we can. We have now decided to cancel our two Sun Princess cruises for next year and will be moving on to another line. Hope you have a great cruise though. 

Let us know how busy it is and if you like anything.

[reedprincess]

1 hour ago, rebeccac said:

 

Personally, I don't think that the Sanctuary has been devalued at all since nobody outside of a Sanctuary cabin will be able to get into the area at all.  As someone in a regular cabin, I am disappointed that I no longer have the option of paying for the Sanctuary, which also means that I no longer have access to an adults only pool on the Sun.  Luckily, I am going when most kids should be in school, so hopefully the other pools won't be too bad.   

While there's no adults only pool, specifically - there is a lovely adults only space, with shade and bar, and hot tubs, forward of the Dome, the Seaview Terrace area. Confirmed multiple times that it's AO.  Photos and reviews are.lovely...and access to the Dome small pool... 

 

Edited August 12 by reedprincess

[vjmatty]

26 minutes ago, Suite Susie said:

I agree with you that there should be an adults only area on the ship available to all categories of cabins and you should be able to pay to come into The Sanctuary. This was the original intention last year when we booked before the ship was finished. TBH the whole Sun design is really bad and they now plan on making so many changes. The Sanctuary will be overwhelmed with all these extra Sanctuary mini suites and balcony guests and it will become a towel race early morning to bag a place. There were not enough sunbeds for all the full suite guests in the first place. We are on Sun next month before these changes take place, so will enjoy it while we can. We have now decided to cancel our two Sun Princess cruises for next year and will be moving on to another line. Hope you have a great cruise though. 

I’d recommend waiting until you’re actually on the Sun before canceling next year’s bookings, since you’re only talking about a month before you get the actual experience.  Suite have been getting decent reviews from what I’ve seen. 

[Suite Susie]

2 hours ago, rebeccac said:

 

From what I could tell, the suite only Sanctuary area was far too small to accommodate all the suite passengers, so now you get the whole area with only 75 other cabins able to enter instead of the entire ship getting the opportunity.  Seems like a good deal to me, but what do I know my budget does not allow for me to book a suite.    

There are currently about 70 Signature suites, so 140 guests that were supposed to have use of the Sanctuary, with use of not just the separate Suite area, and they were going to sell any spaces on the day if there was room. With another 75 cabins or so given access, a high percentage of people will now not get a space. Basically once again Princess move the goal posts after you have booked. I hope one day you will have the opportunity to try a Suite, it is a great experience on most ships, but I don’t think it will be on the Sun once these changes come into effect. 

[dog]

Any photos I’ve seen of the Sun sanctuary have plenty of empty spots. This will most likely change when it gets to Florida- I can see the chair hogs already.

I have a D0-aft and a S4 suite and we will not be using the sanctuary on sea days.

[CalTexCruiser]

20 hours ago, Suite Susie said:

TBH it was bad design to put these two speciality restaurants in part of the buffet, but to move this all around so soon is really bad. We have a booking for a Full Suite (S2) for next Autumn. When we booked we were promised the Signature restaurant only for Suite guests and exclusive use of the Sanctuary apart from paying guests who would only get in if space is available. Sounds as if we won’t be getting either of these benefits.  Sanctuary class is devaluing the full suite experience. I think it is a good move for those in the mini suites and balconies that book Sanctuary class, but for full suites it is not. If this had been announced before we booked, we would never have considered this cruise and will almost certainly be cancelling, particularly if the Signature restaurant is moved and combined into a Reserve restaurant.  

 

Princess should have comped the Premier package upgrade (from Plus package) to full suite passengers once they decided to make these changes and devalued the suite experience.  And for those full suite passengers who already paid for the Premier package, give them an OBC equal to the difference.

 

I got a sweet casino deal on my Vista suite (formerly Penthouse suite) but I can see why someone who paid full price would want to cancel in light of the substantial devaluation.  

 

I certainly wouldn't pay the elevated prices I see nowadays for full suites on the Sun.

 

 

[Wishing on a star]

I also recommended that I would not cancel the Sun until I saw exactly what the experience might be on this upcoming cruise.  (I do not know what the Final Payment Date is on those future cruises)

 

I was VERY happy to see that the SeaView Terrace has, at times, been an Adult Only area.

BUT,  here is the caveat.   In other examples, when the number of kids onboard has been hight, due to logistics...  Adult areas seem to have ben either open to kids, or simply not really enforced.  I could definitely see this happening when the Sun gets to FLL !!!!

[Wishing on a star]

FLAlaska,  I see what you are thinking, but I find your reasoning to be flawed.

The Suites NEVER had exclusive access to the Sanctuary. (only one very small 'Signature' area)

Yes, those few who just happened to be lucky and have booked before the changes were announced were grandfathered in.    (I have no problem with that)

The number of guests in the Sanctuary, at any one given time, could be fewer than the number of guests, on the whole ship, who might pay for daily access.

There will always be somebody who finds something to complain about.

Edited August 12 by Wishing on a star

[vjmatty]

39 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

FLAlaska,  I see what you are thinking, but I find your reasoning to be flawed.

The Suites NEVER had exclusive access to the Sanctuary. (only one very small 'Signature' area)

Yes, those few who just happened to be lucky and have booked before the changes were announced were grandfathered in.    (I have no problem with that)

The number of guests in the Sanctuary, at any one given time, could be fewer than the number of guests, on the whole ship, who might pay for daily access.

There will always be somebody who finds something to complain about.

I think some are overestimating the potential crowding in the Sanctuary, especially when considering that there are less than 20 DO category rooms and about 50 reserve minis. The tiny suite section of the Sanctuary has been expanded to include the whole thing, and as you said, there is no longer a paid option for the Sanctuary. People are also worried about the dining room, but the dining room size for Sanctuary class has increased at least by double. 

[keldaria]

15 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

I think some are overestimating the potential crowding in the Sanctuary, especially when considering that there are less than 20 DO category rooms and about 50 reserve minis. The tiny suite section of the Sanctuary has been expanded to include the whole thing, and as you said, there is no longer a paid option for the Sanctuary. People are also worried about the dining room, but the dining room size for Sanctuary class has increased at least by double. 

 

I'm not overly concerned about the sanctuary. I do feel a little miffed that the suite exclusive area has been removed but overall the combined area of the sanctuary should be able to handle most of the guests in question. Keep in mind that before when the sanctuary was a first come first served, rush and pay to enter option, you almost always had it full and when people paid special for the experience they tended to hang around all day just to make the most of their expense. Now you have a limited number of cabins who have it by default. Not everyone in this class of cabin is going to want to make use of the sanctuary and because its a built in perk, they will be less incentivized to rush there in the morning and hang around to "get their moneys worth for the day". They will be more likely to come and go as they please like the normal pool deck which can ebb and flow with visitors during the day. There will be some busy days that leaves them too full for everyone to enjoy but I expect that to occur less than a typical sanctuary experience where they would get booked up and unable to allow more in.

 

With that being said, the loss of all but one of the suite only areas does suck. People who booked felt like they were paying extra for exclusivity in these areas only to have that exclusivity taken away. In another thread there was much debate about if a sky suite SEM could help a sky suite guest get non-suite guests into the suite restaurant. The general conclusion was it wasn't possible and a even borderline disrespectful to even ask for such a thing since the non-suite guests didn't pay for that perk. These changes effectively feel like that whole situation where those not paying for suite perks just got access to something we paid for. Even if they can accommodate everyone in the sanctuary and signature restaurant it still overall feels like the suite experience has been degraded. 

 

I'm still looking forward to my cruise next April and I think I'm over the hump where I thought I might cancel due to the changes. I just need to keep telling myself I still have access to these areas even if they aren't as exclusive as they once were.

[JGmf]

1 hour ago, CalTexCruiser said:

I got a sweet casino deal on my Vista suite (formerly Penthouse suite) but I can see why someone who paid full price would want to cancel in light of the substantial devaluation.  

 

I certainly wouldn't pay the elevated prices I see nowadays for full suites on the Sun.

 

Totally agree  That said, regardless of the ship, there's not a lot of perks to a suite on Princess, except the size of the room...at least relative to other top tier room categories on other cruise lines.  So Princess is ratcheting back to their norm on the Sun.

 

19 minutes ago, keldaria said:

Not everyone in this class of cabin is going to want to make use of the sanctuary and because its a built in perk, they will be less incentivized to rush there in the morning and hang around to "get their moneys worth for the day"

 

Agree with this as well.  I'd go further.  I'm in a Sanctuary mini suite on the Sun this January.  My wife loves all that pool and sun lounger stuff, hence paying for the upgrade.  To me, it's a screaming bore, so count me and other like-minded folks on not spending any notable hours in the Sanctuary crowding the space like its a college bar on a Friday night.  Everyone take a deep breath...it'll be fine.

[vjmatty]

35 minutes ago, keldaria said:

 

In another thread there was much debate about if a sky suite SEM could help a sky suite guest get non-suite guests into the suite restaurant. The general conclusion was it wasn't possible and an even borderline disrespectful to even ask for such a thing since the non-suite guests didn't pay for that perk. These changes effectively feel like that whole situation where those not paying for suite perks just got access to something we paid for.

On some Celebrity ships they’re experimenting with a pay-extra option for non-suites to use the Retreat amenities such as Luminae and the Retreat lounge. From what I understand, it is intended for those with connecting rooms to a suite so families can eat together, but you can imagine the uproar it’s causing. 

[abouna]

3 hours ago, dog said:

Any photos I’ve seen of the Sun sanctuary have plenty of empty spots. This will most likely change when it gets to Florida- I can see the chair hogs already.

I have a D0-aft and a S4 suite and we will not be using the sanctuary on sea days.

We just got off the Sun, second week we bid and were upgraded to a suite. Used the Sanctuary and it was great (although our 14 year old couldn't use it). There was a separate area in the front for suites only but neither that nor the other part was ever crowded and was especially great on sea days when the pools were packed.