Information about Sun Princess

[giginevelyn]

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I am looking for comments from recent cruisers regarding the Sun Princess. We are considering booking an Asia cruise next summer.

 

My questions are:

 

Its an older ship. I was recently on RCCL's "Voyager" and it really bugged me that this ship was so beat up. Tears in fabric on chairs in the formal dining room, and worse:eek: . But, after a couple days I hardly noticed anymore. What is the condition of the Sun? I will be on this ship 21 days and while the draw to this line and ship is purely the itinerary, I can't seem to get the older ship part out of my mind after a less than enchanting cruise on another "older" (and ages since a dry dock visit), ship (the Voyager).

 

This is also considered a "smaller" ship, so I wonder how possible rough seas in the waters of Southeast Asia will feel on this ship. Not sure if the size of the Sun is comparable to the Disney ships (also "smaller"), but we did experience fairly rough seas on a Disney cruise before and it was tolerable.

 

We also have young children who will join us on this cruise (7 and almost 10 at the time). What is the children's program like with Princess? What type of kid's facilities (pool, etc.) does this ship offer?

 

Kind regards,

 

Janiece

[Druke I]

I can't speak to the current condition of Sun Princess, but when we were on her May 04, she was in a very good state of repair.

 

Relative to size and rough water, quality of ride is more a condition of hull's length/breadth/draft ratio (fineness of hull) than it is of size.

 

That said, I think the Sun class handles heavy seas much better than its larger relation, Grand and modified Grand class.

 

I for one don't think a 10 year old ship is old - she is really just entering her prime.

[Toto2Kansas]

Most recent reports would be from our friends down under since the ship has been sailing for Princess out of AU. My understanding is that they are filling the ship to capacity (and then some) and that things are a bit different with the Sun now, compared to when she sailed from the U.S. Things such as shipboard account charged in Australian Dollars instead of American. Plus some things now charged for (from what I have read) that we became used to finding available without charge onboard.

 

As for the way the Sun handles the sea, never had a problem one with that on her, and we have sailed through some rough seas on her in the past.

 

The Sun WAS our favorite ship in the fleet until it went to Australia. You might check the roll call boards and read a bit on what those returning are having to say about how things are being handled differently on her sailing where she is now. It is how I found out a few different things that didn't put a big smile on my face when it came to our favorite ship in the fleet. :(

[giginevelyn]

The Sun WAS our favorite ship in the fleet until it went to Australia. You might check the roll call boards and read a bit on what those returning are having to say about how things are being handled differently on her sailing where she is now. It is how I found out a few different things that didn't put a big smile on my face when it came to our favorite ship in the fleet. :(

 

Where are you reading? There are no current (last 30 days) Roll Calls for Sun Princess:confused:

[mii]

Where are you reading? There are no current (last 30 days) Roll Calls for Sun Princess:confused:

 

I just went into the roll call section and under the Sun there is past roll calls, some in July, June and back. Did you also check Member Reviews on the CC home page.

 

marilyn

[Druke I]

Oddly enough, Roll Calls for Sun Princess have been moved to their own spot, between P&O and Princess. (With it being a Princess ship sailing for P&O out of Australia, I guess Cruise Critic decided it is neither fish nor fowl.)

 

Use the drop-down menu (Forum Jump) at the bottom of the page.

[Kinkacruiser]

She looked very a well maintained and classy when we cruised NZ in Feb 08. Unfortunately, we are not able to experience the huge variety of luxury superliners here. We thought is quite crowded with just over 2000 on board.

 

Looks like she will be based in Aus for a while now...we are blessed.

[boeckli]

Where are you reading? There are no current (last 30 days) Roll Calls for Sun Princess:confused:

 

Sun princess roll calls can be found here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=310 with general discussions here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=30&f=431

(beware there is also a ship named Pacific Sun sailing from Australia - so one needs to be very specific name-wise).

 

We sailed on the shorter Asian itinerary from Fremantle, WA in June and certainly enjoyed the experience. We were also a bit apprehensive regarding her age but the ship was very well maintained and both public areas and our cabin clean and in good order.

 

Seas for the first (and again the last) 2-3 days out of Fremantle can be relatively rough (after all it is winter here during that time) but once in Asian waters it's very smooth. We did not have any rain to contend with (pretty lucky, as usual :D ). Leaving from wintery WA can be quite cool (and blustery/rainy) so you need a bit of layering to accommodate that. Warms up after a couple of days further north.

 

As toto2kansas posted, they have apparently added further capacity to the ship since she came down under and although on our sailing there were a bit over 2000 on board, we did not feel "over-crowded" (I have read about some sailings of up to 2300 when things might get a bit out of hand :eek: )

 

You can see photos from our trip by clicking on the camera smiley in my signature (best in slideshow version).

 

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask :)

 

P.S. Have you looked at cruising with Starcruises from Singapore and/or Hong Kong?

[Ela 2]

Hi Janiece,

 

For simplicity, posts on all cruiseships operating out of Australia have been put on the 'P & O Australia' section. If you have questions about the Sun Princess I suggest you go to that section of the board. You will be welcomed.

 

From what I hear the Sun Princess is in very good condition. We will be sailing on her in 6 weeks' time on a 28 night cruise to Tahiti. I have heard that on the last New Year's Eve cruise there were 2300 passengers aboard, but that would have been unusual because of a large number of children. Apparently the childrens' activities are very good.:):)

 

Evon.