Balcony Cabins on Sun Princess

[Sailaway John]

Hi all out there!

Is there anyone that could give a run down on the balcony cabins on Sun Princess. My wife and I are looking at a balcony cabin for the Sun princess sailing to Asia in June. We have sailed on the Pacific Dawn in a balcony cabin but wondering what the Sun Princess cabins were like.

[getzmictzer]

Hi all out there!

Is there anyone that could give a run down on the balcony cabins on Sun Princess. My wife and I are looking at a balcony cabin for the Sun princess sailing to Asia in June. We have sailed on the Pacific Dawn in a balcony cabin but wondering what the Sun Princess cabins were like.

 

I was on the Sun Princess in April 08 and found the balcony cabins quite small, you lose room in the cabin due to you having a balcony, the balconies are also quite small as well, but are sufficent.

 

I would not travel any other way, the balconies are great for early morning sun rises etc. The room and balconies are a 3.5 rating for me.

 

Hope this helps.:)

[stevedonna]

Hi

 

I dont have an answer for you as I have only cruised once and that was an outside cabin without balcony on Pacific Sun - but I understand the decision dilemma - We are booked on the same cruise as you, we had originally tentatively booked a BA balcony cabin - but changed to an II interior on Riviera deck as the price was too temptingly cheap - figured it gave a few grand extra spending money to spoil ourselves with !! I have set up a roll call for our cruise. Only 145 days to go !!

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[dropanchor]

Hi all out there!

Is there anyone that could give a run down on the balcony cabins on Sun Princess. My wife and I are looking at a balcony cabin for the Sun princess sailing to Asia in June. We have sailed on the Pacific Dawn in a balcony cabin but wondering what the Sun Princess cabins were like.

I have just come back from a Melb- NZ -Melb on the Sun the ships are a little similar, Pacific Dawn is really the old Regal Princess and had a few re furbishments but she is also around 10% smaller but both the Sun & dawn have a lot more balconys.............It was the first time I was to go on a ship that didnt have glass partions for the balconys and while it does enclose you some it gives you lots MORE privacy.......having said that they are not big they do have sun chair with enough room but not sun lounges as with the bigger ship of the 5 star class in the Princess fleet. The cabins are better laid out in both Sun & Dawn and if you are looking for a little more polish in almost everyway I think you will find it on Sun...............I have just booked a 28 day in Nov on Dawn so from my point of veiw I am happy to get back on one in this class....................if you have any particular questions please ask them and I will answer best I can-Bruce

[suexxx]

Hi Dropanchor. DH and I are on the next SUN PRINCESS sailing. Are you going to do a review and photos? I have a few questions if I may. 1--What time did you get to wharf? 2--Did you purchase coffee or soda card. If so what was the cost? 3-- What deck were you on? 4-- What was the food and service like? I hope you had a great time. Thanks Suexxx

[dropanchor]

Hi Dropanchor. DH and I are on the next SUN PRINCESS sailing. Are you going to do a review and photos? I have a few questions if I may. 1--What time did you get to wharf? 2--Did you purchase coffee or soda card. If so what was the cost? 3-- What deck were you on? 4-- What was the food and service like? I hope you had a great time. Thanks Suexxx

Hi Sue,no problems : I did a review and it is posted on CC under Sun Princess...its not long but to the point. if you have any other questions please lets know and I will answer them if I can

Photo's I didnt do sorry............

1. We got there and boarded around 3.30..........and went straight thru,very quick ........one word here...if you are having someone drop you off they will be able to drive onto the dock and drop you off NOT PARK.......like a drivethru only HOWEVER ONLY disable have this service on return ( and taxi's) so you have to park in the dockside street and there is plenty, for this entire port side of things we are well set up compared to many other ports around the world and while far from a world cruise centre we can thank the Spirit of Tasmania for this

2. I normally dont but YES we did this time, one of each was a total cost of $90 ( I think it was 55 for soda and 35 coffee) if going again I would do it again - 3. A633 and 4. The ONLY disappointment is it is not Personal Choice as with the USA ships but having said that if you are happy for the full dining every meals and you get a good table of people you will love it...the food is as good as it gets and you will not have any complaint I would thinkg....the service is what you expecxt from Princess .............. EXCELLENT !!!

and finally........YES we enjoyed it to the point we arrived back to do it again (book) next year on Diamond Princess however her dates and ports didnt suit us out of Melbourne so we are going on Dawn circumnavigating Australia 28th Nov..................but I would do the SAME cruise in a heartbeat again...........you will LOVE NZ...it isnt anymore just a group of islands south anymore ololololol:D

[suexxx]

Hi Dropanchor. Thanks so much for your quick reply. Will find your review and read it. We will be dropped of by family and need to get taxi on our return. Do you know if we can order one at the wharf or are they there waiting. Any other tips you can give me that I can pass on to my roll call buddies would be great. Thanks again. Suexxx

[dropanchor]

Hi Dropanchor. Thanks so much for your quick reply. Will find your review and read it. We will be dropped of by family and need to get taxi on our return. Do you know if we can order one at the wharf or are they there waiting. Any other tips you can give me that I can pass on to my roll call buddies would be great. Thanks again. Suexxx

 

Hi SueXXX I am sure I have answered this but yes there is heaps of taxi's .

I see you are only a couple of days out so go have a ball ololololol I am sure you will

do me a favour will you please

there is a Barman up in Horzion on deck 12, a Phillipino by the name of Ulyssus ( its his bar) ...........tell him that you know someone who will have him transfered to the Island Princess if he doesnt look after you on the cruise :D and after he gets rid of the big smile on his face, he's really a nice guy - Bruce

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

We have just returned on the Sun Princess and originally booked a balcony cabin. We upgraded to a mini suite about a month before the cruise and we are very thankful we did. The mini suites are double the size of the balcony cabins with full bathroom with spa bath separate toilet and w in robe with double width balcony with 2 sunlounges and table. 2 tvs and separate lounge room. Very comfortable and very roomy. If you get the opportunity to upgrade do it. It is worth the small extra they charged us. As a result we booked our next cruise for 2010 on the diamond in a mini suite as well. We saw the size of the balcony suite and I think I would have gone stir crazy.

[Johhno]

Hi Billy and Charlie's Mum,

According to Tiger and Apollo you also liked 2 deserts on your last cruise.

Is this the person I think it is ?

Johhno ,from Perth

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Hi Johnno, sure is, how are you and why do you go under Johnno?

[suexxx]

Hi. Suexxx here. What table were you at? Peter and I were on table 114 late sitting and we had Tiger and Appolo also. Weren't they great. Peter loves jelly. The 1st night he asked but no jelly. From the 2nd night the boys bought jelly every evening. By the end of the cruise the whole 7 of us were eating it. Did you have a good time? We did. Will do another 1 in 2yrs. NZ maybe. Seems to be a good trip from what I have read. Suexxx

[dropanchor]

well ya back and had a ball aye Suexxx, very glad to hear it, did you get my message before leaving to say hello to Ulysuss ?

-Bruce

[Flipper133]

We originally booked a balcony cabin. We upgraded to a mini suite about a month before the cruise and we are very thankful we did. The mini suites are double the size of the balcony cabins with full bathroom with spa bath separate toilet and w in robe with double width balcony with 2 sunlounges and table. 2 tvs and separate lounge room. Very comfortable and very roomy. If you get the opportunity to upgrade do it. It is worth the small extra they charged us. As a result we booked our next cruise for 2010 on the diamond in a mini suite as well. We saw the size of the balcony suite and I think I would have gone stir crazy.

 

We did exactly the same. We have sailed on Sapphire (Sister to Diamond) twice in a balcony cabin. Found them great and the balcony quite roomy. We were on Baja, but cabins on Caribe have enormous balconies.

 

So when we originally booked on the Sun we naturally went for a standard balcony cabin. Following subsequent research I became somewaht nervouse about the size of the balconies so we upgraded to an AC mini suite. These are effectively two balcony cabins stitched together - balcony is same depth (narrow) only longer. We then decided to go for one of the 6 AB Minis which are aft, and managed to snag B750. Apparently this cabin (and its Baja twin B755) are unique. They were originally built as full suites (as per Caribe and Dolphin decks) but someone got concerned about the exhaust ducts located between the two cabins and so they did a quick redesign and turned them into Mini suites. (Main difference was loss of some balcony space). It turned out that there was no problem, so on subsequent Sun class ships (Dawn and Sea) B750 and B755 were set up as full suites.

 

This has caused quite a deal of confusion on some TA sites that use a generic deck plan for Sun Class ships.

 

BTW, my research revealed that at the time when the Sun Princess was being designed its original design followed traditional trends of very few balconies and mainly large picture windows for the oceanview cabins. In 1995 a revolutionary change in design trends called for a lot more balconies, so whilst it was being built many of the SP Oceanview cabins were converted into balcony cabins by simply adding a glass wall and door and converting what was originally the window into an openair balcony. It meant a loss in inside cabin space but overall still the same.

 

The balcony cabins on the Sapphire and Princess were built from scratch with this design trend, and I am told that the cabins were in fact prefabricated and then slid into place and bolted down. All very clever.

 

cheers

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Hi. Suexxx here. What table were you at? Peter and I were on table 114 late sitting and we had Tiger and Appolo also. Weren't they great. Peter loves jelly. The 1st night he asked but no jelly. From the 2nd night the boys bought jelly every evening. By the end of the cruise the whole 7 of us were eating it. Did you have a good time? We did. Will do another 1 in 2yrs. NZ maybe. Seems to be a good trip from what I have read. Suexxx

 

Hi Suexxx. Johhno and wife and my husband and I were on table 114 but on the early setting. You weren't the lady I was talking to the first day waiting in line at the pursers desk were you? The lady was wanting to know the cabin no because she was upgraded and didn't know her cabin no. We were laughing because we thought we were on the same table but realised it was different sittings.

[suexxx]

Hi Billy and Charlies Mum. No it wasn't me you spoke to. Did you enjoy your selves? DH and I had a great time. Will do another 1 in 2yrs. Suexxx

[dropanchor]

suexxx , did you see my previous meesage and say G'day to my favorite barman.....or should I say coffee maker in the Horizon, Ulysuss ?- Bruce

[tazza]

We have just returned on the Sun Princess and originally booked a balcony cabin. We upgraded to a mini suite about a month before the cruise and we are very thankful we did. The mini suites are double the size of the balcony cabins with full bathroom with spa bath separate toilet and w in robe with double width balcony with 2 sunlounges and table. 2 tvs and separate lounge room. Very comfortable and very roomy. If you get the opportunity to upgrade do it. It is worth the small extra they charged us. As a result we booked our next cruise for 2010 on the diamond in a mini suite as well. We saw the size of the balcony suite and I think I would have gone stir crazy.

 

Hi there, Billy and Charlie's Mum, please tell me how one goes about getting an upgrade? Do you wait till closer to the time? What was the extra charge? I thought it was a lot more! Sounds fabulous.

[suexxx]

Hi dropanchor. So sorry I haven't replied . Yes I found your favourite barman and as you described he still has a big smile. They must get sore jaws by the end of each day. He said to say hello. When and where are you cruising to next? Suexxx

[dropanchor]

Hi dropanchor. So sorry I haven't replied . Yes I found your favourite barman and as you described he still has a big smile. They must get sore jaws by the end of each day. He said to say hello. When and where are you cruising to next? Suexxx

Glad you had a great time, we are about 5 weeks only away from the Island Princess ( hence the "in" joke with him) leaving Fort Lauderdale thru the Panama and up to Whittier in Alaska and as you alreay know the only other one for the year will be on Dawn around Australia in Oct/Nov, hope to catc hyou one day-Bruce

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Hi there, Billy and Charlie's Mum, please tell me how one goes about getting an upgrade? Do you wait till closer to the time? What was the extra charge? I thought it was a lot more! Sounds fabulous.

 

Sorry it's taken so long to reply. We received a phone call from our Travel Agent about a month before we sailed asking us if we wanted to upgrade to a mini suite. It cost us $250 each to do so, but, it was worth every cent. If you get the chance to do this - do it. The rooms are twice the size. We met a couple who were offered the upgrade and declined. They came and saw our cabin and were really kicking themselves for not upgrading.

 

We met another couple on the cruise who did the same as us (Johhno) and I think they were happy about it also.

 

We were on baja deck right near the lifts and stairs and laundromat. Perfect position. We have booked our next cruise in the same proximity of the ship.

 

If you can get near the laundromat you are laughing. They get REALLY busy toward the end of the cruise and the line up is amazing. We used to jump in when we had the chance and because we were right near ours we could pop in and out and keep an eye on it, whereas everyone else used to more or less camp out in the laundry for a few hours while their loads were being washed. Also handy when you wanted to iron something. Just pop over in your complimentary bath robes, do it and pop back to the cabin.

 

Hope this helps.