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Ship Reviews

Recently off the Sun Princess and here is my view on a few things . For some readers it may sound a bit negative but we did enjoy our voyage just missed some of the things were we’re used to in the past. We were just off the Enchanted which seemed to be a night and day difference. This was my 46th sailing with Princess and we do have more voyages on other lines with large passenger capacity as well. Arrival at the port and seeing her up close and personal was an awesome site. She is a stunner on the outside and beautifully appointed once on board. Embarkation was super quick and easy. This ship was clean as could be, everywhere, which is hard to do. We dropped off our carryons and off to the buffet. Our inside cabin was ready and more than adequate at 11:30. The new bathroom shower has pluses and minuses. Loved the glass shower door but needed to use caution on opening the shower door or hitting your feet or legs with the door. Don’t ask how I know. The mini fridge although the same size works much better and no longer makes a ton of heat with the door closed. Decent amount of storage and the main closet now has a light in the hanger bar inside the closet. There are motion lights on the night stands that can be bothersome at times. The reading lights on the wall were handy unless your cabin mate used there’s. You have to try it to understand. It was quiet for sleeping and the steward was very good. The cabins high tech thermostat took a little practice to get adjusted to the bride’s liking but worked well. The Elite mini bar no longer provides small liquor bottle’s, now it’s 2 beers, canned seltzer and some premixed canned beverages, bottled water and soda. The buffet took a little getting used to now that you cannot touch anything other than plates or silverware. Overall it’s not bad but no juice or ice machine. None to hardly any severs providing bar service, coffee or juice when you find a place to sit. Mornings the giant communal coffee pot was empty for a while but refilled often once noticed. This left pax to search out the next pot of Java elsewhere. The orange juice was in pitchers near the coffee and was from a box. It did not taste like the OJ I usually find on Princess or anywhere else. All tables have pitchers of ice water you just needed to find a glass. If you just wanted ice for your mug or glass you had a large window in each area to wait for it. Sometimes quick and sometimes not. It quickly became obvious the ship was under staffed. Bar service anywhere besides at a bar was poor to non existent. The food in the buffet was good and lots of choices. New offerings were pre plated salads, sandwiches and fruit salads. You could have used an extra set of hands at times wring trying to access something behind small doors with other things in your hands. Reminds me of the old automat days and trays would be a welcome addition to the various buffets. Giving away my age I guess. The aft most buffet called American Diner offered root-beer floats and milkshakes at dinner time until 10pm. This was a hit. I am seeing much more of the extra charges for things that were always included. As far as the dining room goes, there was always a line to enter even though we had a set time and table. They wanted you to check in before heading to your table. This could be a 20 minute debacle some nights. Once seated it was guess your best on when you would be able to place your order, obtain your standard beverages and receive your first course. Again the under staffing was very evident. By the third evening the maître D was helping bus tables as the complaints became more evident in our section. They were trying and pleasantly smiling but somehow just missing the target. Unfortunately they were overwhelmed and again understaffed and very pleasant. Forgetting some of the meal courses and even coffee at the end of the meal. We didn’t need to over eat anyway. With a 5pm reservation and not getting out till 7:30 it made it difficult to get a seat at a show venue. The Sun Princess is huge but has been cut into very small spaces. The show rooms or show spaces only held 200 people or so. Get there an hour early or do something else. What little entertainment we saw was talented people and very good. Formal nights were not so formal but that’s how it is these days. No chocolate covered strawberries or hors d’oeuvres that usually went to the Elite cabins on formal nights. No more chocolates or mints on the pillow at bed time, no welcome back cookies at embarkation day, no welcome home voice mail waiting for you in the cabin and no towel animals. Lots of little things are now gone. Maybe it was just my cabin but others on board noticed these as well. Not sure if the Carnival brand is seeping into the Princess brand. The casino was way too small and you had a hard time finding a machine or table game seat. Some complained of too much smoke. Sea days were best if you wanted to make your donation instead of sunning yourself on deck. You couldn’t get bar service in the casino unless you got up to get it yourself. The pit boss was being ignored by what few servers were available as well. Only a tiny rolling bar at one of the entrances. Another area where under staffing was evident. Up on the pool deck which was always busy unless in port you could visit the bar for a cool drink. The chair hogs were out in force at 6am and even on port days they were holding chairs for later. Not once did I see a crew member remove anything. Then the late risers would be shocked that they couldn’t find a preferred location lounger at 11:30. The movies under the stars screen was not used enough each day, around noon a reggae band would play but only reggae music. There were a few roaming bar servers at pool side but again they need more staff. We did not utilize the specialty restaurants as reservations available were scarce. We have do e and enjoyed them in the past. The sanctuary looked nice but we did not access it. Princess has the best WiFi at sea. We had no issues and the 4 device package worked well for us. The free ice cream by the pool is gone, you have to go from deck 17 to deck 9 for the other free food offerings. Again the buffet is deck 9 so it’s a long haul from the sun to the buffet. The tacos by the pool were a hit, pizza and burgers were good as always. The elevators are much improved as many have mentioned. The screens for finding places were a big help and intuitive. Since we drove to the port, disembarkation was to be relaxed for us and it was. The whole process was excellent. It was easy to get an elevator to get us and our carryons to our Elite lounge where once we arrived we were told we can exit the ship at our leisure. The luggage was in a huge area but in much smaller sections of luggage. This made it very easy to find your suitcases and get it out to head over to customs. Customs was a snap and we were out of the terminal by 8:30 am. The crew for the most part was warm and welcoming and made the best effort to acknowledge you when they were near. We read the reviews before sailing and chose to see for ourselves as that’s the way it should be. Everyone should try it for themselves. In closing we had a good time, we did notice things were different on the ship. We did miss a few things we were used to. Again we enjoyed or vacation but will not sail on the Sun class ships again.

Great ship. I love how there are so many food options spread out in so many different parts of the ship. If you're on the top deck pool, grab excellent options on the Lido Deck. If you're at the pool in the back of the boat, grab something from the promenade deck. The dome offers a quiet place to read and relax. The front of the ship has an adult area that offers amazing views. And I loved the energy and views offed at the Piazza. I know there's some people who have bashed this boat but we had a great time and loved all of the unique areas of this ship. The food on this boat was so good. We updated a few meals at the specialty restaurants and weren't disappointed. Such a great trip. Oh and the medallions make it so easy to open door and get around the ship.

Ok - my first cruise was on board Ruby Princess, and the last two were on Majestic and Discovery - all lovely ships. Sun Princess was my latest, and being part of the Sphere Class, I was pretty excited to check it out. But i had various comments: Rooms are beautiful - we had a mini-suite so it was awesome and huge. Buffet too small - not kidding. The Eatery had great choices, but.... it's small. Elevators still a bit wonky- and didn't always seem to work. What’s with shore excursions and future cruise locations? These were on Deck 9 and not even in a dedicated area - it just seemed plunked down next to the International Cafe. Arena too small- they "said" it held 990. Prove it, please :) Plant based items are nothing more than mashed potatoes - this was really bad. Sausage? No. Mashed potatoes in the shape of a sausage. A plant-based burger? Oh lord no. it was mashed potatoes on a bun. Yikes. Casino slots too tight - I'm not "too" surprised. But really, Princess? Weird layout - can’t go across ship on certain decks w/o going up and down - seems like several steps back to ships of olde. Outdoor movies and sound are perfect - gotta say this was great! The "renovated" pickleball court replaced the now-dismantled and never opened play area. A pity. That's why this ship is conflicted. The design was very different from past Princess ships - and it's obvious Princess doesn't quite know what they want it to BE. Specialty Dining- Crown Grill was just disappointing. My filet mignon wasn't really tender. The dessert - per our stateroom TV- was to include Cherries Jubilee with Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream - yum! Nope. This wasn't the ice cream available at Crown Grill. And the waiter had no clue what Ben & Jerry's ice cream was. Yikes. Love at Britto- great location on Deck 17/aft. But the charge was dear at $79 per, and though the food, service, and presentation was spot on? It was almost empty. I fear this one simply won't last. The Sphere- ok. Beautiful area; said to hold 220 people. I only saw it used for Elite members to meet the Captain one night. Where was the entertainment? Princess, did you give up on programming here? Arena - the 3 production shows were great and highly energetic -and at least 15 cast members per show- amazing! Good on Princess! Finally- we'd often hit up Coffee Currents for a morning coffee - the poor guy working there was just dour. Not pleasant, just perfunctory service only. I felt he really didn't want to be there. Sad. Reminded me of similar service I'd received on a MSC cruise at their coffee bar a few years ago- it just wasn't a great feeling. Stateroom- this was our first time in a mini-suite. WOW. HUGE bathroom, HUGE shower, HUGE room overall. Our room steward, Raymond, was just spot-on! Nothing but good things to say about our 2x/day service. Go Raymond! The vessel - general comments. Plenty of outdoor spaces with lots of places to eat. The cruise director seemed pretty sharp, but really hard to find around the ship as he only appeared at shows and wasn't really seen meeting and greeting guests. But this ship had a few decks that just didn't go thru - you'd have to go up, then back down, to get from one end of the ship to the other. Interesting Lotus Spa issue- they had Lotus Spa on decks 5 and 6 AND deck 18 (!). Make up your mind, please, Sun Princess!. Finally- art gallery. did this explain why the artwork was pretty- well- banal on board? It seemed like they really cheaped out on paintings and sculptures. O'Malley's - service was slow and frankly the food was disappointing (and we were given a dinner menu at lunch - what??). Alfredo's - this was the biggest challenge. We ordered a 1/2 and 1/2 pizza- margharita and pepperroni. We asked for roasted garlic on the whole thing. When we got the pie? No garlic. We told the waiter when it was served; he took it back and brought it back with fresh, uncooked garlic added (!). Yikes. We told him we wanted roasted garlic (which was available on other pizzas btw), we got the pizza - finally - but with cooked (not roasted) garlic. Oh boy. Princess- roasted garlic is VERY different from fresh garlic. So our casual dining was just disappointing. But we did like all included dining options and a special shout-out for the overpriced Love by Britto! Finally- we enjoyed the trip, absolutely. I think I'd go again on Sun Princess - but given the recent restaurant relocations made by Princess- and removal of the play area on Deck 18 tells me Princess is having an identity crisis- so what do you want to be, Princess? I suggest focusing on your normal demographic - you're not really for kids, right?