Sox Fan Cruiser

I love how they said "Private dinning room with no waiting". Tell that the folks currently in Reserve Collection. There was waiting every night. That's what made the Wheelhouse bar so crowded! And kudos to the bar staff there! I've never seen Princess bartenders serve drinks so fast. They are the best on the ship!!

We stopped in Santorini on April 14th using the Santorini tender boats. They took Princess shore excursions to the far port as they boarded buses to then go on their excursions and then took the rest of us to the cable car port. All shore excursions were supposed to drop their passengers at the top of the cable cars to get back to the ship but since the line was so long the took some back by bus to the other dock and they ran tenders from there as well. They even pulled up anchor and moved the ship close to the dock to make the tender ride shorter! I've never experienced that before. And again, we were the only big cruise ship in port! Full disclosure: There was one smaller ship that got there in the afternoon and was saying until 11 so they weren't in our queue to leave the island. To answer your other question, tendering seemed as normal as any other ship. We were the first ones off the ship on the first tender (a suite perk) but didn't notice any difference either to the island or back to the ship.

But now that I look at the article they did say for "tendering reasons" so I am confused too. But I really think that Santorini is because of the cable car experience when there are a lot of ships in port.

I was on the Sun Princess April 8th voyage and we went to Santorini using tenders. It is not a tendering issue. (And please don't respond that we didn't use the ships tenders so they must be broken.) It's a cable car issue in Santorini.

Yeah, Princess has been pulling out of Santorini because of the cable cars. It's a mess when there are a few ships in port. We were the only ship in port and things started to get tense with the people waiting in line. The long waits back to the ship leave a bad taste in peoples' mouths and they come back to the ship angry. Princess is trying to avoid that negative experience. But will STILL have never gotten and explanation for why they are skipping Kotor. Very frustrating.

Bar is still Montenegro but I understand what you meant.

We skipped Kotor and went to Bar instead. The change was last minute and they had excursion online for us to book before the cruise. They also had excursions in our cabin when we arrived. No one complained that there was a “mad rush” to get tours. It was fine. We stayed on the ship as our Kotor guide told us that Bar was nothing special. Most people coming back confirmed that. Kotor was too far away to try and visit even though our guide was willing to come pick us up. We tendered in Santorini. There is nothing wrong with the ships tendering system because they could not sail if there was as it is also part of their emergency system. The landing is not for suite guests but an open area for all folks leaving the ship. There are seats for people to relax and a bar for selling water and other drinks. It’s used for both port stops and tendering. We never see the need for this space because we are never in the huge crowd waiting to go ashore. We always wait for most people to leave the ship and then we walk right off.

I really don't know. The folks need to be tethered as they make their way around the course so maybe that is not set up yet? I mean, they still don't have the prime rib "trolley" in the Signature restaurant even though they are serving it. I think some things haven't made it to the ship yet.

The burgers, pizza, tacos and salads seemed to be an elevated food choice from the other ships. Should be able to satisfy a lot of main pool passengers. I do appreciate the new beeper system for the burger stand so people aren't standing in a long line. I hope they roll that out to the other ships.

Still nothing. Ropes course is not open yet (as of a week ago). One day they were testing out the RollGlider but they were just trying to run the "cart" around the track. Some were succssfull and some where not with them getting "stuck" on the track. Maybe that was the test? But it didn't have anyone on it and didn't even have the swings attached except for one. Not optimistic.

Agreed. There are no facilities there. With Deck 8 and 9 being cabin decks, there is little going on in those white spaces.

Yes. But it wasn’t working on our cruise! 🤪

Check out my extensive walk through of Spellbound: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2998028-sun-princess-spellbound-question/page/6/ And yes, it was $149 per person. We also really enjoyed Teppanyaki. It was something different to do a ship than we have done before. Our table wasn't as "rowdy" as some of the other tables but that was more the passengers than the chef. One warning: Do NOT fill up on the fried rice. They make a ton of it but the meal is served in stages with the meat coming last. The rice was served first, then veggies and then meat. We were already full by the time our meat was served. 🙂

Can I ask that you all take the Sanctuary Collection change to another thread? I was trying to answer specific questions about the current suite experience as I just got off the ship. There are threads already started. Sorry.

It’s the same with Celebrity. The Retreat Sundeck doesn’t accommodate every suite passenger. Some cruises it’s more crowded than others.