ISABELLA

9 hours ago, Drdarkknight said:

 

 

I can’t believe I’m finally writing this Live From. This trip has been FIVE years in the making. We originally had booked this cruise back in 2019 to go in summer 2020 (can’t remember what ship) but that obviously was cancelled. Once things reopened my family decided to look at rebooking. They found the same itinerary but this time on a new ship called Sun Princess. That was more than 18 months ago and now, tomorrow, I depart for Rome! 

 

I (32F) am travelling with my husband (39M), my sister (29F) and her boyfriend (35M), my parents (60F and 59M) and my aunt and uncle (both in their 60’s). So we have a big group that has certainly added to some of the planning complexities. This is quite the celebration cruise as we celebrate both my parents’ 60th birthdays, my aunt and uncle’s 40th wedding anniversary, and my sister’s 30th birthday (she actually celebrates her birthday in Barcelona). All of us are experienced cruisers with the exception of my husband (he’s done one Princess cruise to Alaska with me last year) and my sister’s boyfriend (total newb). The rest of us have cruised Disney, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Norwegian and Celebrity, though not all together. The closest we got to the bulk of us was a Mediterranean cruise with Royal Caribbean back when I first turned 18. I have been on the most cruises out of everyone and also have the most experience with different cruise lines. 

 

We picked Princess as my family did a Scandinavian cruise with them back in 2019 and my parents loved it. This is my third Princess cruise in the last year (Alaska and Caribbean). I’m very interested to see how Sun Princess is going to work since it’s significantly different from the other Princess ships I have been on (Regal, Sapphire and Caribbean). I don’t feel like I’m particularly married to one cruise line or another. Even when planning this cruise we definitely considered a couple lines.  

 

I also must admit I wasn’t too thrilled with the itinerary initially. I have been lucky to do a ton of travelling in my life so far and so despite how port intensive this cruise is there’s actually no new countries for me. And after the cancellation of Santorini and Kotor there was only barely one new city for me (Istanbul, though I’ve been to Turkey). I was pretty choked and I will discuss more about the rollercoaster ride of waiting to sail in other posts. But I love showing people around and nobody else has been anywhere so I can at least enjoy playing tour guide a bit. And where I have been before I’m trying to get out and see something else or go to another town for the day to keep things different for myself(I.e. skipping Pompeii when we’re in Naples). 

 

It’s a good thing I love playing tour guide because my family are nervous travellers in Europe. I am responsible for planning everything and making sure I know how to get from Point A to B, any cultural considerations such as making sure everyone has appropriate clothes to visit churches, etc. Then they just blindly follow me around. We’ve travelled this way for years and it’s what works for us. 

 

So you can understand my worry when they all decided to fly into Rome two days LATER than my husband and I. I’m interested to see how that pans out but I have given them instructions on how to board the train at the airport, where to switch trains, etc. So we will see Friday if I manage to find them or not. Will be interesting. 

 

As my husband has never been to Rome and I have more vacation days than I can ever reasonably take (thank you overtime!) we decided to take a full three weeks of vacation and spend some time in Rome beforehand. Not to mention I wasn’t keen on flying in the day before the cruise and spending only half a day in Rome. At that point I’d probably have just headed straight to Civitavecchia for the night. 

 

So we fly out Wednesday and the cruise leaves Saturday for two weeks. We will stay an additional four full days in Barcelona, mostly because we couldn’t find good airfare back to Canada until the Wednesday. We’ve got Air BnB’s rented in both Rome and Barcelona that can accommodate the full group. For our excursions there is a mix of Princess and doing our own thing:

 

Naples - Sorrento & Amalfi Coastal Cruise/Pompeii and Amalfi Drive (we’re splitting up the group)

Chania - self exploration 

Istanbul - Best of Istanbul with Bosphorus Cruise 

Mykonos - self exploration

Athens - Athens Foodie Walking Tour

Bar - private tour to Kotor and Budva 

Corfu - self exploration 

Sicily - Godfather Tour

Naples - Capri

 

Well I feel like I’ve rambled on enough. I swear it will be more focused moving forward haha. I’ve also noticed there hasn’t been a lot of ‘Live From’ the Sun so hopefully this can shed some light on how the June voyages are going. 

If you booked " Best of Istanbul" with Princess, you will be OK. If you booked private tour, keep in mind that Traffic in Istanbul is terrible. It took us 2 hours to get to the ship from Grand Bazar, normally 20 min ride. 

10 minutes ago, Esprit said:

I'm not surprised food isn't hot in the Eatery. it's the same on all Princess and Celebrity ships. Why can't they have microwave ovens for passengers to use, who like their food piping hot like i do!  

We have discussed this issue with one of the supervisors of eatery and there are microwaves they will use if passenger ask. But good I’m MDR also not very hot. 

Booked on board, 14 days TA on Star D1for $3200 with Princess premium for 2 people.

BTW, we are on Sun second week. There is a repeat of menu from first week

Also, there are complaints that food is not very hot, especially in Eatery.

We are on board of Sun Princess. Just checked our account. All charges are coming out of NRObc and Refundable is still untouched.  Guest services confirm that REf OBC will be mailed after the cruise.

On 5/24/2024 at 5:36 PM, phoenix_dream said:

I will also search the departure port pages, but also looking for some specific info about sailing Celebrity out of Port Canaveral.  If anyone who has done it can report back on their experience?  Particularly if they want to fly in several days earlier and rent a car and stay in the area?  Does Celebrity offer shuttle service from the port back to Orlando?  Has anyone used it and how might it compare to private services or Uber/Lyft?  Are there rental car options available that don't charge around $400 PER DAY for a one way rental should I want to do that (yes, I typed the number correctly!).  Is it worth it to stay outside of the immediate area and Uber to the port?  I can't believe the prices of hotels I am seeing for early March (yes I know spring break is starting but shouldn't be too bad that early).  I thought Lauderdale and Miami were bad - they're nothing compared to these prices.

 

I strongly advise anyone considering sailing out of that port do some research prior on these things.  I already booked my cruise and now almost wish I hadn't.  I don't think that area is really geared up yet to handle the huge increase in sailings caused by the addition of more Celebrity and Royal ships (not to mention other lines).  Any input would be appreciated and fingers crossed I can figure this all out without needing to take a second mortgage out on my house.

Celebrity has not sailed from PC yet. We live 50 min drive and can’t wait to cruise from PC in March. Depends on what you want to do before the cruise, Cocoa Beach is a great place to hangout for a day. I would not recommend to stay in Orlando.

5 hours ago, dides said:

Low by the sink in standard bathrooms, higher up on mini-suite bathrooms

 

From our Deluxe Balcony:

 

 

From CanadianBurger's Reserve Mini-Suite (now Sanctuary Mini-Suite):

 

 

 

Thank you very much. It is much more convenient than by the ceiling.

Can someone confirm the location of electrical outlet in the bathroom - low by the sink or up high? Thank

We are leaving in 4 days for May 18 cruise. From reading these post, it seams still a lot of confusion and changes are taking place. I have not sailed with Princess in more that 15 years and going with an open mind, but not high expectations. I hope there will be no regrets for booking this cruise. So far, I was not able to make any reservations for dinners on deck 6 or 7. 8 is not even showing up on the app.  We are hoping that Princess will become a nice variety from Celebrity. So far, it seems everthing is very disorganized. Not excited.

Great to hear all positive reveiws. Booked in AQ and looking forward to it.

Thank you all.

On 4/25/2024 at 3:47 PM, Tom and Ingrid said:

Where were you last year when I needed this knowledge 🫣

😄

I had to stumble on it somehow instead.

Visit these boards more often - you will learn a lot.😉

2 hours ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

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. 

We are on May 18 - June 1 sailing, NO SANTORINI, NO KOTOR. Got email prom Princess yesterday. This was my third attempt to visit Santorini - I guess, I will never see it. If they will replace Istanbul with something else, I will be very upset. 

Can Princess plus be bought on first day of the cruise with OBC?

All information is appreciated.

Not as bad as OP story, but I can vouch that Princess is employing some incompetent people. We are booked on 14 days Med cruise and I booked EZ air with Princess. Before the cut off date price for air had dropped 2x. Got repriced, refund to be issued 7-10 days. 2 months later I found out that refund was never requested by the agent. Got my own TA involved, promised refund in a few days. Will see... 

So great to hear all positive opinions. I am on the phone now to book AQ. It is only $106 over my balcony price. Something to look forward to.

Thank you all.

We haven't sailed in AQ in a few years and were wondering what is the latest experience sailing  primarily on Equinox. How is food in Blu?  Food in Blu was just OK last time we were on AQ (about 5 years ago), so we found that it was not worth the money. Now there are some cruises, that are reasonably priced, so we are considering go back to AQ.

All information is greatly appreciated.

I would say, you will never know if you will enjoy Solo TA till you try. And then you will decide if this is something you will repeat. I took several TA with my late husband and after with friends and I observed a lot of single people in their  50s-60s cruising.

Have fun and good luck.

18 hours ago, cruisinsince75 said:

Sorry, I missed that one.  I hope everyone that is booked on the Sun makes it to Kotor.  It is a gorgeous port.

Kotor is still on our cruise - port day May 27 ( watershuttle is required). Santorini is substituted by Crete - disappointing.

Kotor is still on our May 18 (14days) cruise. And excursions are listed for booking. Will watch what Princess do. Seems that several things are not happening since inauguration. Don't think I will ever book a new ship in the first 6-8 months of sailing.

Thanks

Have not sailed with Princes in over 10 year and I don't remember if Princess provide a bathrobe in regular balcony cabin. If not, I have to pack my won. 

Please somebody advise. 

Thanks

3 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

We've used Blue Hawaiian Helicopters twice now. Yes, pricey...but it's not something that you will likely forget! Don't know if they still do this, but they used to offer the flight video for sale after you land.

Another vote for Blue Hawaiian. We used them 20 years ago. Unforgettable experience.

That one was on my bucket list. Feel bad that my video got lot during the move.

Lack of reported beverage station on Sun is somewhat strange. I hope there are places to get regular coffee or hot tea anytime of the day.

Thank you for an update. We hope some production show will take place for our sailing in mid May. But it seems that there is some entertainment around the ship. 

Not sure if this topic has been discussed. Can someone please tell what shows are now playing on board of Sun Princess and in what venue. Also, if any of them require advanced reservation or just to show up. Thanks