TheY85

On 5/8/2023 at 3:00 PM, Steelers36 said:

No, you should have had visits from the staff there - unless you looked visibly asleep. 

 

Interesting you want sun and that class of ship certainly has a wide open full sun area to left and right out near the entrance.  Was never as much in demand as inside in the shade.  That class of ship offers best shade of any in fleet, certainly more than Royal Class. 

 

For shade lovers, CB, KP, EP, RU and likely AP are the best IMO.

No - we definitely did not look like we were sleeping. And we really weren’t sure if the lack of service was the norm or not. Other people in clam shells in our area also ordered from the app because of the lack of service in the sanctuary. From the replies I have gotten maybe we just caught them on a bad day (?) Everything else during our two weeks on the ship was absolutely wonderful - no complaints at all. 

On 5/10/2023 at 9:50 PM, Cruisin Cathy AZ said:

I would have come into the hut and asked for the manager and explained your disappointment and displeasure. I would have also asked in all seriousness how was it possible you were #20 were all of the chairs taken at that point in the reservation process. There are more than 20 chairs and two sessions. I also, would not have waited for them to bring me drinks. It is part of the fee. If you didn’t have the drink pact then you paid out of pocoo. What you ordered from the app. It is truly okay to stand up and walk over and inquire as to the status of your order or ask for additional beverages.you are I. Fact paying a hefty fee to sit there.

Sorry for the delay - We were just so surprised by the lack of service. We did not complain on the day, as this was our first time booking the sanctuary (and probably our last) so we didn’t know what to expect. We were told the reason they were so booked was as a result of so many back-to-back cruisers the previous week. 
 

We ended up cancelling our other reservations for the sanctuary and we much preferred finding our own lounge chairs for the remainder of our cruise. (Oh and we had booked Princess Plus, so drinks were included)

On 5/8/2023 at 2:32 PM, Cruisingawayfromthesnow! said:

Are the clam shells in the Sanctuary adjustable?  Can you move the attached sun shades?  Thanks 

Hi! Sorry for the delay - no - the clam shells are not adjustable and the shades cannot be removed to my knowledge. 

Hi, yes the clam shells are like the ones on the beach except they are raised beds. There are four of them on each side in the only area of the Sanctuary that is not covered. 
 

We were planning to book for next week - We were told we would have to wait until Friday to do that, but, as I said, for us it is not really worth it. We were looking forward to having a reserved lounger in the sun … The Sanctuary really doesn’t have much to offer for those of us wanting sun. Also, we have had much better service when renting cabanas in water parks back when our kids were little. Yesterday no one came to ask us if we wanted a drink at all throughout the day until “tea time”. If we wanted anything we found it better to use the app and we can do that from anywhere on the ship. Because this was our first time trying the Sanctuary, we don’t know if this was a one off, or if you really can’t expect much service while there (?) Maybe the people sitting in the covered area get the service (?) 

Oh - and actually we are both fast runners - haha! And we were in the priority boarding lounge, so we were part of the first group onto the ship but we didn’t push past anyone - We were pretty relaxed but we did head to the Sanctuary as soon as we boarded. 

Hello! We are currently on the Caribbean Princess doing a back-to-back Eastern/Western Caribbean Cruise - We had booked a similar itinerary on the Sky Princess for March 2020 that was cancelled due to Covid two days before we were to set sail.  We are finally taking that cruise! We have taken quite a few Princess Cruises - We are platinum members - almost elite - and we have cruised on other lines as well so we are somewhat experienced when it comes to cruising … 
 

in anticipation of this cruise I started watching YouTube videos - my there are a lot of talented people out there giving us all advice - Thank you to all of those folks! 
 

it seemed the consensus - at least from the people whose videos I watched - was that the Sanctuary was well worth the extra cost. Soooo … on embarkation day, my husband and I raced up to the Sanctuary as soon as we boarded the ship so that we could make our reservations. We were #20 and we were in the first boarding group so we were surprised so many people beat us here. Anyways, as we waited for our number to be called the person who appeared to be in charge announced that all of the lounge chairs had already been sold out for the sea days. We were then informed that they had some clam shells left - not our first choice as we love the sun and were hoping for loungers on the deck in the sunshine, but we decided to give the clam shells a try. 

Today, our first sea day, we went to the Sanctuary at 1:00 pm. There were still people in the clamshell we had reserved and we were asked to wait a few minutes. At about 1:05, we were shown to our clamshell. Shortly thereafter we were handed a menu and our lunch order was taken. We each ordered a bento box and a drink. At about 2 pm we finally received our drinks - We had seriously considered ordering drinks through the medallion class app by that point. We still waited quite some time for our Bento Boxes, which were very tasty when they finally did arrive. But by that point, we were really thinking the upcharge is not worth it. No one came to ask if we wanted anything else so we did end up ordering drinks on the app and they arrived promptly, which was pretty impressive. Again we thought the Sanctuary really is not worth it. But as I started writing this, it was afternoon tea time - (I had forgotten that was served in the Sanctuary) We had a very attentive server who offered sandwiches, pastries, tea and coffee. It was very nice. 
 

We have the Sanctuary booked already for our next sea day as well - Are we excited about that? I would have to say no. We were not able to reserve the lounge chairs we would have much preferred to the clam shells and really the service has not been what we expected. 
 

Hi!

This is my first post. I have learned a lot from all of you very experienced cruisers out there, so I have decided to ask this question, realizing that it’s not an easy one to answer, so I will explain my query ...

I have taken a 15 day cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii and then back to LA. This was a few years ago with my mom, and it was on a Carnival ship. It was in September and we had a fabulous time. Since then, my husband and I have tried cruising at Spring Break with our three children. In March 2016, we were on the Ruby Princess for a 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise from LA. We loved it! Then, just this past March, we were on the Regal Princess for a 14 day (back-to-back 7 day cruises) to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. We absolutely loved this cruise and the Regal! We love snorkelling and had a wonderful time in the water at every port of call. We think the Regal is an absolutely stunning ship. We did find that the pool deck seemed quite crowded on sea days, compared to the Ruby, but that was minor for us, as we still managed to find lounge chairs.

We are considering taking this same 14 day cruise again next Spring Break on the Regal. We will just have our two teenage sons with us next March. (This will be their last high school spring break, as they will be in grade 12.) We are also considering a 15 day round trip to Hawaii from LA on the Star Princess. At this point, we are really undecided about which cruise to book.

We love the sun and we love the water. We enjoy both sea days and days in port, and, if given a choice, we prefer sunny and warm, or even hot days, as opposed to cloudy, cool days.

Things we are pondering:

- The cost of the 14 day Caribbean cruise has really jumped since last year (We are Canadian, so the dollar amount really climbs for us with any increase.) The Hawaii cruise is a tiny bit less, but it does include an extra day, and the flight will be considerably less as well, as we live on the West Coast.

But ...

- We’re concerned about the weather on the sea days of the Hawaiian cruise.

- We’re also concerned that there might not be as many teens on the Hawaiian cruise as on the Caribbean cruise (Our sons really enjoy meeting new friends at the teen club.) We did ask about this while we were still on the Regal, and the Future Cruise Consultant assured us there would be many teens on the Hawaiian cruise (?)

- The reviews of the Star Princess seem a bit mixed.

We would love to hear your thoughts! Thank-you!