Sox Fan Cruiser

It’s actually the reverse for a lot of people. The Sanctuary on other ships is an adults only quiet place. Not for suites. When the Sun Princess news first came out they had the Sanctuary plus an area in there that was for suites only. So there is truly a ship within a ship concept buts it’s very small. The overflow goes to the Sanctuary. But now the Sanctuary isn’t like the Sanctuary on other ships and cost twice as much. So think of it as a suite sun deck plus other folks can buy in at $100 a day. Not many people will. The non suite designated area is very large so it can accommodate all suite guests plus those that what to buy in. Suite guests won’t notice a difference. But those expecting the old Sanctuary are a little upset. Some of the loungers don’t even have padding.

Absolutely!

Signature Sun Deck menu:

Next Topic: Signature Sun Deck (Part 2) I am very happy to report that the pool is over 5 feet deep as opposed to the 3 foot “bathtub” Retreat Pool located in the adults only section of the Royal class ships. We could actually swim and do other activities as in other “real” pools. Unfortunately, there is only a ladder to get in and out and it will be difficult for some people to do so. Definitely a design flaw there. It was hard for me to get out so I’m not sure how some older folks will manage. Let’s talk about the biggest flaw. There are absolutely no loungers in the shade except for a couple of oversized, 2 person, circular “beds” under the roof at the aft by flavored water. Even the $499 for a day cabanas have no roof where the loungers are! You could pull them back into the TV/Couch area, but doesn’t that defeat part of the purpose of the cabana? Every other lounger is in the sun most of the time. And a lot of us did NOT want sun. There is minimal shade cast from the center building and the radar balls on top but that is constantly changing and only covers a few loungers at a time. Because there were so many open loungers, we all kept moving our loungers as the shade moved on the deck. And when we did, the poor attendants kept taking the towels off our old loungers and re-wrapping them on our new one! There are some soft chairs in the shade depending on where the sun is but we were not able to lounge with our legs stretched out. I asked if they were going to bring umbrellas in for the Caribbean season and they said no, that this was the intent. We didn’t technically reserve chairs as you do in the other Sanctuary spaces either. We just sat down where we wanted and that was our lounger as long as we wanted. If we left for lunch or something, we just told them we would be back and we left some stuff on it. Again, not sure how it will work in the Caribbean. Not sure that anyone paid to come to this section and as I said, I don’t think you need to. The cabanas are first come first serve (regardless of suite status or not) but you can make reservations for future days in advance. Again, we only saw one or two of them being used at any time during the cruise. Getting to the Sanctuary is complicated as is navigating some other parts of the ship. Aside from the back glass elevators you have to use aft elevator bank. There is no way to get to the entrance the sanctuary on deck 18 itself other than the aft stairs/elevatior. Just as with deck six there is no way to get from the front of the ship to the back staying on deck 18. I am not sure if it was a conscious decision to avoid “walk ins” but you would never stumble across the area on a casual stroll. On both sides of the ship on deck 18, there ARE glass doors that separate the Sanctuary loungers from the “common area” but they weren’t working at the time. I assume that our suite medallion would open it up such as the Retreat doors use our suite cruise card on Celebrity. I did ask, and regardless of staying in a suite, no kids under the age of 16 are allowed in the Sanctuary. One kid did come in to talk to his parents, but he was escorted in and escorted out by his dad. He only stayed a little while. The staff was very friendly to him. They joked around with him and got him a soda but the parents obviously knew the rules. As I said, this isn’t the normal Sanctuary. There is no afternoon tea. There is no seating chart. Non-suite folks need to pay $90 for access for a day. It really is a separate sun deck for suite passengers. And note that all of the above was for the entire Sanctuary area and not just the Signature designated area. Again, there weren’t many of us so it was just one big Suite Sun Deck in my opinion. (I will be going back and reviewing the thread again, to see if I missed any questions. I know there are a few that came in later that i didn't answer yet so I will get to them.)

Next Topic: Signature Sun Deck (Part 1) I need to start this by saying that we had great weather, but I don’t think my experience is anything like what it will be when the ship moves to the Caribbean. This area was not very crowded the entire cruise. There were only about a dozen couples that used it on a regular basis. With that said, I feel like this area is more like the Retreat Sun Deck on the Celebrity ships (for suites only) and should not be looked at like the Sanctuary on other Princess ships. But fret not, there are SO many different places to lounge about on this ship that I don’t think people will need this space to get away from the crowds and the noise. And as in the other suite areas, the service was outstanding. As soon as you entered the space there was someone coming up to greet you and address you by name. They have machines that recognize your medallion. People have a fear that because those aft glass elevators open up right in the Suite section that people will “sneak in”. There is no fear of that! They are on you as soon as that elevator opens asking what you need and where you want to sit. I even heard them ask one couple to leave who just came in to take pictures. They wouldn’t allow them to. (It wasn’t the first day but towards the end of the cruise). So they are on top of it. Once you pick a lounger, they cover it in towels so you are laying on that and not the cushion itself. They also give you a rolled up towel for your head. They then inquire about a cocktail or flavored water or even coffee drinks if it’s early or a little cold out. And yes, there is a full bar with bar stools. You can sit and have a drink or have one of the staff go and get one for you. I know that drinks in the suite lounge don’t count towards your drink package maximum, but I think the ones in the Sun Deck do. At lunch time, they are right there with the bento box menu if you don’t want to leave the area. I’ll post a picture of the menu as well. And while I didn’t ask, I guess you could mix and match items from different themed boxes, but most likely they will just bring you both! They did not offer to go get you other menu items such as burgers or pizza as some do in the Sanctuary, but we always use that as an excuse to get up and walk around a bit anyway.

I meant people screaming but not really sure it's going to be THAT fast to warrant that reaction by the riders. We just don't really know yet. The cars do make a little humming sound when they come around that could be annoying but one might be able to tune it out. There is no talk of cost yet since it's not operational.

They usually don’t show up on the app until sailing. I was worried about the same thing but there was plenty of music the entire cruise in Take5 ( our favorite place on the ship).

It was not operational yet as of Thursday when we left. One day they were testing the Rollglider but it didn’t look very successful. Mostly they just had the motorized part moving around but some of the cars couldn’t even make it all the way around the track. One did have the seat contraption on it but none of the rest of them do. But even the ropes course wasn’t active yet. I don’t know what they were thinking but the track does come by the Sanctuary and I can see a lot of noise coming into that area from the riders. Not well planned.

The decor is horrible! It’s the opposite of a Celebrity ship where the artwork threw up on the ship. It’s beyond plain. I would like something more in the middle of the two.

We haven’t been to the Captain’s Circle event in years either.

We were in a suite so we ate in the Signature restaurant. I will say that line on deck 7 was an absolute mess the first two days. With deck 6 being traditional and the reservation line for deck 7, at 7pm there were just people everywhere. Horrible layout. The deck 7 reservation line is situated right in front of the aft elevators. Was very glad we were in a suite. But it did get better as the cruise progressed.

It’s not that disturbing. We just got off and most of it was ready. It will all be fully operational by October. Couldn’t care less about Park 19 and was glad it wasn’t ready. That should not make or break your cruise. Love is the only thing still in the works that we wanted to do.

We haven’t gone to the Elite lounge in years. There was no mention of it in the suite documents but I think I remember reading about it in our Elite notice. With the Suite lounge there is no need for the skimpy Elite lounge. It’s too early for our evening plans anyway. 5-7pm? We don’t even start getting ready until at least 6:00.

We seriously only spent time in the suite lounge, the suite sundeck and the suite restaurant except for Spellbound, Teppanyaki and The Wheelhouse so it was actually nice to walk around the ship a little bit! Didn’t bother us at all! 😜 And yes, we would walk to the aft elevator bank (not to be confused with the glass elevator at the back of the ship), get off on 7 and walk forward to the atrium. Just be aware that the aft elevator bank opens up to the main dining room waiting line and deck 7 can be a madhouse, especially the first few nights because everyone doesn’t know where to go. The traditional seating diners don’t know that they have to go to 6 and the only way to get there is that aft elevator/stairs. It was a mad house the first few days at 7pm. The prime rib cart has not made it to the ship yet.

Seems like a good time to talk about the Signature Restaurant. Again, I went into this cruise we high hopes and low expectations. When I heard that this special restaurant was going to have the same menu as the main dining room, I was more than a little disappointed. I love Luminae on Celebrity and was looking for the same thing. But I was pleasantly surprised! We don't eat dinner until 8pm so all my experience will be from that timeframe. I have no idea what it's like earlier. We never had to wait for a table and sometimes we even got a seat next to the window. The place was never more than half full so we didn't have to sit next to other people. The tables are pretty close together so "next to" sometimes means "with". 🙂 The decor is sparse to say is nicely. In fact the entire ship feels under-decorated. Where Celebrity has art (and some pretty strange stuff at that!) all over the place, this ship is lacking some better color and design. I would even call the Signature Restaurant plain. There is the glass piece in the center of the room but the rest is white on white on white. And while most of the room is warmly lit, the tables at the back wall have way too many lights and it's unpleasant to sit there. We were put there the first night and nicely refused to sit there again. The wait staff was wonderful! The past 3 or 4 Princess cruises, the wait staff didn't know how to course things. We would get our appetizers before the wine was even delivered and then the main dish would come out while we still had our appetizer wine. We would have to direct them throughout the entire meal. Not this cruise. It was exactly as it should be. We were sat and given our menu. Then sommelier would come over and "talk us into" a glass of champagne. Once we decided what we wanted the sommelier would come over and discuss the wine pairing. We would then order from the waiter. The right wine would come with the right course and everything was timed perfectly. The wait staff would offer suggestions and would realize early in the cruise our likes and dislikes. I almost always choose the fish dish for my main and never eat cow. After a few days they stopped suggesting the beef option to me even though they would for my husband. And the food was definitely a step up from the main dining room fare that we are used to. The escargot tasting a lot better and more refined than in the past. I've already mentioned it on this thread but I will repeat it. The kitchen for the Signature and Reserve dining rooms is the same. And while they have the same menu as the main dining room, there are some additional items and it's all prepared just a little different. It's also made to order so you can make some substitutions. The last night they had a pasta dish with shrimp on it. Since there was already a scallop dish on the menu, I asked if they could swap out the shrimp and replace it with scallops. They said it was no problem at all and you could tell that the scallops were not just taken off the other dish and added to mine. They were cooked separately and incorporated into the dish as if that was the chef's intent all along. It was the best pasta dish I have had in any of my 45 cruises, including specialty restaurants. I raved about it for days! We tried not to eat desserts on this cruise but my husband buckled a couple of times. Of course the waiter brought me a spoon and one night I did take a bite and it was delicious!! They were also good with our coffee course making sure the husband had decaf every night. We joked that we would find their cabin in the middle of the night if it wasn't decaf as my husband would be up all night, but they got it right every time. Limoncello also made it to our table a few evenings as a gift from the sommelier. I will say that we had the Plus package and we ended up drinking "not included" wines most nights. I wouldn't say that the sommelier pushed the more expensive wines but he did learn our taste and usually suggested wines out of our package. We did try a few covered by Plus and didn't really like them. I would say that it is more Princess' fault than the sommelier's but we did notice it. And we really weren't going to let a $3 charge ruin our fantastic dining experience but I know it would bother others. My biggest negative of the entire cruise is the Atrium. I know Princess is moving towards that place being the center hub of the ship and that's fine. Not what we like but there are other places we can go. But the problem is that it is really really loud! Crooners is useless because it's open to the atrium so while there IS a piano there, there was hardly ever someone playing it. The atrium is non stop from morning until late at night. And loud! The reason I bring this up is that the Signature Restaurant is right off the atrium. But they keep the doors closed and you can't hear anything in the restaurant. Although when people come in or go out, you can hear it but it's not for long. Overall, it was a wonderful experience each night. We ate there every night except when we went to Spellbound and Teppanyaki and the one day in Mykonos where we ate too much on land and were still full at dinner! 🙂 As I said, we never went there for breakfast so I can't answer the breakfast questions. I also forgot to ask if we could eat in the Reserve restaurant. My apologies. Speaking of the Reserve Collection restaurant, there seemed to always be a little bit of a wait for a table. We would go to the Wheelhouse bar at 7pm for our pre-dinner cocktail and would end up chatting with people waiting for their table. Not sure if more of the Reserve folks eat later or the restaurant just isn't big enough to handle everyone. It was not usually a long wait but we never had that problem at the Signature restaurant. Next topic: Signature Sun Deck (tomorrow)

I let them know the first day that I wouldn’t be finishing my plate and not to be concerned. I never had dessert either and they push those hard!! (I actually lost weight on this cruise!! Woo hoo!)

We had already paid for the tepanyaki restaurant before the cruise and didn’t eat at any other specialty places so we’re not sure. On the Sky they did let us use it another day. Not sure if that is common practice or not and forgot to ask.

It was definitely windy when we were there! They were handing out sickness bags on the ferry to Delos.

Yes! We did use the door hanger a couple of times. As always seems the case these days, the breakfast sandwich came cold and the muffin wasn’t even toasted. Better to go to the International Cafe if you want that option.

Thanks! With my medication I only eat one meal a day and it’s not breakfast so there was no reason to go and just watch my husband eat. He hates that as well so he just grabbed a quick bite somewhere!

Oh, and full disclosure… In 9 days we NEVER made it to the suite breakfast in the Signature restaurant so I can provide information on that. Sorry.

Welcome letter. I hope it’s not too blurry.

Yes, your medallion was required for the door to the lounge to open. We didn’t go to the lounge very often so can’t comment on the staffing throughout the day. We spent most of our ship time up in the Signature Sun Deck but that’s a topic for another post! 🤪

Misc: They do NOT have special suite seating for the shows. That is reserved for those staying in the Sky Suite or have the Premium package (regardless of suite designation). The suite concierge specifically stated that the Enclave was NOT part of the suite benefits but we never got charged for access so still not sure if it's a perk or an administrative error. We didn't want to ask again! 😜 Funny story: When talking with the suite concierge about suite seating for the shows, he did mention that the service for the Sky Suite passengers was "out of this world" and we all responded that us "lowly" suite guests were getting amazing service we can't even imagine what they are doing for the Sky Suite guests. Truly, they were amazing. And the aft elevators currently are not reserved for suite guests only. Although once past deck 14 you are only accessing suite cabins, the suite lounge or the suite sanctuary so it's technically serving suite guests anyway. The port side elevator wasn't even working the entire duration of our cruise so we had to use the Starboard side one. Luckily there was a little "cut through" corridor where the laundry room was. (Taking a break and will post more later this weekend.) Next Up: Signature Restaurant

Okay, so here we go.... Frist topic: The Signature Lounge So the Signature Lounge is WAY above any suite lounge that Princess has ever tried to do before. The room is bright and airy and has fantastic views of the wake. The back wall is two stories of glass that provides a wonderful area to lounge about. There is always at least one concierge at the desk available to make reservations for the spa, the specialty restaurants or anything else you need. As I already said in a previous post they arranged for us to get on the first tender over to the dreaded cable cars in Santorini so we didn't have to wait in lines. And they personally walked us down for final disembarkation using their special keys to get a priority, personal elevator. I even heard them arrange for car service for one passenger who didn't have it yet. The train station is quite a walk from the ship (in Rome) and they were arranging a car to take them. They would also arrange a car to take them all the way to Rome. Seriously, THIS is the type of service that I expect in a suite lounge. It's on the same level as Celebrity in terms of lounge itself and service the concierges provide. WAY better than I expected. As stated in our "personal" letter in our stateroom: "The lounge is accessible 24 hours a day, with service provided from sunrise to sunset." The drinks are free and do not count towards your maximum drink allowance if you have a package. There are two waiters that provide complete service so you never have to go to the bar itself. You can just sit down and they will come to you. A concierge will always greet you by name and give you some helpful hints about what is going on that day or the next. There is someone playing music there every day from 5-7 pm. There is plenty of room and it never felt crowded at all. There was always some "snacks" available although none of it seemed very appetizing. (Currently on a weight loss drug that makes food unappealing so I will try and be fair in this area.) Although I did "cheat" and have couple of chocolate truffles one day that were really good! Go to the lounge for the cocktails and view, not the food. They will make reservations for you the first evening for your "free" suite specialty dining perk which includes all the restaurants marked as such: Crown Grill, Sabatini's, Umai Tappanyaki, Umai Hot Pot, Kai Sushi by Makoto, The Catch by Rudi and The Butchers Block by Dario. My biggest complaint of this area is that there was NO communication with us in our stateroom about any suite benefits or special events. The only way we new about anything was if we showed up. There was a Captain and Crew night where they came and spoke to us suite passengers. They had special tickets to the Cirque show for us. They did the special tender ride in Santorini. There was the special disembarkation process. All of it we knew about because we stopped by to get a glass of champagne. I have no idea what we missed on the days we didn't stop by. There should have been a lot more outreach to us in case we didn't go to the lounge. But when we did stop by they were amazing. They always knew our dinner reservations plans that evening, our excursions (if booked through the trip) and our final travel plans (or if we didn't have any.). They were on top of EVERYTHING and really provided that extra special touch that they just haven't been able to do with any other concierge suite host on any other Princess ship. I was more that pleased with this new concept. I went in with high hopes and low expectations and they blew me away. A+ Princess. More to come....