RMorningglory

I'll be getting aboard on the 27th and will report back soon after. Not much more time to wait for a confirmation of these details. Hang tight all.

I did it last month and it worked... I'll do it again for an upcoming cruise and see and report nack

You can email the form and a photo of your statement directly to princess without an app. This is the e-mail address: sbpcl@princesscruises.com And this is the web address for the PDF form: https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/contact-us/shareholder-request-form.pdf I have had this benefit for years and it has more than paid for the stock purchase even at a pre pandemic buy in. It's still reasonable especially if you cruise longer cruises often. Hope this helps.

Now That's a room! Love the St Regis!!!

If there is a door knob hanger you can order breakfast free that way.

ONLY 25 TO GO!!!! We should be able to get to that just in compliments to CanadianBurger for a Job Well Done. For He's a Jolly Good Fellow!

It's pretty quick on other ships. You can always just close the bathroom door. Other people have taped over the sensors in the room... it's on a post close to the beginning of this AWESOME thread

Love the thermometer! I'm always suspicious of the actual temp compaired to those on the wall. Was it as hot in the dining rooms as people are saying about the areas around the Piazza? Any insight is helpful!

These 2 Cabins on each floor are Accessible. Accessible cabins aren't always available to book on line because they like to save them for passengers who actually need them. That doesn't mean you can't get one, but you might have to answer a couple questions regarding your needs. How you answer those I'm not saying. I do know that out traveling companions are sailing in one on deck 12 April 27th and I'll do my best to post photos of the cab1n is someone else hasn't already by then. We're in an aft Inside Cabin on 17 so we're planning on spending a lot of time with our friends on 12. LOL

Where did you take the Wake picture from? Looks like Deck 16 below Love by Brito? If so, What is directly above that spot? I saw outdoor chairs that I thought were on Deck 17 Aft but wasn't sure you could access them? We are on 17 Aft and that looked like a great spot to hide. Any clarification is Soooo Appreciated!!! You are doing an AWESOME JOB man! Only 130 more posts to 1000!

How busy is the Wake Pool today?

Good Lord Don't say the "S" word! Empty, Can't imagine why.

Awesome pics of the Dome and Sea View area. THANK YOU

Keep Posting these GEMS and we'll get you to 100! If the weather's good tomorrow on your Sea Day the more pice you post of the outdoor areas the more comments you'll get... especially looking forward to see how much the area forward of the Dome is used on a Sea Day

Tableside Service may be a Reserve Dining Room upgrade as it is on other ships that offer "Club Class" where Tableside presentation is common practice. It would be great to have a MDR passenger tell us their experience. Do we know for a fact that the menu in the Reserve restaurant is the same as the MDR as a previous poster stated? I think we'll need a side by side comparison to actually tell if they're the same. CanadianBurger has done enough already, Lord knows, so I hate to ask him to do it but... maybe someone else will take up the cause on out behalf.

WonderMan3, I'll meet you at Jimmy's Hideaway for a drink and we can cry in our beer and commiserate together next time I travel from Mid to Lower Cape! LOL. We travel too often to do the Suite thing regularly so we'll just have to live like the regular folks and take our chances. I totally agree with the "Lower our Expectations" comment. I think that's the key to serenity. Expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised when something nice happens. Wish it wasn't the way it is, but it is the way it is so... we'll figure it out as we go and be OK either way. Talk about 1st world problems? I'm the luckiest guy alive to be have the luxury of 12 weeks off annually to travel. The Sun seems like a Beautiful, if Different ship than we're accustomed to. I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to have an awesome time no matter what because I want to have an awesome time. If I'm not in Sanctuary I'll be somewhere else. How many kids can there be on a 2 week cruise from April 27th to May 15th or from October 19th to November 2nd when Kids are supposed to be in school? That being said I bet I can find a spot to relax in some quiet corner if I look hard enough. And I will. No matter what happens, I'm still going to feel like I'm "King of the World!!" on the brand new and beautiful Sun Princess, sailing to magical ports with the person I love most in the world. The only tears will be tears of gratitude and joy no matter where I'm sitting! In the words of Jack Dawson, "I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You never know what hand you're gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you". No matter what, it's going to be a lot better than the Titanic, and Jack had a good time all the way to the end. I intend to do the same with much better results. Hope this made you laugh a little.

Wow... This is a lot of chat and conjecture about clairvoyant mind reading into the intentions of a multi billion dollar corporation and its administration. No matter what their intentions, time will flush out the reality of all of this and may make a lot of this discussion moot. The "why have they done it?" is a lot of assuming, the fact is: They've done it. Now we have to decide what we're going to do with the facts in front of us regarding cruises already booked or when choosing to book a cruise in the future. I called Princess last week during the inaugural Cruise for clarification and again after seeing the information published on CC from the 2nd sailing, and the information coming from my cruise-personalizer changed from last week to this week. Here are the facts as we know them to be confirmed on that call to Princess: A day pass for Sanctuary is $99.00 pp and a cabana is $499.00 for up to 4 ppl just as our STAR passenger CanadianBurger reported. Availability is limited and not guaranteed and is on a First Come First Serve basis depending on availability for the day. There is a designated area reserved for Signature Class passengers. The Sanctuary is an Adults Only Space for passengers 16 years old or older. There are not a set amount of passes available per day as it is dependent on demand from Signature passengers who have priority. That's It. That's ALL we know. Now let's put these facts into play regarding my upcoming 2 cruises on Sun. (Indulge me as I do the math). On my upcoming Med Cruise we have 4 Sea Days. There are 4 of us traveling. If we could reserve, that would be $396 for 4 in regular Sanctuary or $499.00 in a Cabana (Which makes a Cabana seem like a deal to me as opposed to a regular chair. Wine, stocked Fridge, Shady spot etc.). So, added to our Onboard Statement will either be $396pp or $499pp if sharing the cabana depending on our choice IF spots are available for all 4 days. It's a 14 day cruise but we would only use it on sea days so, divided by the number of days on the ship I could swing it but I'd have to think about it rather than just do it automatically like I would have in the past. On a Royal or Grand class ship that would be $30pp/day or $220/Cabana/Day for 4 totaling $120 or $220 for the 4 days. That makes a regular spot more than 3x the previous price and the Cabana more than double. For our 2 week B2B Caribbean cruise for 2 in October we would normally book a whole cruise spot full day in the Sanctuary. With the full 14 days the Cabana is out either way, but the regular spot would be $420pp for Grand and Royal Class and $1386 pp for 14 days on Sun making it almost 4 times the price. Those are FACTS. Now it's up to me what I want to do with those FACTS. I can tell you that it involves deep breathing, a mantra and the Serenity Prayer. Now a few anecdotal obsevations that ought to really get this party started: We've been in a LOT of Sanctuaries over the years. If I said how they are run has been consistent throughout the fleet I'd be fibbing. My experience is that depending on the staffing, it either runs like a top or it's a bit of a hot mess. Regal Class Ships tend to be a little more organized as the entrance to the area is better defined and it's harder to just wander into. The Grand Class ships are way too easy to access and people are forever getting in, kind of bewildered and lost. It usually doesn't last long but it happens a lot. A strong leader in Sanctuary and a well seasoned staff makes a difference to the overall experience and it's usually pretty easy to tell what you're going to get just by the how the process goes to reserve on embarkation day. We were just on a 10 day Canal 1/2 Transit on Ruby and it was more the Hot Mess than the well oiled machine. There was literally NO ONE there before noon other than the 2 of us on ANY day, Sea OR Port. We were the ONLY full cruise full day passengers. Yeay for us! At noon the rest showed up but even on sea days it didn't seem full yet they were turning passengers away. I thought this was weird so I kissed up to a couple staff to be nosey and get the dirt. Get this, They let people reseve 1/2 days, let them come at Noon instead of 1 like it should be AAANNNDD, only charged them IF they showed up. WHAT? No wonder they were full but 1/3 of the seats were empty. I thought this must be a mistake but, instead of the one time charge that usually appears on our OBS when we book full cruise, $30 appeared DAILY indicating that we were being charged daily. That never happened before. I didn't test the presumption that we wouldn't be charged if we didn't show up but it's not a far stretch to believe that the info was correct and that's how they were playing it. I do NOT think any of this was "Princess Policy" but it was what happened. I can tell you it wasn't like that on Discovery on our previous cruise when there was an attendant at the desk almost 100% of the time and they ran that Sanctuary like wardens! If you were talking too loud they gave you the side eye. I also observed people being accommodated in the Sanctuary as a problem solver for difficult or problem guests. 2 couples also "Bullied" their way in when the sanctuary was sold out by throwing a Giggy-Fit at the front desk. They actually reorganized the lay out to get them in with 3 hotel managers involved in the whole scene. I felt bad for the staff who just had to suck it up. The reason I'm relaying these stories is to exemplify the fact that things change, are not always consistent, don't always follow the rules and can't necessarily be counted upon. My Cruise-Consultant at Princess asked me to call her after our April 27th 2 week cruise and tell her what I observed in reality rather than what the party line says should happen. That indicates to me that even they aren't sure how this is all going to work. It's a long way from California to Rome and from the corporate thinkers to the ship and even further to the staff who have to implement those decisions and face US, the happy passengers. I'm going to run up there as usual on April 27th and see what the story is myself and whether or not a little charm might get a more in depth explanation of the wishy-washy parts of the story that breeds all this conjecture and assuming. I promise to relay the facts I find in the weeks to come but, in the meantime, Let's give them a minute to get their act together and see how it plays out. And hey, you can always just go pitch a fit at the front desk and strong arm your way in, but it will still cost you at least $99 and that plan isn't very ZEN. (See me deep breathing, remembering my Mantra and internally repeating: God grant me the Serenity to ACCEPT the things I CAN NOT Change, to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.) Namaste

I absolutely will. I can't read the minds of the powers that be but it feels like there's a move toward making these upgrade opportunities for regular cabin passengers less available so it makes the signature cabins more attractive. We often get a less expensive cabin and pay for sanctuary as that makes our days special as opposed to our cabin where we hardly spend any time awake. The other issue is... I like the sunshine and the S.O. needs shade. In sanctuary we have traditionally been able to grab a lounger in each so we are close by to one another yet all needs are met. Umbrellas would solve this for us. We'll see what genius solution is developed by the decision makers. I'm also looking at the front of the ship where Sanctuary would traditionally be located or even the wake pool as a possible alternative to all of this. They both seem like quieter spaces without a movie or the band playing. I understand that it's not assigned seating but people tend to not venture all the way forward or aft in droves so... might be worth the walk. The aft pool seems a little tough to get to unless you know where you're going so that might keep the numbers down. Time and experience will soon tell.

We have, for many years, made sanctuary our primary attraction on board Princess as we have been to many ports several times and make the ship our destination when cruising, even on port days. We enjoy the added attention from a staff that gets to know you over the course of the cruise and gives that little added service that makes it all seem special and worth it to us. (We also like to pretend that there aren't 3000 other people on the boat). All that said... not sure how this is going to work for us moving forward. I'm going to hold my breath and cross t fingers to see how this all plays out. It was my understanding that the "Sanctuary" had one capacity and the Signature Deck had another. If Sanctuary has 170+ loungers and the Signature Deck has an additional amount than I can see the 300+ capacity when combined being possible. We are booked for 2 weeks in Europe on April 27th and another 2 weeks in the Caribbean in October. I won't much care in Europe as we'll want to tour the ports but in the Caribbean we'll want to be "Sanctuary Slugs" and that might be difficult. If it's a cluster in April we may have to make a different choice for October. Time will tell. Why do they always have to re-imagine the stuff that works so well? Thanks for all the great info CBurger! You are a Star sailing on the Sun!

Wow that was fast. THANKS! I'll look forward to the Sanctuary details when you have time. Sounds like it might take some explaining. You're a Saint to do this.THANK YOU AGAIN

This is a great Thread! THANK YOU for all of this fantastic info. If you have a chance to get to the Sanctuary on Sun could you inquire about the cost of the Cabanas up there? I'm hearing conflicting reports. If there is any pricing info or directions on how Sanctuary works on this ship compared to others I'd love to hear it. Also, RE Main Dining Room's 3 floors, is one floor more "Formal" in their appearance than another or are they all the same? I know you're in the REserve more but if you have any insight ti would be most appreciated. ENJOY YOUR CRUISE!!!

I'd gladly pay the $150. We pay $95ish for chef's table currently and this is a cut far above... and we really like chef's table.

Hello All. I just came off 2 weeks on Discovery and it was Flawless. During our first week 360 was in the process of rolling out (California Coastal 10/15). I only knew this because a staff member was being trained for service and whispered it to me. At the Captain's Circle Cocktail Party I coincidentally met a lovely young lady who was on the ship from corporate Princess and was the Entertainment Director. We had a warm conversation in the back of the room in which we complimented the entertainment and the beautiful new ship as well. Before she left she asked us for our names and cabin number and asked if we would be interested in an experimental dining experience that was being rolled out over the next cruise. Up for anything we said of course and we'd be delighted. The following week, we were in Sanctuary and who should appear with another young lady but our friend from the party. She specifically came to find us. They offered us the opportunity to join in this special experience the next evening and also were kind enough to also ask friends, who had coincidentally booked the same cruise we had and were in a sanctuary Cabana for the whole cruise, We all said yes. We were asked about food preferences and allergies as we would if we had booked Chef's Table. The following night at the appointed time and place, 20 of us assembled in the piazza and this amazing experience began. We were literally sworn to secrecy and we respected the request. Well... Cat's out of the bag. The creative team responsible for 360 was present as guests at our dinner and studied our reactions and kept a few of us back afterward to ask questions and get whatever feedback we could give. We interacted with members of this team several times during the remainder of the Love Boat Cruise. The original cast of The Love Boat was on our cruise and had the 360 Experience the following night. I was able to chat with all of them individually and they were as impressed and overwhelmed as we were. The details given in the press release are accurate. There is currently no plan to make this experience a "charge +" option and the intention is to enhance the cruise experience for those in Suites and other passengers that the Cruise Line targets for specific reasons (Not necessarily solely related to spending) . It will remain invitation only for the foreseeable future. I have these details on Excellent Authority. I was thrilled to have done it and would graciously accept the invitation to return but it wouldn't be something I would expect. Bottom line, if you have the good fortune to be asked, say yes. It is a remarkable and exquisitely designed experience for your senses that is unique and delicious. Thanks to the team for including us and all the best as you present your creation to those lucky enough to experience it. SALUTE!