beg3yrs

It's pretty accurate except for the potted plants - they're not there.

After spending three weeks in 12636, I have a few observations: 1) Smoking area on deck 8 starboard side sometimes does affect this cabin. Multiple times we'd open the hallway door and smelled smoke when entering the cabin. That's four decks up! 2) The balcony is as pictured for 14636. It's quite austere. Just two chairs, two loungers and a small table. You kind of feel like you're in a tunnel. Since it's so BIG, I commented that something like fake plants would soften up the visual aspects. There is no exterior light for such a large space. In an earlier post I had commented that with the aft being lit up blue at night that might be a problem. It was not. 3) The balcony is very sheltered both from sun and wind. We could leave the balcony door open without the standard hurricane even when the ship was underway. Don't expect to get much sunshine there as each higher aft facing balcony is cantilevered out over the lower one. 4) Once the kids discover the wake view pool (and they will), the joyous yelling and screaming will get to you after a while. We started keeping the door closed as it was getting much too noisy even after just a few minutes. 4a) The Wake View area and its bar is very nice but quickly reaches capacity. We enjoyed it mostly on the two turnaround days we experienced. 5) The elevators adjacent to the room never caused any noise in the cabin. But, if you're at the edge of the balcony, the folks in the elevators can see you as they whiz by, so wave! 6) When underway you can hear when the ship even makes a slight turn as there's a change in the note of the propellers/azipods. That was kind of fun for us as we'd go out and watch the thrust swing from the center of the ship and then back. Vibration was never a problem though. In summary, I personally would avoid these cabins again. If you can deal with the downsides, go for it. I might consider it for a cruise where less children expected but the lack of sunshine is still a big issue for me. Otherwise if you require an accessible cabin, there are more further forward on the ship.

Coffee cards are a thing of the past. I believe you can still swap for sodas and such.

The invitation you receive says formal. I dressed in coat and tie and most other men did as well although a few had no tie. One man dressed in jeans and an old long sleeved shirt. All of the ladies passed a relaxed formal muster. Spellbound was amazing!

We had a great laugh walking from the pier past the cool military ships. In front of us walking toward the terminal were two young ladies from the Marbella Explorer 2 docked across from us. One was dressed like a nice tourist but the other IMHO was absolutely stunning (don't let DW read this). Flowing long white pants that were see-through enough to see the color of her bathing suit underneath and a matching jacket top that somehow didn't have any front buttons. It exposed a small white bandeau bra top underneath. To top it off she was blond with hair that fell to just above her shoulders. She was constantly flipping it and DW was making comments. Anyway you get the picture. As we passed the second military ship with the two ladies still ahead of us, there was a shout from the ship. The ladies turned and headed back to the vessel as at least five sailors in full battle rattle (I think they had just finished a drill) were hanging on the railing. One came down the gang plank to "chat them up". I predicted there would be a ship tour but we didn't wait to see.

IIRC, we had lunch there on a port day. Easier to get a seat! We've been there a couple of times at lunch. No music.

I asked Captain Arrego about Kotor last night. He was very direct telling me that Kotor does not have enough tenders (they insist on using theirs) to service the Sun Princess in a manner that would provide a good passenger experience, i.e. it would take too long to get everyone to shore. Kotor officials also insist that next season they will have enough tenders. This is why Kotor remains on itineraries in the coming years.

Yes! We had lunch there two days ago. Not sure when it starts but food is served until 1:30 PM, not all day. Food is again served at 5:30 PM.

I don't know about the deck 17 pools but the aft sea view pool on deck 8 is a single depth of one meter or 3'3" as is posted. There are two ladder entries on each side.

We're currently on the Sun Princess. While we love kids and generally enjoy them being around. As we continue on our third week and the summer season is getting into full swing, the only time we've been able to enjoy the pools without flailing arms and legs coupled with screams of delight (It's OK once in a while but not IMHO every ten seconds) is on the mornings of turnaround days! We are definitely considering spending the extra money for a sanctuary cabin with its adults-only pool if we ever take this ship during "kid season". - There, I've tied in my comments with the topic of this thread!

I too agree if you're only doing two segments (we're on the third segment as I type this), the first two are the best. We're on the way to Bar in Montenegro, not Bari which is an Italian port across the Adriatic. Took a ferry from there once and it wouldn't be on my top list of ports to visit.

We ate in The Catch a few nights ago on the Sun Princess. Currently this restaurant is located on deck 9 at the stern and is basically an extension of The Eatery with a separate open kitchen where you can see dishes being prepared. The headwaiter verified there would be a restaurant shuffle in the September/October time frame. The Catch would be moving to one of the Signature/Reserve restaurants and I think Kai Sushi would be moving somewhere as well. Not sure of the other details but he said no dock (wet or dry) would be required as it was mostly a change of signage.

I found one thing in common with the other classes! Deck 6 is blocked by the galley starting at midships and somewhat aft of that. To go aft you must take deck seven and can then go back down to 6.

Agree with most of @LittleTinker comments with some additional comments of my own: I really like the availability of electrical outlets and bedside USB-A and USB-C ports in our cabin. Our multi-tap "octopus" is relegated back into a suitcase. A word of warning, if you're in an "accessible" cabin the bed is too low for suitcase storage. However, with the extra width, there's plenty of space between the desk and wardrobe cabinet to keep your bags. I do not know if this is true for the non-accessible cabins. Pillows are very soft and no other option is available. The automatic night light is still just as obnoxious (personal opinion here) so rather than tape it, I use the extra pillow to block it. Lifts are a big improvement over the old style "elevator roulette" system as you now make your floor request from the elevator lobby and get an elevator assigned to you. I did notice the software update (I won't call it an upgrade) where you could now select your floor from inside the car has disappeared. Entertainment, i.e. production shows, is improving. One show was added last week for a total of three and a fourth show is being prepared. Also, the acrobats are great! Do not miss them. Venues like the dome and arena do seem a bit smaller than I expected for a ship with more passengers than the Royal class. Crooners is larger but O'Malley's is too small for the crowd it draws. Wheelhouse Bar is now the kind of a place where you stop on the way somewhere else, it's not a destination in itself, i.e. there's no entertainment there. Good Spirits is out of the way and smaller too. Sightlines on decks 8 and 9 in the Piazza are pretty bad for observing events happening on deck 7. I believe someone didn't check this during design or it was a problem they couldn't easily solve. I've suggested they use a camera to display the Piazza activities on the large LED screen. Casino smoking, while IMHO is always bad, is better than on other Princess casinos. Seems the air handling is much improved there. Yes, the shops are smaller with more emphasis on higher-end items. Effy has been replaced by Diamonds International. DI has a wider selection of lower-priced items than Effy and the sales tactics are much more subdued. While there is a Promenade deck, it isn't a walking deck. Rather it's now a place where you can dine al fresco or just sit at a table and enjoy the outdoors. I like it. The walking/joggng track on deck 19 is actually smaller than the Royal class. According to my measurements (GPS tracker while in port), it's 8 times around for a mile versus 7 times on the Royal class. This is not (yet) posted anywhere on the deck. Service speed is definitely hit and miss. In the morning the IC is very busy but I find it amazing how quickly the team can get orders out. It's a well-oiled machine. However in the afternoon the reduced staff level can make your wait longer. The ship is big and at first I thought that would be a problem. We didn't even see the Dome until our second week on board. I've gotten used to a few longer trips (we're in a cabin at the stern) and my Health app is very happy as I'm getting in my steps!

There are lots of existing and recent threads on the Sun Princess. There's even a current "Live From" thread. You are likely to get a lot more information from what's already written. Take a look.

We're two of those people who boarded in Barcelona last week. I heard the CD say it was about 2,000 who boarded there so almost a 50% turnover. What I was surprised at was how many of those were only on board for seven days. We'll be with you until Barcelona. Once we got more familiar with the ship's layout, we're definitely enjoying it. I will say that after a week, it was only last night we saw the Dome and the performance by the acrobatic team. It was great. A word to the wise though, seating can be limited so arrive a little early as we didn't do that the first week and were turned away. We're loving the new elevator system where you simply select your desired floor in the elevator lobby and the indicator lets you know which car to take. It was quite odd not to board the car and have to quickly turn and select your floor. Last week there was no ability to change your mind and select a different floor but as of yesterday it seems there was a software upgrade and now there are "buttons" on the display panel so you can now do this. Staff on board is top notch. They were all hand-picked for this assignment and it shows. Captain Paolo Arrigo is a hoot, an Italian that makes announcements with a British accent that according to some Brits we've met, is from nowhere. CD JaYson (yes that's how he spells it) is really out there but does a great job along with his staff. The passenger mix is wildly all over the map. Lots of families with kids ranging from infants to teens. Lots of young couples too and of course us older boomers. The cabin next to us has now been occupied by a family with young children. Seems the parents left them in the cabin last night and I suspect with jet lag the night time here was their morning so the noises coming through the wall made us think they were jumping from the beds onto the floor. DW had a nice word with them at 11PM and they quieted down. It's warming up quite a bit now and I think this will be a test for the AC systems on board. Our cabin is far aft and so far we've been ok but while the full cool setting is nice, it's barely cool enough. We'll see how that goes as the outside temperatures rise into the mid-to-high 90s F this coming week. I notice coming down the halls the temperature can vary wildly so there's definitely some rebalancing that needs to happen. I'm hope as this new ship encounters more varying weather this will eventually be worked out. Park 19 is still non-operational. We were walking the track up there yesterday and saw lots of young disappointed faces checking things out. Princess' focus on getting younger families on board seems to be working but with Park 19 out of the picture for now they'll have to overcome some bad PR I'm sure will come from this. Conversely as a Boomer, we're disappointed there's no sports court with basketball or pickle ball. We love the outside dining on the promenade deck! It's wonderful!

OK, since nobody has answered the question, I'll give it a go. We were on the Island late in 2022. Got an unexpected upgrade to a suite in the back of the ship. It was on Baja deck. We did notice a little bit of vibration now and then but nothing like has been discussed previously. It certainly wasn't 100% of the time and it may have been only at higher speeds. Of course all this is subjective but ... it was nowhere near what previous posts made us think it would be. So, we're now booked down low in a rear suite Plaza deck for a 54 day cruise on the Island in 2026. You could say we're OK with what we experienced in 2022.

Just like paying taxes, at the end of the cruise I'd rather owe them a little bit rather than have them owe me.

I understand that Premier reservations are only for production shows in the arena. Is this correct?

Not what I wanted to hear but thank you.

Sometimes simple is incorrect. They are two different acts.

Question for those of you who have a single booking on a multi-week sailing (multiple segments) and also have the Premier Package. Do you get two specialty dinners for each segment or is it just two for the entire booking?

I thought the park rangers arrived on the ship by their own boat from their local ranger station. Seems they could leave anytime by their boat.

We experienced all the good things others have said on our connoisseur tour two years ago. Like the European guide mentioned, ours did give us lots of information on the upcoming stops to prepare us for the on-your-own but of course didn't accompany us as he couldn't split himself up. Found out later that he spent much of his "away" time ensuring the dinner plans were correct, taking care of guest's anniversaries and birthdays and preparing for the next stop.

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