Sea Princess 3rd/4th person cabins?

[Samantha94]

We have just booked an Alaskan cruise for next summer for our 40th wedding anniversary and we are taking our two children and 6 grandchildren on this cruise. Due to the numbers of people, we have booked 3 cabins that will accommodate the 3rd & 4th person. Has anyone used these cabins and do the twin beds move to make a queen and what about the 3rd and 4th passenger? Our TA says that the 3rd & 4th come from the "ceiling" ??? Some of our grandchildren are quite young - should we bring sleeping bags for them?????

[rdsqrl]

Oh, you want to be very careful about this. I believe it's this class of ship that has really terrible cabins for 4 people, nothing at all like on the other ships. The photos I've seen are of a very narrow cabin with a twin bed attached to each wall and a bunk over each one. Cramped and unpleasant looking. Hopefully someone else will post the photo and the cabin category. I'll look and see if I can find it, too.

[rdsqrl]

Found 'em! They're Hulagirl's photos, from a balcony quad.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/554476935BFthsx

 

They're of the Sun but that's a twin to the Sea so it could be identical. Here's a link to the entire thread, which may answer more questions for you:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=23166003&highlight=#post23166003

[houch]

I cruised with 3 other girls 3 times on the Sun class ships, 4 in an ocean view room. Once each on the Ocean, Sun, and Sea. Twice on Plaza deck and once on Emerald. Two were 7 day cruises and one was for 15 days. The 2 lower beds were permanent, never folded up. The uppers either dropped from the ceiling or the side. We were able to put all our suitcases under the 2 beds. We had room for all our unpacked clothes and room for out stuff on the bathroom shelves. It was tight but we never had any problems, even with 4 gals getting dressed for the formal nights. We aren't petite and the upper beds held us without any problems.

I think it might be more difficult with 2 adults and 2 children, not much room for them to run around and the early bed time for the kids and later time for the adults. I believe if you want to bad enough you can make anything work.

[Hulagirl]

It depends on the cabin that you have booked! The pictures that were posted are indeed ours and it is a truly uncomfortable cabin. Enough so that we will never sail on these ships in one of these. This is a balcony cabin for 3 to 4 people. If you have booked an ocean view cabin, then you will actually have 2 beds and the others will fold out of the wall. The balcony cabins are configured this way on these ships for the triple/quad cabins with no storage for suitcases and barely enough room for 3 people.

 

I hope you don't have the balcony for any of you with these cabins. When we walked in I thought they had put us in storage room because there wasn't a bed there.

 

Good luck.

[Bizzie07]

Myself DH & DD age 12 were in a 4 berth balcony cabin on Sea Princess in April this year.

I did not like the configuration of this cabin at all, but in saying that I did eventually get used to it.

We were in Aloha 641. Its configuration was a sofa bed and three upper beds that came from the bulkhead (not the ceiling). Initially is was like walking into a corridor. The steward took our cases away as there was nowhere to store them.

 

We left the lower pullman down all the time. It made the cabin look slightly better.

 

There is no floor space for a rollaway or a sleeping bag.

 

We were lucky enough to have 5 extra days on board due to the volcano and we then moved to A735. It was about 8 cabins along. It was slightly different as it did not have a sofa bed.

 

We have cruised many times and this was definitely the worst configuration we have had, but it did not spoil the cruise.

[Samantha94]

Bizzie, Thank you for your comments. I am concerned as one of the cabins out of the three that we have booked is next to 735 (737)on the Baja deck. I would assume that all these cabins are the same just different decks - Aloha 735 versus Baja 735. I have never heard of beds that came from the ceiling?? Can't even figure how that would work - we may need to rethink this whole deal -

Samantha

 

Myself DH & DD age 12 were in a 4 berth balcony cabin on Sea Princess in April this year.

I did not like the configuration of this cabin at all, but in saying that I did eventually get used to it.

We were in Aloha 641. Its configuration was a sofa bed and three upper beds that came from the bulkhead (not the ceiling). Initially is was like walking into a corridor. The steward took our cases away as there was nowhere to store them.

 

We left the lower pullman down all the time. It made the cabin look slightly better.

 

There is no floor space for a rollaway or a sleeping bag.

 

We were lucky enough to have 5 extra days on board due to the volcano and we then moved to A735. It was about 8 cabins along. It was slightly different as it did not have a sofa bed.

 

We have cruised many times and this was definitely the worst configuration we have had, but it did not spoil the cruise.

[Samantha94]

Thanks for finding the photos of the quad rooms - I must say it is a huge disappointment especially for a "balcony" room. Don't know what to do as we want to disembark out of San Francisco for Alaska to avoid flight costs since we are paying for all, and it seems this is the only ship that does that - Our problem is that we have two children that each have 3 children and the cabins will only hold 4 so we thought this would be a good alternative. Even the suites (although quite pricey) don't seem to sleep more people - Really appreciate your efforts and help and if you have any suggestions at all, I am totally open to them!!!

Samantha

Found 'em! They're Hulagirl's photos, from a balcony quad.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/554476935BFthsx

 

They're of the Sun but that's a twin to the Sea so it could be identical. Here's a link to the entire thread, which may answer more questions for you:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=23166003&highlight=#post23166003

[Samantha94]

Hula Girl: Thanks so much for the pictures; wow - a pictures says a thousand words!!! It looks that you have traveled a lot - do you know the difference between the balcony and the oceanview quads? Do you think we would be better off going with an oceanview instead of the balcony? Samantha

It depends on the cabin that you have booked! The pictures that were posted are indeed ours and it is a truly uncomfortable cabin. Enough so that we will never sail on these ships in one of these. This is a balcony cabin for 3 to 4 people. If you have booked an ocean view cabin, then you will actually have 2 beds and the others will fold out of the wall. The balcony cabins are configured this way on these ships for the triple/quad cabins with no storage for suitcases and barely enough room for 3 people.

 

I hope you don't have the balcony for any of you with these cabins. When we walked in I thought they had put us in storage room because there wasn't a bed there.

 

Good luck.

[Bizzie07]

We sailed on Sea Princess a few years ago but is was Ocean View (without balcony). We also sailed on Oceana (P&O) with the same layout . The Ocean view had two lower and two upper (from the ceiling). Unfortunately I cannot remember the decks we were on, but it would have been midships. The layout was definitely better than the balcony cabins!

[Bizzie07]

Samantha,

 

One thing i should say is that my DD (12yrs) really was great about it. I was furious with my husband (he booked the cabin without any input from us), her attitude was brilliant "Mum, what does it really matter, we don't spend any time in the cabin anyway so why worry".

 

She was right!

[RickEk]

Hula Girl: Thanks so much for the pictures; wow - a pictures says a thousand words!!! It looks that you have traveled a lot - do you know the difference between the balcony and the oceanview quads? Do you think we would be better off going with an oceanview instead of the balcony? Samantha

 

If you look farther in that thread, you'll see a link to a picture of an oceanview quad on Dawn Princess... here it is again...

 

 

Much better than the balcony quad, imho... enough so that we booked another oceanview quad for Alaska in July on Sea Princess. It's a bit cramped, but it was manageable for three men and my teenage son. As they say, we didn't spend that much time there...:)

[Samantha94]

Thanks for all the input; I really appreciate it. After seeing the pictures from the Dawn Princess balcony cabin that HulaGirl shared, I called our TA and asked her directly to please send me a diagram of the cabin that we will be getting on the Sea Princess. She called and said that she called Princess and they were unable to find a diagram for the cabin, but she did say that she was told by a Princess representataive that the Sea Princess quad cabins had two twin beds that were stationery with "recessed beds" (something like a trundle bed). This may work, but am wondering if anyone out there has ever heard of this type of configuration???

Samantha

[cherylandtk]

Boy, I sure would not trust that description without an actual picture. "Recessed, like a trundle" would mean that you have two fixed beds with a trundle arrangement underneath each one. Now, I have heard of a few of these trundle set-ups, but I cannot see how they can put two in one cabin, it would mean when the trundles are out you would have 4 beds side-by-side in the floor of a cabin.

 

Tell your TA to tell Princess to contact the Hotel Director and have him send you a photo of that cabin on their next turnaround day if they are going to claim that. The deck plans show that all the quad balconies have non-converting (ie fixed) lowers, so they ALL should look just like Hulagirl's pictures.

[HomelessBear]

You may also want to bear in mind that balconies on the Sea P are quite small compared to other Princess ships, as they are cut out of the hull. It was just about OK for the two of us on the balcony but would be a squash for more folks out there. So if you were thinking of using the balcony as "an extension of the cabin", it would be very limited.

 

As we were walking along the corridor one morning, we passed a cabin that had the quad beds - like the one in HulaGirl's photo - and I could see the general layout from the corridor and I must admit it didn't look very inviting. If it were me, I think I'd tend to go for the oceanview with at least two fixed twin beds, and spend the time on deck. Looks a better layour overall.

 

Whichever you go for, hope you have a great cruise.

[Hulagirl]

I'm so glad we took these pictures to show these cabins. All four of the Sun Class ships that were originally built for Princess (Sun, Dawn, Sea and Ocean) have these exact same cabins. The triple/quad balcony are identical. I did extensive research into this after we did our cruise on the Sun Princess in 1999. The only reason we had this cabin again on the Dawn was for a one night repo cruise from Seattle to Vancouver and I wanted pictures to post. Nobody can really believe what these cabins are like until you see the pictures.

 

Unfortunately, if you call Princess, they will tell you that the beds can be converted to a queen, that there are actual beds in the cabins, etc. These people don't have the correct information and it has been frustrating to others that have had these. Over the years there has been questions about this set up, which is why I wanted to take those pictures.

 

When we did another one night on the Dawn we had an ocean view cabin on the Plaza deck. It actually had the two twin beds and the other bed did fold out of the wall like the regular balcony cabins on all the other ships. It is when all the beds fold out of the wall that it makes for the discomfort of the cabin. One night was liveable, but not for longer, at least for us.

 

This almost ended our cruising with Princess. We had the Grand Princess booked for the following year and when we returned from the Sun is when I started researching this. I was ready to cancel, but that was when I found out what ships had the cabins configured this way.

 

I would definitely give this some thought when booking this cabin. It probably won't ruin a cruise, but I can say it just isn't going to be comfortable without the regular bed. Getting dressed was interesting also with no place to sit but one chair.

 

Good luck with your decision.

[ChelleR]

I was wondering if the upper bunks have railings? I would be worried that my 10 and 8 year old kids would roll off during the night in their sleep.

 

Thanks!

Michelle

[Samantha94]

Thank you AGAIN! You all are wonderful and so helpful. After seeing the pix, my daughter and I have started to research other cruise lines and apparently Celebrity has family oceanview with veranda's that sleep 5 in a cabin - Our TA is checking prices for me - The cabins are at the very end of the ship, but considering options, one has to give and take on these things and the cabins look beautiful compared to the quads on Princess. I'll keep you all posted as to what we find out - glad we started early in booking this cruise :)

Samantha

[Hulagirl]

Samantha: So glad we could help. I would say, no matter what the price is for the cabin on Celebrity, go for it! You will be so much happier. Have to tell you, when we first walked into that cabin on the Sun Princess we did go to the Pursers Desk to see if there was anything else available on the ship. We would have gladly paid anything to have been in a different cabin. But of course there wasn't so we lived with it. I think you would/will be much happier in the cabin you described on Celebrity.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

[Asil65]

Our family of 4 decided to book two cabins on our upcoming trip. One balcony and the inside across the hall. It was cheaper for us to do this than to book all four of us into one room. You would have to sleep apart from your partner with one of the kids but it might be worth it if you really like the itinerary.

[Times Prince]

We've had cabins in the Sun class ships where the upper berths dropped down from a ceiling recess. The steward enabled this with a key switch. So there is a possibility you might have one of those cabins. If I recall rightly they were Oceanview cabins.

[OldJerseycruiser]

When the children were younger, we had a quad on E deck (1 week) and a triple on P deck (2 weeks) on Sea Princess. We found they were fine, as we don't really spend a great deal of time in the cabin. The upper bunks were put back up into the ceiling during the day and let down again when you are dining in the evening. We also managed to fit all 4 suitcases under the lower bunks and the steward also said he could store them if we wanted.

[villauk]

Our family of 4 decided to book two cabins on our upcoming trip. One balcony and the inside across the hall. It was cheaper for us to do this than to book all four of us into one room. You would have to sleep apart from your partner with one of the kids but it might be worth it if you really like the itinerary.

After seeing Hulagirl's photos, we're also considering booking 2 cabins on the Sun Princess. The Australian itinerary is ideal for us so it's either a balcony and an inside or 2 insides (depending on costs which we are unsure of at present as we're still awaiting the cruise to be available in the UK). We know the cruise is available in the USA but not here yet, and we can't book Princess cruises with an American TA because of being UK residents! Would anyone be able to check on the Princess USA website if there are balcony midship cabins and an inside opposite available on Baja deck on Sun Princess sailing 16 April 2011 from Sydney to Freemantle? Would really appreciate someone checking as it would confirm which options are still available to us. Many thanks.

[Samantha94]

Hulagirl: Yep, we checked with our TA and she was able to secure the Family Oceanview with veranda cabins for us on Celebrity. They are quite large and will accommodate our children's families of 5 and we booked a CC veranda for us right next to them. I so appreciate all your help and so very glad that I posted the question on Cruise Critic for ideas about the quad layouts. Research sure does pay off and it is good to know about other options available. Cruise Critic has been a wonderful resource and all the people are just great! Thanks again and happy cruising to you and your family! Samantha

Samantha: So glad we could help. I would say, no matter what the price is for the cabin on Celebrity, go for it! You will be so much happier. Have to tell you, when we first walked into that cabin on the Sun Princess we did go to the Pursers Desk to see if there was anything else available on the ship. We would have gladly paid anything to have been in a different cabin. But of course there wasn't so we lived with it. I think you would/will be much happier in the cabin you described on Celebrity.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

[rdsqrl]

After seeing Hulagirl's photos, we're also considering booking 2 cabins on the Sun Princess. The Australian itinerary is ideal for us so it's either a balcony and an inside or 2 insides (depending on costs which we are unsure of at present as we're still awaiting the cruise to be available in the UK). We know the cruise is available in the USA but not here yet, and we can't book Princess cruises with an American TA because of being UK residents! Would anyone be able to check on the Princess USA website if there are balcony midship cabins and an inside opposite available on Baja deck on Sun Princess sailing 16 April 2011 from Sydney to Freemantle? Would really appreciate someone checking as it would confirm which options are still available to us. Many thanks.

No midships Baja deck insides or balconies (Cats. I and BB respectively) showed open when I checked availability but by putting in exact cabin numbers, I found B542 (inside) and B540 (balcony) available. There were lots of choices in those categories on Aloha Deck, however. Hope this helps a little. Good luck!