Sun Princess Mega-review Pt1

[wdblake]

Sun Princess Southern Caribbean Cruise 10/19-10/29

 

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale on 10/18 and spent the night at the Amerisuites 17th Ave. hotel. This is an excellent place to stay if you are cruising out of Fort Lauderdale. They have an option to park your car on the premises and take a free shuttle to the port. This will save you a ton of money as parking is $12 a day at the port. The rooms are very nice with mini-fridges, microwaves, and king sized beds. They are very reasonably priced as well. The shuttle will even pick you up from the port if you want to wait for it. I would highly recommend this hotel for anyone cruising.

 

Embarkation Day

 

We arrived at the port only to find out that we had to sit outside a dirty concrete building and wait to be let in. Thank goodness it was October and not terribly hot. Most lines have a terminal you can sit in while you wait but apparently princess hasn’t graduated to this yet. On the upside they were fairly speedy once they let us inside in getting us onboard. Doing your pre-boarding stuff online helps expedite things.

 

On the Ship Day 1

 

We arrived on board and checked out our stateroom on Dolphin deck #203. Many people have complained about the postage stamp sized rooms but we found our cabin to be just fine. I didn’t feel terribly cramped. We then rushed to Verdi’s for the first of several tasty pizzas.

Next it was off to see about our dinner seating assignment. We were very aggravated to find that the tradition dining option we had chosen had been replaced with the much maligned “personal choice dining”. We met with the Maitre d and he set us up with a table for two for the whole cruise. I will discuss more about “personal choice dining” later. We had dinner and the prime rib was excellent.

 

Day 2 Princess Cays

 

Well the Sun Princess did not live up to its name. We tendered in under cloudy skies and within an hour were sitting on a rainy beach. The island seemed nice and would be a lot of fun on a good day. We had reserved a pool float which was a mistake because we did not get to use it and there were plenty of them to be had. My suggestion is not to reserve anything on Princess Cays ahead of time since they have lots of stuff available.

The cook out was so-so with the usual hot dogs and hamburgers.

 

At Sea Day 3

 

We had a perfect sea day, sunny with a nice breeze. We did not have to fight for a chair on this cruise and many seats were still available at 10am. I would recommend the upper deck as there is a better breeze up there. Be sure to try a Wild Berry Rita.

 

 

Day 4 St. Thomas

 

Rain, rain go away. We had planned to go to St. Johns by ferry to visit Trunk Bay beach but the rain put an end to that. We were disappointed but figured that since St Thomas is a common cruise ship stop this would not be our last chance to return to our favorite beach. We hit a few duty free shops for supplies then just lounged around the ship.

 

Day 5 Dominica

 

We have a sunny port at last. We booked a tour with Fredo’s tours to see the Emerald pool and Tralfalgar falls. The island is very lush and beautiful and well worth seeing. Fredo’s provided a great tour however we were bunched in with a group that wanted to also see the botanical gardens and Mr. Nice’s fruit stand so the tour ended up running us about 5 hours long. Fredo’s didn’t charge my wife and I extra but after about hour 3 we were ready to head back. The botanical gardens are a huge waste of time. It’s a park with about 20 trees and a bunch of parrots in a cage. Everyone talks about Mr. Nice’s fruit stand but we thought it was gross. Eating food in a strange country in a questionably clean environment is something we didn’t want to do. Overall though the tour was great and our driver Willfred was very accommodating.

 

Day 6 Barbados

 

We booked a discover scuba tour through the ship for this day. We discovered that we don’t like scuba. We had some issues with the company that provided the tour. They use a dilapidated resort next door as their changing rooms. The restrooms were filthy and there were empty liquor bottles scattered all over the place. The boat we boarded was just anchored in the breaking surf and when my wife boarded she cut her leg. We had to ask the boat operator for first aid after she sat there bleeding into a towel. On the up side the instructors where very good and worked well with those trying to learn. It’s a shame their professionalism was overshadowed by their surroundings. I think next time we will try the power snorkel.

 

Day 7 Isla Margarita

 

We had no real plans here since it was such a short stop so we hit the port for some shopping. I wasn’t expecting much but I will say we found the best souvenirs here. I would save my money for shopping at this port. Everything is handmade. They don’t try to pressure you. No beggars trying to hit you up for money. All in all the little shopping village by the port was quite enjoyable. You can get some quality souveniers for those at home here. I heard people talking and they said the trip into town was a little scary. Lots of armed soldiers patrolling the streets.

 

Day 8 Curacao

 

We took a taxi to the Seaquarium to snorkel with the fishes. It was an awesome experience. They have an enclosed natural reef stocked with lots of fish. They give you minnows to feed the fish and to feed sharks and turtles through a plexiglass wall. I would really recommend this activity.

The town itself is beautiful with its vibrantly colored buildings. Pack your sneakers for shopping though as it is a little bit of a hike to the shopping areas. This is a beautiful town.

 

Day 9 At Sea

 

Another rainy day so we just enjoyed the boat.

 

Day 10 At Sea

 

The sun came out and we finished up with sun and fun on the boat.

 

 

 

 

Debarkation

 

Debarking went fairly smooth. You can go to the Pursers desk if you need to get off earlier than your tags allow.

[wdblake]

The Ship

 

The Sun is a beautiful ship which is in spectacular condition for a ten year old vessel. It’s an easy ship to maneuver around and offers a lot of nice touches.

 

Our Cabin

 

We stayed in Dolphin 203 near the front of the ship. Our cabin was not as small as we thought it would be. They provide a safe, a mini-fridge, a fruit bowl, hair dryer, and various toiletries (shampoo, etc). If you like you can request an egg crate mattress which really helps soften the bed. You can also request robes for your room which really comes in handy for those late night hot tub treks. Stateroom TV offers a couple of news channels, 2 cartoon channels, a classic TV channel, TNT, as well as some movie channels offering not yet released to video titles. There is also a movie channel that runs the same movie all day. Of course you have the usual ship channels with ship’s location and shore excursions and etc.

 

Food…Horizon Court

 

Avoid the Horizon Court at all costs. The tables are crowded together. The food is lousy. You are better off in the dining room for all your meals. There was a cattle line every morning to get into the court. Why hassle with all this when you can get excellent quality food and service in the dining room.

 

Dining Room

 

The dining room staff and quality of food are excellent. Every breakfast I had was just about perfect. My bacon was crisp but not overdone. The eggs were cooked just right. The dinners they served were top notch. I had delicious prime rib, filet mignon, and lobster. In fact my wife and I enjoyed every seafood, beef, and pasta recipe they served. One tip though. When it comes to beef they tend to cook it a little more than most people are used to. It you like it pink and juicy you need to order medium rare. I don’t like bloody steak and I usually order medium but medium rare was perfect for me on this cruise. The staff was very accommodating without being irritating.

 

 

 

Personal Choice Dining

 

There have been a lot of complaints about personal choice dining but by the end of the cruise my wife and I loved it. When we first arrived on the ship we were upset to learn the tradition early seating we had booked had been replaced with Personal choice dining. We went to complain to the Maitre D’ and he set us up with a nice table for two. He told us to just let them know at the end of our first dinner that we wanted the same table and time each night. We had the same seat waiting for us every night. The only time you have to wait is if you don’t reserve a seat ahead of time. Even then the wait time is next to nothing. We observed as well that our courses came a lot quicker due to the fact that the waiter did not have to wait on a lot of tables at the same time. It was nice to enjoy our meals in a timely fashion so we could retire to our room for a cocktail before the night’s activities. The marquis and regency dining rooms are identical so you really don’t miss out on anything. I think we will go personal choice from here on out.

 

Verdi’s Pizza

 

Verdi’s pizza is a must visit restaurant on this ship. We enjoyed pizza, pasta, and the calzones. The pizza was on a thin crispy crust with really fresh ingredients. They have several personal sizes which have about four slices. They also have a large pizza for two. You can choose your own ingredients. Room service will even deliver Verdi’s pizza to your room so long as the restaurant is open. They operate from 11:30am-4pm and again at 6pm-12:00am. We really enjoyed the lasagna as well. You should plan to make at least one stop here on your voyage.

 

Terrace Grill

 

The Terrace grill by the pool makes a great lunch stop. They have hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, bratwurst, and knockwurst. All are available with fries which are good and crisp. They open at 11am so get in line early since the lines form quickly. I personally think they try to torture pool guests by sending the smell of grilled onions throughout the pool area. You can’t help but get hungry. When I caught a whiff of those onions I shuffled like a zombie to the grill.

 

Desserts

 

I don’t want to sound like a griper but the desserts on this cruise were somewhat lacking. My wife is a chocoholic and she more than once couldn’t finish the desserts onboard. I think they don’t have a pastry chef since a number of the pastries seemed to taste like they came out of a box. Even the desserts in the dining room though good were nothing spectacular. Hopefully this is something that will improve.

[wdblake]

Room Service

 

Room service was right on the money on this cruise. Every time we ordered something it was delivered right away. The room service menu was not all that great and the sandwiches we ordered were kind of plain. The nicest aspect of room service was the ability to order a bottle of alcohol for stateroom consumption. We ordered a bottle of crown royal and it arrived with a dish of peanuts. They charged us $25 a liter which is not that much more expensive than what you would pay at a liquor store. All cruise ships should do this!

 

Entertainment

 

The entertainment on this ship is the best we have had at sea. I think it was an excellent idea on their part to use the vista lounge at the back of the ship as a second theater. Most ships just do shows in their main theater. On this ship if you don’t like what’s playing in the Princess theater the Vista would offer something completely different. As a result we went to shows almost every night. Both theaters fill up quick so get there at least a half hour early if want to see the show (especially the early shows). The cruise staff was extremely interactive and never let things get dull. They had more game shows on this cruise than any other I have been on. They have family feud, weakest link, jeopardy, name that tune, trivia, and of course the not so newlywed game. Assistant cruise director Julie was an excellent host with a great sense of humor.

“Tidal wave” provided great calypso and reggae tunes poolside and got the crowd hopping with a number of line dance tunes (practice your electric slide).

A few sour notes literally. Avoid the “Melodics”, a band that sounds like a bag of cats being squished by a rocking chair.

Also avoid Ben Roberts the atrium singer. He should be named the butcher for the way he seemed to butcher every song he played. He has a horrible voice and spends most of the time getting extremely drunk. His sense of humor is dull and crass. He must have had some compromising pictures of someone to land this job. Last I heard Princess was getting rid of him, probably to find someone with talent.

We attended both the Hoe Down and Island night. The Hoe down was lackluster due to rain. I was also surprised that no food was served. You would think they would serve up some barbeque or something.

Island night was a lot of fun. They had their grand buffet which was not very grand I’m sad to say. All they had were desserts and fruit. The bands kept the passengers hopping and we finished the night throwing lots of colorful streamers into the air. Pack your Hawaiian shirt and practice your line dancing.

Overall you will find this to be probably the most entertaining cruise you have ever sailed. The entertainment staff alone makes me want to be a repeat Princess cruiser.

 

Our cabin attendant

 

I need to make a mention of Israel our cabin steward. I hope those of you cruising will be as lucky as we were to have such a personable and profession steward. He greeted us every day with a smile and he seemed to really take pride in what he was doing. He really added to our overall cruise enjoyment. After our cruise he was taking his time off to be with his family and his little girl but he should be back in a few months.

 

All in all I would say that Princess has become one of our favorite lines, second only to Celebrity, but far more affordable. We will definitely be sailing this line for many years to come.

 

Happy Cruising!!

[Coral]

Glad you had a good cruise and enjoyed the Sun Princess. The cabins are smaller then some other ships but I still love the ship.

 

Sorry about the weather :( Sounds like you did have some nice days though.

[chapdaddy]

My wife and I are sailing on the Sun 2/16/06. We have been on the larger Grand and CP 2X. This will be our first on the smaller ship and are looking forward to it. The only shore tour that we know we want to try in the Whale watching in Dominica. Any way thanks again.:D

[Lp56]

Our plane lands at 8:40am on the day of our cruise. We will be going on the Sun Princess Nov.8th. out of Fort Lauderdale.What time could you board the ship? I guess from what you said, we should hang around the airport awhile before going to the pier.What time did they start letting you into the building?

Linda

[chrysalis]

your ticket package will show "boarding time" but my experience with the Sun has been that we could board around 11:30am or so.

[ChattTenn]

 

All in all I would say that Princess has become one of our favorite lines, second only to Celebrity, but far more affordable. We will definitely be sailing this line for many years to come.

 

Happy Cruising!!

 

Wdblake,

 

Enjoyed your review.

 

We were on the Caribbean Princess 10/15/2005 - 10/22/2005 when Sun Princess was passing by. We are checking into the Sun Princess for next year and so glad to read this review.

 

Thanks for the review.

[Coolmama_1]

Great review! Despite a few rainy days, sounds like you had a great time. Isla Margarita was one of our favorite ports. It was there that I started my Nativity collection from the local merchants. By the end of th cruise I had bought 14! They are all unique and a great souvenier from my cruise.

 

Thanks again for your review.

[wdblake]

You can enter the terminal at 11:30 but prior to that people will be lining up outside. I guess it depends on how early you want to get on the boat. To their credit the lines move rather swiftly. I thought it was really effective as well that they had specific check in counters based on what deck you were staying on.

[spongerob]

Great review! I'm still laughing at that "bag of cats" comment. :)

[orhodes]

Geez...I, uh, guess you didn't like Ben Roberts? ;)

 

 

thanks for the review. :)

[Floflegs]

Thanks for the review. looking forward to our cruise on the sun in just under 2 weeks!:)

[cruiseapril]

Great review. We did the same itinerary on the Dawn in April. Hope you get to go back to Princess Cays and St. Thomas some day for hot sun and swimming. The swimming conditions at Magen's Bay were some of the best we have experienced! We like the Princess itineraries and plan to go on the Sun's Eastern Caribbean cruise (Antigua, St. Lucia, Grenada, Martinique, St. Thomas, and Princess Cays.)

[cruiseapril]

Great review. We did the same itinerary on the Dawn in April. Hope you get to go back to Princess Cays and St. Thomas some day for hot sun and swimming. The swimming conditions at Magen's Bay were some of the best we have experienced!

We like the Princess itineraries and plan to go on the Sun's Eastern Caribbean cruise (Antigua, St. Lucia, Grenada, Martinique, St. Thomas, and Princess Cays.)

[newcruiseguy]

great review, my new wife and i are going in April for our First cruise together and we need all the info we can get on this cruise...thanks so much.....

Sun Princess Southern Caribbean Cruise 10/19-10/29

 

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale on 10/18 and spent the night at the Amerisuites 17th Ave. hotel. This is an excellent place to stay if you are cruising out of Fort Lauderdale. They have an option to park your car on the premises and take a free shuttle to the port. This will save you a ton of money as parking is $12 a day at the port. The rooms are very nice with mini-fridges, microwaves, and king sized beds. They are very reasonably priced as well. The shuttle will even pick you up from the port if you want to wait for it. I would highly recommend this hotel for anyone cruising.

 

Embarkation Day

 

We arrived at the port only to find out that we had to sit outside a dirty concrete building and wait to be let in. Thank goodness it was October and not terribly hot. Most lines have a terminal you can sit in while you wait but apparently princess hasn’t graduated to this yet. On the upside they were fairly speedy once they let us inside in getting us onboard. Doing your pre-boarding stuff online helps expedite things.

 

On the Ship Day 1

 

We arrived on board and checked out our stateroom on Dolphin deck #203. Many people have complained about the postage stamp sized rooms but we found our cabin to be just fine. I didn’t feel terribly cramped. We then rushed to Verdi’s for the first of several tasty pizzas.

Next it was off to see about our dinner seating assignment. We were very aggravated to find that the tradition dining option we had chosen had been replaced with the much maligned “personal choice dining”. We met with the Maitre d and he set us up with a table for two for the whole cruise. I will discuss more about “personal choice dining” later. We had dinner and the prime rib was excellent.

 

Day 2 Princess Cays

 

Well the Sun Princess did not live up to its name. We tendered in under cloudy skies and within an hour were sitting on a rainy beach. The island seemed nice and would be a lot of fun on a good day. We had reserved a pool float which was a mistake because we did not get to use it and there were plenty of them to be had. My suggestion is not to reserve anything on Princess Cays ahead of time since they have lots of stuff available.

The cook out was so-so with the usual hot dogs and hamburgers.

 

At Sea Day 3

 

We had a perfect sea day, sunny with a nice breeze. We did not have to fight for a chair on this cruise and many seats were still available at 10am. I would recommend the upper deck as there is a better breeze up there. Be sure to try a Wild Berry Rita.

 

 

Day 4 St. Thomas

 

Rain, rain go away. We had planned to go to St. Johns by ferry to visit Trunk Bay beach but the rain put an end to that. We were disappointed but figured that since St Thomas is a common cruise ship stop this would not be our last chance to return to our favorite beach. We hit a few duty free shops for supplies then just lounged around the ship.

 

Day 5 Dominica

 

We have a sunny port at last. We booked a tour with Fredo’s tours to see the Emerald pool and Tralfalgar falls. The island is very lush and beautiful and well worth seeing. Fredo’s provided a great tour however we were bunched in with a group that wanted to also see the botanical gardens and Mr. Nice’s fruit stand so the tour ended up running us about 5 hours long. Fredo’s didn’t charge my wife and I extra but after about hour 3 we were ready to head back. The botanical gardens are a huge waste of time. It’s a park with about 20 trees and a bunch of parrots in a cage. Everyone talks about Mr. Nice’s fruit stand but we thought it was gross. Eating food in a strange country in a questionably clean environment is something we didn’t want to do. Overall though the tour was great and our driver Willfred was very accommodating.

 

Day 6 Barbados

 

We booked a discover scuba tour through the ship for this day. We discovered that we don’t like scuba. We had some issues with the company that provided the tour. They use a dilapidated resort next door as their changing rooms. The restrooms were filthy and there were empty liquor bottles scattered all over the place. The boat we boarded was just anchored in the breaking surf and when my wife boarded she cut her leg. We had to ask the boat operator for first aid after she sat there bleeding into a towel. On the up side the instructors where very good and worked well with those trying to learn. It’s a shame their professionalism was overshadowed by their surroundings. I think next time we will try the power snorkel.

 

Day 7 Isla Margarita

 

We had no real plans here since it was such a short stop so we hit the port for some shopping. I wasn’t expecting much but I will say we found the best souvenirs here. I would save my money for shopping at this port. Everything is handmade. They don’t try to pressure you. No beggars trying to hit you up for money. All in all the little shopping village by the port was quite enjoyable. You can get some quality souveniers for those at home here. I heard people talking and they said the trip into town was a little scary. Lots of armed soldiers patrolling the streets.

 

Day 8 Curacao

 

We took a taxi to the Seaquarium to snorkel with the fishes. It was an awesome experience. They have an enclosed natural reef stocked with lots of fish. They give you minnows to feed the fish and to feed sharks and turtles through a plexiglass wall. I would really recommend this activity.

The town itself is beautiful with its vibrantly colored buildings. Pack your sneakers for shopping though as it is a little bit of a hike to the shopping areas. This is a beautiful town.

 

Day 9 At Sea

 

Another rainy day so we just enjoyed the boat.

 

Day 10 At Sea

 

The sun came out and we finished up with sun and fun on the boat.

 

 

 

 

Debarkation

 

Debarking went fairly smooth. You can go to the Pursers desk if you need to get off earlier than your tags allow.

[newcruiseguy]

my wife and i are going on our first cruise together(my second) but we need all the info we can get on this cruise as we are going on the exact same....thanks a bunch:)

[Liat]

when we sailed on Sun Princess to Alaska. I will have to write Princess for a refund - or a major credit at least. I was gypped!

Seriously - I hope someone at Princess reads your comments about your room steward. Such good service deserves to be recognized, and I always appreciate posters who do this by name.