Few thing to mention about Sky Princess

[grouchomarx]

Just got back from the Christmas cruise. It was wonderful, perhaps our best cruise ever.  I won't go into crazy details, since there is a lot of info here. Just wanted to point out a few things that may be of interest:

 

-The production shows (Rock Opera, Five Skies) were only done once. We missed them due to timing. So if you really want to see them pay attention to the patters.

 

-Brunch was never offered at Bistro Sur La Mer. I checked the patters every day, as well as the restaurant and it never happened. I was kind of looking forward to that.

 

-Speaking of Bistro Sur La Mer, we enjoyed it but it is totally open to the Piazza so it lacks the intimacy of Crown Grill and Sabatini's.  It was very good though and never crowded.

 

-Digital photos are $20 EACH. I was appalled at this pricing and we declined to purchase our 3 lousy photos for $60.  Highway robbery!  

 

-The buffet is the best we've ever encountered on any cruise.  Never struggled for a seat even at peak times, service was on you within 30 seconds and came back for refills.  The food selection was very nice and it was well organized.  They had 3-4 Indian dishes every day and they varied.  The taco station was my favorite. Killer carnitas!

 

-Good Spirits at Sea bar has the nighttime menu with the "special drinks".  Daytime is only standard drinks.  If you drink all 11 special drinks, you can get a free T-shirt. We only got though 8. They give you a thick laminated recipe card for every drink you have. Nice touch.  Once in a while they do demos and hand out drinks.  It is in the patters listed only as Good Spirits at Sea.  Ryan thinks he is the star bartender, but we think Lou is the real star.

 

-Ordering drinks through the app works well when you are within range.  Never had a problem and it was fast. You can track the status on the app, much like ordering a Domino's pizza. Your exact location can be out of range by only a few feet so be aware, try moving around a little unless you're in a totally far away place like the upper pool decks and the promenade deck.  

 

-MDR had escargot and beef wellington on Gala night. Both were excellent.

 

-Do not go to Alfredo's for lunch without expecting a little wait.  They are so popular!  We sat at the counter one day when it was swamped and that was fun to watch them make all the pizzas. Problem is we stirred up a lot of interest in passers by and they mistakenly thought they could just pull up a seat and order with the cooks, as well as get take out pizza.

 

-For anyone who said anything bad about Take 5, they are crazy!  This place is very large, wonderfully decorated, the live music was excellent and the bar service top notch.  It is an excellent replacement for Crooners (minus the nighttime singalongs, which I can live without).  Very high class and a beautiful space. Too bad it is used as a thoroughfare for passers by but it's not a major problem.  The Crown Grill bar is also huge and popular but it lacks the sparkle and intimacy of Take 5 since it's fully enclosed.  And bar staff didn't hold a candle to Whinn and Raisa in Take 5.

 

-Get to Princess Live early for the shows (and bingo), it gets crazy and many people will have to stand and spill into the corridor.

 

-The chair hogging game on the pool deck was going extra hard this cruise.  Be prepared for that. We went up for towels for an excursion at 7am and there were none. I suspected they did this to prevent super early morning chair hogs.  

 

-They had a flair show at the SeaView bar only one day. Check your patters if your into that. For us it was the last sea day and they did give out the drinks they made to the loudest cheerers.

 

-The shops on this ship were by far the nicest I've ever seen on any cruise. They actually had stuff I wanted to buy!  Lots of classy and fashionable items.  Unlike the usual offerings of boring souverir-ish junk.  Pretty clothing, bags, jewelry, insulated mugs, sandals, etc.  They have modernized the shopping experience so nicely.  Dangerous though!  More chances to spend $$$.

 

-The Enclave is amazing!  Worth every penny. I was glad to see they did not oversell it and we always got loungers and enjoyed it without feeling crowded.

 

-The Piazza on this ship is large and able to handle the crowds. Major improvement over older ships. It used to be you had to squeeze you butt in there to see what was happening.  Here it is open, spread out and lots of seating.

 

-Elevators can get a little crowded. Everyone had excellent manners about it and we all had a laugh from time to time.  Nobody was rude and everyone made room for each other.

 

-For the first time we did walk off on our own disembarkation and I will never go back to putting bags out at night.  I feel it ruins the whole last night. This time we spent our entire last night relaxed and enjoying our favorite spot to the last minute and just packed in the morning.  I highly recommend it if you can handle your own luggage.  We had no trouble getting elevators.

 

-We are anytime diners and found Soleil was much better than Estrella for service. Estrella got crazy at times and backed up sometimes (maybe because they did both traditional and anytime).  Soleil was more organized and no hiccups.

 

-We did the "advanced" wine tasting and it was so worth it ($25). They gave us great wines including Veuve Cliquot, Mer Soleil, Caymus Cabernet, Banfi Rossi di Montalcino, a San Giovese and a Sauvingon blanc, sorry I forgot the brands on those last two.  The canapes were really good too.  Not like the "beginners" wine tasting which not so fun/interesting and the food/wine are not as good. Hosts were all very entertaining and engaging and they had a guy playing jazz guitar on the side, it added nice ambience.

 

Overall this ship was a dream and they got everything right with the Sky Princess. I have only the complaint about the cost of the digital photos and nothing else.

[wineforhealth]

Thank you for the great review

[Anubi]

Thanks for the information on Take 5.  We are looking forward to checking out that one.  

[SingBill]

Thank you for your review

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Yup. Pictures are really out of line with the price on all ships. As for carry your luggage. I totally agree. That is the only way to do it. Getting on is no slower. We go directly to our room and dump them off. Even if the passage way is closed. They always let us drop our luggage in the room. Getting off. No worry to finding your luggage. Just go.

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, grouchomarx said:

Just got back from the Christmas cruise. It was wonderful, perhaps our best cruise ever.  I won't go into crazy details, since there is a lot of info here. Just wanted to point out a few things that may be of interest:

 

-The production shows (Rock Opera, Five Skies) were only done once. We missed them due to timing. So if you really want to see them pay attention to the patters.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up. When you say "...only done once", I take that to mean that they only ran one show per night, and not the usual 8 and 10PM shows? When did the shows start and how long were they?

[grouchomarx]

15 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

Thanks for the heads up. When you say "...only done once", I take that to mean that they only ran one show per night, and not the usual 8 and 10PM shows? When did the shows start and how long were they?

I honestly cannot tell you if the Rock Opera was run once or twice on the single night it played. I ignored it since it was the first night and I figured, oh they'll run it again later but they didn't.  If I read my patters correctly the 5 skies only ran once on a single night.  I will make the disclaimer that I may have missed the second listing but I feel certain there was only one night for each show during the cruise, which surprised me.

[Tak8]

Thanks for the info.  Excited to find out for myself next year.

[Denmal]

Totally agree about Take 5.   Whinn and Raisa  are two of the best bartenders we have ever encountered on any princess ship.  We get back on the sky 1/11 and take 5 will be one of the 1st stops 

[grouchomarx]

2 minutes ago, Denmal said:

Totally agree about Take 5.   Whinn and Raisa  are two of the best bartenders we have ever encountered on any princess ship.  We get back on the sky 1/11 and take 5 will be one of the 1st stops 

OMG they were just the best!  Whinn was endlessly entertaining. One night we went in for a nightcap. I was little tired so I ordered a prosecco. Whinn comes to me a moment later and says, is it ok if I make you something not so boring???  I laughed so hard. He added some raspberry puree to my prosecco, it was delicious. The next night I asked him can you make the the "not so boring" please?  So funny.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

Like I said in my live I thought Take 5 was just as bad as the Royal/Regal.

Maybe a tad larger but an after thought when the space was used/designed.

 

Now Princess Live on the Sky was a 180 turnaround in design compared to the first versions.Just awesome.

[voljeep]

5 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Thanks for the review.

Like I said in my live I thought Take 5 was just as bad as the Royal/Regal.

Maybe a tad larger but an after thought when the space was used/designed.

 

Now Princess Live on the Sky was a 180 turnaround in design compared to the first versions.Just awesome.

totally agree … Take 5 didn't do it for us either, maybe just the timing ...

 

looking forward to Crooners being back on Discovery