New Sun Princess (Not My Princess)!?!?!

[nasa1974]

If you went with the alphanumeric names for the deck plans on the Sun, you would have to come up with two new names for deck 6 and deck 5 if you started with Lido on deck 18. Without Fresh Market on 18 can you really call it the Lido deck? It will take some getting used to the numbering of decks, but it seems simpler. I will miss the deck names called out in the elevator, however. 🙂 

[jeromep]

On 12/28/2022 at 6:10 AM, nasa1974 said:

We enjoyed Take 5 on the Sky but missed Crooners. 

I think the whole idea of Take 5 was to work toward phasing out Crooners (agree or disagree is fine with me), and have a dedicated bar/venue that could work for the piano vocalist vibe of Crooners and to support a jazz trio, quartet or otherwise.  The thing about Crooners that didn't really attract me to it was its structure.  While I like the piano club vibe and the songs and vocals, it always felt like you were having drinks in the lobby of a Nordstrom a week before Christmas; with the constant traffic of the atrium walking by, and the general hum of people's conversations from all levels of the Piazza echoing off all the surfaces.

 

I guess if your goal is to get your drink on and sit, then the music is really just environmental.  If you are serous about listening to a piano crooner, really taking in the whole performance, listening to that in a busy lobby is probably not the best place.

 

But credit where it is due, Princess reversed course on elimination of Crooners on the Enchanted and Discovery, and looks like they are including it on Sun, I suspect that when Sky goes in for a drydock, you'll see Crooners show up again.

 

A lot of what I see in this thread is just a lot of very early prognostication surrounding what appear to be deck plans in flux.  There are some new things here which are likely not to change much between now and when Sun is put to sea trials, but it sure seems to me that there are a lot of indoor spaces that have yet to be fleshed out or named.

 

About the location of bars and dining venues, including the buffet.  I have this feeling that Princess is doubling down on the Medallion and passengers ordering food and beverage from the app and having it brought to them.  You don't need to have a lot of permanently established bars or venues near the pool if people are going to order what they want from their lounger.  However, as I more closely look at the deck plans for decks 17 and 18, I'm seeing white voids in the plans which could easily be a Salty Dog, Slices, or Swirls.

 

I'm not sure how far they are into the new build, maybe the hull is complete, maybe they are craning on upper deck superstructure, I have no clue, but the internal contents of this ship do seem to be heavily in flux.

[Steelers36]

8 hours ago, nasa1974 said:

If you went with the alphanumeric names for the deck plans on the Sun, you would have to come up with two new names for deck 6 and deck 5 if you started with Lido on deck 18. Without Fresh Market on 18 can you really call it the Lido deck? It will take some getting used to the numbering of decks, but it seems simpler. I will miss the deck names called out in the elevator, however. 🙂 

The Lido is named for the pools (along with hot tubs I suppose) - not so much the buffet.

[Jeter02]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

The Lido is named for the pools (along with hot tubs I suppose) - not so much the buffet.

You are correct. It is defined in the dictionary as a public, open-air swimming pool or beach.

[RD64]

Lido -  named after the Lido in Venice, plain and simple.

[tothemall&beyond]

On 2/5/2023 at 10:12 AM, Lady Arwen said:

Actually, when I go to Princess online the deck plan does not show deck names, just numbers.  Perhaps you have been able to get different deck plans.  Could you please share how you did it, because I would be really interested.  Thanks so much!

Sorry. My brain must have filled it what it did not see. My bad.

[Musky Ike]

44 minutes ago, tothemall&beyond said:

Sorry. My brain must have filled it what it did not see. My bad.

Who knows. Things are not final. They may yet add deck names. I hope so. Baja 421 sounds more like a cruise cabin than 11421. That may as well be hotel. I will save my judgements about the ship layout in general until after I have sailed on her, which I hope to do next year. The first of a new class is always a test. They made some changes between Royal and the Regal and my guess is there will also be some between the Sun and the ???.

[CruiseCrabs]

While we are not keen on amusement-park elements on a ship, the build isn’t bad and resolves some of the issues we have seen with suite/club class minis and poor sight lines in the piazza. We cruise to escape the “real world” and, yes, the passenger max seems like a lot, but if everyone is disbursed across the ship, this may be a good design.

[Dee_Jay]

For those of you worried about no food on the pool deck, the Sun Princess deck plans are now showing Lido Slice, Lido Tacos, Lido Grill, Lido Greens, Coffee & Cones, and The Mix on deck 17.

[Guest ldtr]

A few other changes On Deck 7 there has been added Coffee Currents, and O'Malleys Irish Pub

On Deck 8 there is a Sushi Bar and Teppanyaki

 

No sign of Vines at all.

[deultgen]

my own thoughts on Sun:

 

1.  We go on vacation to relax.  It is common for us to do something on the ship or port in the morning then relax in the afternoon.

 

2.  I like having a balcony, its nice to have morning coffee or stand outside for a while watching the ocean, whales, birds, whatever.  What I don't find myself doing is sitting in the balcony chairs/foot rests for longer than 5 minutes.  They aren't really comfortable and not particularly relaxing to sit in.  I admit there are times when I am not sure I really need a balcony.  

 

3.  Those things being said, we enjoy the Sanctuary on Princess Ships.  Its a relaxing beautiful place with comfortable lounges, quiet, and with great service.   Generally, we like the other people who are renting the Sanctuary during most of the cruise.  Its a great place to look out to the ocean too.   BUT if you have ever been on just about any warm weather Princess cruise, you know you need to go IMMEDIATLY to the Sanctuary to get a reservation.  If I knew I could reserve space in the Sanctuary ahead of time, I am not sure I would have a balcony room.  

 

4.  It appears to me, Princess is trying to capitalize on the Sanctuary's popularity with Sun.  The "new" rooms with their own cabanas (Reserve Collection Cabana rooms and Cabana Mini Suite)  or a room with a set of rooms with their own "Sanctuary" like the Cabana rooms with the Cabana deck could appeal to me if the Cabana outside your balcony was covered, had comfortable lounges (like in the Sanctuary).  

 

5.  Finally, there are a LOT of these Cabana rooms on Sun (about 100?), I am not sure how many they can really sell, especially if the rooms are going to come at a super premium price.  

[suekel]

I decided to book on the Sun.  I won't know if I like it until I try it. We're going to do the 9 day Barcelona to Southampton 9/2024.  We booked a Reserve Collection Cabana with the Premier package and the price was ok.  Instead of doing the TA home, we decided to spend a week in London.  Looking forward to seeing the changes on this ship.  

[c-boy]

O'Malley's Irish pub ...

 

[dides]

Some other new venues on the deck plans - The Underground and Neon Grove on deck 7 and Firefly Park next to Guest Services on deck 6! Guesses please....

 

[caribill]

On 2/5/2023 at 9:32 AM, Jeter02 said:

The Sun Princess is going to be the first one without deck names.

 

The now gone R ships such as the Pacific Princess did not have deck names.

[CruisingWalter]

On 12/17/2022 at 3:17 PM, Dar & Bob said:

The mini suites in the Reserve collection for several cruises I checked come up as Guarantee only.  Ummm for that money I want to choose my cabin.  

 

That's pretty standard across all Princess bookings as the capacity dwindles. I've even seen full suites as Guarantee now. I don't understand why people would buy into a guaranteed mini or even full suite, but apparently people do. 

[CruisingWalter]

I personally am flat out loving the new ship. We have been on the Carnival Mardi Gras and it's very interesting to see how Princess is adapting that ship design to something that I think is even more grand than the P&O Iona. 

 

First off, all that glass on both sides in the center similar to Iona, but it does not appear they are making the same mistake of an 'airport lounge' that P&O did. The space is much more in line with the traditional Piazza only much more so. 

 

Princess Theater - Love. This design is in use on other cruise lines very successfully and I'm intrigued  to see how Princess Entertainment adapts their live shows to the new venue.

 

Crown Grill and Sabatini's refresh - Beautiful. Taking what has been done on the Royal class and elevating the design even further.

 

Sea View & Wake View Terrace - stunning. 

 

The Dome - Much improved version over what P&O did with the dome in the middle of the ship. Just incredibly beautiful both in the day and evening. 

 

The Sanctuary appears to have lost some shade vs. the other ships. That will be interesting to see how that plays out when it's done. 

 

Missing deck names? Non-issue. We sail so many different cruise lines I never pay attention if a cruise line uses names for their decks. I just need to know the deck number I'm looking for. 

 

The beauty of cruising is there are well over 300 ships out there right now and 75 more coming in the next 4 to 5 years. If Sun Princess is not your cup of tea, so many other ships out there to enjoy. Personally I'm really looking forward to Princess' take on this ship design. 

 

 

[CruisingWalter]

On 2/6/2023 at 9:29 PM, CruiseCrabs said:

While we are not keen on amusement-park elements on a ship, the build isn’t bad and resolves some of the issues we have seen with suite/club class minis and poor sight lines in the piazza. We cruise to escape the “real world” and, yes, the passenger max seems like a lot, but if everyone is disbursed across the ship, this may be a good design.

 

The Carnival Mardi Gras, same ship design, did a very good job of dispersing people throughout the ship, even at night with 5500-5900 on our sailing. And they did not take advantage of that massive open space in the middle like Princess and P&O have. They created a completely different version of that based on Royal Caribbean's 270 theater, but didn't execute the seating very well.

 

The way Princess has laid out the venues on this ship appears to space out the guests even more. Embarkation and Debarkation is when you'll notice how many folks are really on the ship. But I think the rest of the sailing the ship will really disperse the folks very nicely. 

 

 

[Dar & Bob]

1 hour ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

That's pretty standard across all Princess bookings as the capacity dwindles. I've even seen full suites as Guarantee now. I don't understand why people would buy into a guaranteed mini or even full suite, but apparently people do. 

This started however from the first day that bookings were available and it's across the sailings as far as I can tell.  Not a "sold out" situation.  Maybe the deck plan isn't fully determined yet.

[Suite Susie]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:40 PM, suekel said:

I decided to book on the Sun.  I won't know if I like it until I try it. We're going to do the 9 day Barcelona to Southampton 9/2024.  We booked a Reserve Collection Cabana with the Premier package and the price was ok.  Instead of doing the TA home, we decided to spend a week in London.  Looking forward to seeing the changes on this ship.  

We will see you on board, but we start a week earlier from Athens - 16 nights back to Southampton with a stop in Barcelona to pick you up. We have booked a Penthouse Suite Guarantee and are very excited to try this new ship. 

[CruisingWalter]

2 hours ago, Dar & Bob said:

This started however from the first day that bookings were available and it's across the sailings as far as I can tell.  Not a "sold out" situation.  Maybe the deck plan isn't fully determined yet.

 

That could be that they have not fully determined how many 'mini suites' will be on the Sun's first round of deck plans. But the Guarantee Mini Suites shows up on many sailings. I personally don't book a guarantee for any cabin, I want to know exactly where I'm going to be. That's why I don't bid on upgrades either. It might be a 'better' cabin class but the location may be worse. 🙂

[dides]

9 hours ago, dides said:

Some other new venues on the deck plans - The Underground and Neon Grove on deck 7 and Firefly Park next to Guest Services on deck 6! Guesses please....

Replying to my own post - these are noted as Teen Areas and a Kids Center on the unofficial deck plan.  One of the Teen areas roughly align with the Scene teen area on P&O Iona.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by dides

[talkorpi]

Princess just posted a rendering of "The Signature Lounge" on their Instagram - description is of a two-level suite lounge.  Looks like this is the venue at the aft on decks 15/16.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Co7p-xssiRt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by talkorpi

[c-boy]

7 minutes ago, talkorpi said:

Princess just posted a rendering of "The Signature Lounge" on their Instagram - description is of a two-level suite lounge.  Looks like this is the venue at the aft on decks 15/16.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Co7p-xssiRt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

 

hawt damn ! I'll be calling on that.  

[dides]

The Signature Lounge rendering has been released. Wow, that aft view will be amazing and an improvement on the Concierge Lounge on Royal class!