Sun Princess Cabana Disappointment .................

[deultgen]

I am not trying to complain, just disappointed.

 

So we are a couple in mid 50’s who typically sail either Celebrity or Princess. 

 

When we sail Celebrity, we book Aqua Class, enjoy the Solarium type area in the afternoon, dine in Blu every night. 

 

When we sail Princess, we generally book a standard balcony stateroom and play the silly game (admittedly, I play it) of running immediately to the Sanctuary to try to reserve a couple of lounges for every afternoon of the cruise in the partly shaded area.  The Sanctuary is our favorite part of the cruise.  We enjoy doing things in port or activities on the ship in the morning, then relax in the quiet and comfort of the Sanctuary for the afternoon with a good book, a couple of drinks, looking out on the ocean or port etc.  Then book a specialty restaurant most nights.  Admittedly, we don’t spend much time on our balcony.  It’s nice in the early morning to look out at sea with some coffee, watch for whales, dolphins, or pelagic birds.  Same in the evening before dinner with a drink while waiting patiently for my wonderful wife to get ready for the evening.  But we rarely “sit” or “relax” on the balcony.  I find sitting in the balcony chairs/loungers uncomfortable after about 10 minutes. 

 

With the current crazy prices of Celebrity Aqua Class, we can easily book a Princess balcony room, Sanctuary every day, Specialty restaurant every night for less than the cost of an Aqua Class stateroom with extra $$ left over.  I like that.

 

Yes, I am getting to my point ……….  I was thrilled when Princess announced they would have “Cabana Class” staterooms on the new Sun Princess.  Wouldn’t it be great to book a room with your own Cabana?  The promotional pictures from Princess (Pic 1 below)  gave me some hope and excitement.  I was envisioning a stateroom with your own “Sanctuary” cabana area outside, partially shaded with of a couple of padded lounges with access to a quiet deck area of seating, hot tubs, etc with the convenience of being close to or attached to your room.  This would be my idea of a relaxing cruise.  I would pay for this.

 

I was disappointed to see the pictures this morning from people on Sun Princess. 

 

The room looks very nice.  The first outside room has a type of daybed and television.  A TV is not for us, but I can see how it would be appealing to have an “outdoor” tv area to some people.  Then your rooms “cabana” area is a partially covered area with a glass gate to separate your cabana from the outdoor deck area if you are directly on the cabana deck (pics 5/6) or a “balcony” area if your are in a cabana room with access to the cabana deck (pics 2,3,4)

 

Your “cabana” area has 2 standard balcony chairs.  I am not sure how it is any different than any other balcony.  If you are one of the 30 staterooms who have direct access to the “cabana deck” you look further out onto this deck, if you are one of the 50 staterooms which has “access” to the cabana deck but not directly on the deck then it looks very similar to a standard balcony.   I can't see us using this type of stateroom if you did not have your own "cabana lounges" but instead had ordinary balcony chairs.  

 

The Cabana Deck area with some padded lounges (in direct sun) and different types of seating areas looks very nice (last of the pics).  I  hope there are enough lounges and seating areas for the 80 rooms of people who have access to the area. 

 

We enjoy cruising, like Princess cruises and will likely sail with them again, just not in a Cabana stateroom.  I really was excited at the possibility of this type of stateroom.  

 

Ok, done with my post, I suppose I will need to begin training for my next cruise with a balcony and my “dash” to the Sanctuary area. 

 

[dickinson]

Sure looks nice to me!  We all have different wants and needs and this is more than I need or want.  I wouldn't pay for it because we don't sit around outside a lot but it would be lovely to have if the price was right. 

[Mangrove Snapper]

15 minutes ago, deultgen said:

When we sail Princess, we generally book a standard balcony stateroom and play the silly game (admittedly, I play it) of running immediately to the Sanctuary to try to reserve a couple of lounges for every afternoon of the cruise in the partly shaded area.  The Sanctuary is our favorite part of the cruise.  We enjoy doing things in port or activities on the ship in the morning, then relax in the quiet and comfort of the Sanctuary for the afternoon

 

Are you dashing to reserve chairs in the morning that you don't even use until the afternoon?  Like you have chairs reserved on the ship while you do things in port?  I hope I'm misreading and that's not what you mean. 

[PacnGoNow]

Thank you for the pictures.  They didn’t provide any cabins numbers?  I like the cabana room that has an enclosed balcony, looking out to sea with lounger and fool stool.  Pictures 2-3-4 of the actual balcony.

 

The others look like a mass cabana deck.  How is that relaxing?  Would be great if you

had a large group traveling together.

[startedwithamouse]

8 minutes ago, Mangrove Snapper said:

 

Are you dashing to reserve chairs in the morning that you don't even use until the afternoon?  Like you have chairs reserved on the ship while you do things in port?  I hope I'm misreading and that's not what you mean. 

Dashing upon boarding to the Sanctuary to book half day loungers is what I read. 

[Mangrove Snapper]

13 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Dashing upon boarding to the Sanctuary to book half day loungers is what I read. 

 

Gotcha!  Thank you for clarifying.  That makes a lot of sense.  The other thing didn't and that's why I figured I wasn't reading it clearly.

 

I also want to apologize to OP for misreading that. 

Edited February 28 by Mangrove Snapper

[Amy G]

I have a C1 Cabana booked, and I am not really happy that I can't look down at the ocean from our balcony.  I might not even be able to see the ocean if people are standing out there.  Unfortunately, our cruise is fully booked, and there are no rooms to move to.

[Wishing on a star]

This situation with those Cabana Cabins that are right there on the Cabana Deck is pretty well known.   Perhaps this poster did not find one of the Cabana Rooms that are located elsewhere, like on the Sphere, to be available.

I can commiserate with the Disappointment!!!!!   That is a very uncomfortable and unfortunate total lack of personal space/privacy.   As well as a total lack of being able to have any view of water from your cabin.

[Mangrove Snapper]

29 minutes ago, deultgen said:

We enjoy cruising, like Princess cruises and will likely sail with them again, just not in a Cabana stateroom.  I really was excited at the possibility of this type of stateroom. 

 

Yeah, I'm not sure if I'd like this or not.  I think part of me would like the kind of private patio area but yet I think I would feel like it was less private as I'd probably want to keep the curtains to our cabin drawn. 

 

I think I'd probably be less likely to book this type of stateroom than a regular balcony but maybe would try it if was a great price. 

[fpsphil]

I hope/wish they will recategorize some of the other Cabana cabins onboard to reserve collection...

[levonfan]

We have a cabana room booked on the 10th deck.  I saw a video this morning posted on facebook and it looked pretty awesome.  Regular balcony, no raised glass, and also had the small room with additional tv. Here is link https://www.facebook.com/share/r/jQRLFYWifV6fhjYU/?mibextid=xCPwDs

Edited February 28 by levonfan

[MsSoCalCruiser]

26 minutes ago, Mangrove Snapper said:

 

Are you dashing to reserve chairs in the morning that you don't even use until the afternoon?  Like you have chairs reserved on the ship while you do things in port?  I hope I'm misreading and that's not what you mean. 

Yes, you totally misread this post.  The poster runs to the Sanctuary to reserve chairs. You pay for the chairs in the Sanctuary.

[deultgen]

35 minutes ago, Mangrove Snapper said:

 

Are you dashing to reserve chairs in the morning that you don't even use until the afternoon?  Like you have chairs reserved on the ship while you do things in port?  I hope I'm misreading and that's not what you mean. 

 

Nope, just dashing to the Sanctuary at the beginning of the cruise to reserve it

 

[Mangrove Snapper]

Just now, deultgen said:

 

Nope, just dashing to the Sanctuary at the beginning of the cruise to reserve it

 

 

That was my mistake and I apologize for that. 

[Wishing on a star]

Do you know which Cabana Cabin that is in the video?

Looks like it might be one of the ones on the Sphere.

[LACruiser88]

I definitely would not want a cabin where folks are walking right in front of my balcony.  No privacy whatsoever!  We booked a "regular" Reserve Collection Mini-suite on Deck 12 for our 50-day cruise in Oct/Nov of next year.

 

 

 

Edited February 28 by LACruiser88

[puggymom]

For those who follow Ben and David on YouTube they had one of these cabins on a P&O ship and weren’t happy either with the lack of privacy etc

[cbfb]

I’m honestly not surprised at all regarding the deck 9 cabana cabins. I thought they were described accurately prelaunch and are exactly what I expected which is why I didn’t book one!! 

[deultgen]

10 minutes ago, cbfb said:

I’m honestly not surprised at all regarding the deck 9 cabana cabins. I thought they were described accurately prelaunch and are exactly what I expected which is why I didn’t book one!! 

 

Yeah, I could have missed some of the promotional materials for the cabin.  This is the pic from the Princess website pre-launch.  I wish the reality would have turned out more like this for the individual "cabanas"

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, deultgen said:

...........................................

 

Yes, I am getting to my point ……….  I was thrilled when Princess announced they would have “Cabana Class” staterooms on the new Sun Princess.  Wouldn’t it be great to book a room with your own Cabana?  The promotional pictures from Princess (Pic 1 below)  gave me some hope and excitement.  I was envisioning a stateroom with your own “Sanctuary” cabana area outside, partially shaded with of a couple of padded lounges with access to a quiet deck area of seating, hot tubs, etc with the convenience of being close to or attached to your room.  This would be my idea of a relaxing cruise.  I would pay for this.

 

I was disappointed to see the pictures this morning from people on Sun Princess. 

 

The room looks very nice.  The first outside room has a type of daybed and television.  A TV is not for us, but I can see how it would be appealing to have an “outdoor” tv area to some people.  Then your rooms “cabana” area is a partially covered area with a glass gate to separate your cabana from the outdoor deck area if you are directly on the cabana deck (pics 5/6) or a “balcony” area if your are in a cabana room with access to the cabana deck (pics 2,3,4)

 

Your “cabana” area has 2 standard balcony chairs.  I am not sure how it is any different than any other balcony.  If you are one of the 30 staterooms who have direct access to the “cabana deck” you look further out onto this deck, if you are one of the 50 staterooms which has “access” to the cabana deck but not directly on the deck then it looks very similar to a standard balcony.   I can't see us using this type of stateroom if you did not have your own "cabana lounges" but instead had ordinary balcony chairs.  

 

The Cabana Deck area with some padded lounges (in direct sun) and different types of seating areas looks very nice (last of the pics).  I  hope there are enough lounges and seating areas for the 80 rooms of people who have access to the area. 

 

We enjoy cruising, like Princess cruises and will likely sail with them again, just not in a Cabana stateroom.  I really was excited at the possibility of this type of stateroom.  

 

Ok, done with my post, I suppose I will need to begin training for my next cruise with a balcony and my “dash” to the Sanctuary area. 

 

We would never use that open deck with full sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 28 by Steelers36

[cbfb]

1 minute ago, deultgen said:

 

Yeah, I could have missed some of the promotional materials for the cabin.  This is the pic from the Princess website pre-launch.  I wish the reality would have turned out more like this for the individual "cabanas"

Yes, it’s pretty hard to know when it’s a brand new class of ship. It will be nice to hear what people on the ship now think after a few days. I can see the pluses too. 

[Steelers36]

<deleted>.

Edited February 28 by Steelers36

[Mangrove Snapper]

Just now, Steelers36 said:

The OP stated they book every afternoon in Sanctuary.

 

Thank you, yes, I misread that. 

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, Mangrove Snapper said:

 

Thank you, yes, I misread that. 

You were faster than me deleting my post.

[Mangrove Snapper]

Just now, Steelers36 said:

You were faster than me deleting my post.

 

No worries!