Sun Princess Signature suite questions answered!

[FLAlaska]

2 minutes ago, Suite Susie said:

Really disappointed with all this as we have an Owners Suite booked for September next year. So if I’m reading this right all we will no longer have exclusive use of the Signature Restaurant and the Sanctuary will now be far busier and hard to get a seat. We book suites at great expense to get a more special experience. Now it seems that the only advantage of booking a full suite now is a bigger room and use of the Concierge Lounge. Will have to see how it pans out, but I think we will be cancelling. 

Imagine how the S9 people feel. That room isn't even bigger

[Mishkin]

11 minutes ago, MTNest93 said:

We are booked in a cabana-mini (deck10 - not reserve).   My only concern with these changes is that we purchased the Premier package and since we won't have early access to make specialty dining reservations, we may have difficulty booking our two included dinners with all the suites now having Premier, plus their included embarkation specialty dinner.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out once the new dining reservations open up.  I think our backup plan will be to drop to the Plus package and forgo specialty dining if it proves impossible to make reservations that work for us. 

Is there a reason you're not booking your specialty dining ahead of time?

[oteixeira]

2 minutes ago, Suite Susie said:

Really disappointed with all this as we have an Owners Suite booked for September next year. So if I’m reading this right all we will no longer have exclusive use of the Signature Restaurant and the Sanctuary will now be far busier and hard to get a seat. We book suites at great expense to get a more special experience. Now it seems that the only advantage of booking a full suite now is a bigger room and use of the Concierge Lounge. Will have to see how it pans out, but I think we will be cancelling. 

There should be plenty of new reviews (depending on when you cruise).  I think that the difference in suite guests would be equal to the same number of passes they were selling onboard.  Now, I admit they probably could not sell those passes, but to me having people pay for a day pass into the suite sun deck is worse then having a larger group have access who paid for the room (as at least then you get the same guests and can get to know them, etc).  Anyway, we will see for sure.  I think the restaurant thing is all about bad design, one is always full, one is always empty, and they share a kitchen.  

[capriccio]

Just now, Suite Susie said:We book suites at great expense to get a more special experience. Now it seems that the only advantage of booking a full suite now is a bigger room and use of the Concierge Lounge. Will have to see how it pans out, but I think we will be cancelling. 

And the Concierge Lounge will be more crowded too but at least you booked at a much lower fare I presume.  
 

Our S9 fare for a 1 week cruise for 2 passengers increased from under $5000 including the Plus package to $8300 with the Premium package included.  if we decide to keep the booking, it will be one and done at those fares.

[Mishkin]

4 minutes ago, Suite Susie said:

Really disappointed with all this as we have an Owners Suite booked for September next year. So if I’m reading this right all we will no longer have exclusive use of the Signature Restaurant and the Sanctuary will now be far busier and hard to get a seat. We book suites at great expense to get a more special experience. Now it seems that the only advantage of booking a full suite now is a bigger room and use of the Concierge Lounge. Will have to see how it pans out, but I think we will be cancelling. 

I agree it is a bit of bummer to having those 80 spots shared by 215 cabins now. The dinning portion is still a bit unclear as nothing has been said how that is changing. Suite guests still will have the separate lounge and still have priority embarkation/disembarkation/tender so they aren't killing all of the perks. The main change I see is expanded Sanctuary access and now requiring Premier and the associated cost.

[Mishkin]

2 minutes ago, capriccio said:

And the Concierge Lounge will be more crowded too but at least you booked at a much lower fare I presume.  
 

Our S9 fare for a 1 week cruise for 2 passengers increased from under $5000 including the Plus package to $8300 with the Premium package included.  if we decide to keep the booking, it will be one and done at those fares.

I agree that this new pricing will make us evaluate other options as well. The one thing is the Lounge will not be more crowded as only Suite guests will have access to it.

[MTNest93]

18 minutes ago, Mishkin said:

Is there a reason you're not booking your specialty dining ahead of time?

We don't have status, are not in a suite, nor are we in a Reserve Class stateroom, so we can't book our dining prior to being paid in full which I won't do until 90 days out as required.

[Mishkin]

Just now, MTNest93 said:

We don't have status, are not in a suite, nor are we in a Reserve Class stateroom, so we can't book our dining prior to being paid in full which I won't do until 90 days out as required.

I am only Gold Status haven't paid yet and it is letting me pre-book the specialty.

[MTNest93]

3 minutes ago, Mishkin said:

I am only Gold Status haven't paid yet and it is letting me pre-book the specialty.

What level stateroom are you booked in? For our 2026 cruise on the Royal, we are in a Reserve mini and I was able to book specialty dining over 2 year out.  But on the Sun we don't have a stateroom that comes with priority reservations.  

Edited April 23 by MTNest93
ETA: We don't sail on the Sun until Feb 2025, so we aren't able to book dining at this point anyway.

[Mishkin]

2 minutes ago, MTNest93 said:

What level stateroom are you booked in? For our 2026 cruise on the Royal, we are in a Reserve mini and I was able to book specialty dining over 2 year out.  But on the Sun we don't have a stateroom that comes with priority reservations.

We are in a Reserve Collection Mini-Suite. Our cruise is in December so maybe that is why?

[MTNest93]

Just now, Mishkin said:

We are in a Reserve Collection Mini-Suite. Our cruise is in December so maybe that is why?

Yes, Reserve Collection has priority access to dining 🙂

[oteixeira]

I am in January and in S9 (Suite) and cannot book anything restaurant wise, it says nothing available for everything.

[keldaria]

23 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

I am in January and in S9 (Suite) and cannot book anything restaurant wise, it says nothing available for everything.

I think this is typical. I believe I seen in another thread mentioning that reservations for the sun don’t open up until 60 days out with only a few quirks like the butcher block sometimes offering availability earlier than that. Not sure how accurate that is but my S0 reservation has no availability ether but I’m a little less than a year out.

[whitcruising]

1 hour ago, oteixeira said:

I am in January and in S9 (Suite) and cannot book anything restaurant wise, it says nothing available for everything.

Ha! I sail June 1st. 38 days from now and still can’t book dining. Spellbound is the only thing that came available about 2 weeks ago. 

[oteixeira]

Just now, whitcruising said:

Ha! I sail June 1st. 38 days from now and still can’t book dining. Spellbound is the only thing that came available about 2 weeks ago. 

I don't normal sail Princess, wanted to try the new ship within a ship concept.  Are they always this consistent at being horribly inconsistent?  

[whitcruising]

2 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

I don't normal sail Princess, wanted to try the new ship within a ship concept.  Are they always this consistent at being horribly inconsistent?  

No idea. I haven’t sailed them in 15 years. I’m honestly still very excited and will just let the concierge make my reservations I suppose. 

[whitcruising]

5 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

I don't normal sail Princess, wanted to try the new ship within a ship concept.  Are they always this consistent at being horribly inconsistent?  

Also I think it’s just the new ship/Sun bc others in my roll call have been able to make reservations for their other dates/ships well in advance. This is the only cruise I have booked. 

[oteixeira]

4 minutes ago, whitcruising said:

No idea. I haven’t sailed them in 15 years. I’m honestly still very excited and will just let the concierge make my reservations I suppose. 

Same (17 for us), 2007 was my last Princess cruise.  

[whitcruising]

7 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

Same (17 for us), 2007 was my last Princess cruise.  

Ha! Actually it was 2007 for us as well. Caribbean Princess. 

[oteixeira]

8 minutes ago, whitcruising said:

Ha! Actually it was 2007 for us as well. Caribbean Princess. 

We were on the Grand and it was in such disrepair we swore off Princess.  It was before I knew things like you should look up the last time a ship was in dry dock before you book it.  LOL  It went to dry dock just months after we sailed.  

[shirazcruiser]

2 hours ago, capriccio said:

Our S9 fare for a 1 week cruise for 2 passengers increased from under $5000 including the Plus package to $8300 with the Premium package included.  if we decide to keep the booking, it will be one and done at those fares.

Our 21 day May 2025 Owners Suite (S2) was $26K with the Plus pkg which DH wants to cancel as he thinks it’s ridiculously priced. The new pricing for the renamed Grand Suite (S2) with the premier pkg is $41K. On the Sky the difference between a Plus and a Premire is $20 a day which should be $840 extra for 21 days ….not $15K. Who’s going to pay those kind of prices for Princess?

Edited April 23 by shirazcruiser

[dog]

Corrections sent out- starts October 14/24

[capriccio]

42 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

I don't normal sail Princess, wanted to try the new ship within a ship concept.  Are they always this consistent at being horribly inconsistent?  

Since this is a new class of ship you would think Princess might have sent secret shoppers/cruisers on other lines with the ship within a ship concept to report back on what works like cabin sizes, service-many have butlers, drink inclusions, lounge, pool, restaurants, etc. and, most importantly, fares and what doesn’t.  I can speak to a comparison with MSC’s Yacht Club and there is no comparison based on all my readings to date.

[GoTravelLife]

It will be interesting to see what our experience will be on the Transatlantic. We have a Reserve mini suite, and if they will be preparing to merge the two restaurants, wonder what they will need to do to prepare before arrival into Florida and quick turnaround to the Caribbean.  
 

We have only cruised Princess twice, one was over 15 years ago and the second was a quick Mexico cruise out of LA and it wasn’t all that great.  We are excited about the new ship concept and looking forward to checking it out.  

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Can I ask that you all take the Sanctuary Collection change to another thread?  I was trying to answer specific questions about the current suite experience as I just got off the ship. There are threads already started. 
 

Sorry.