Sun Princess

[kywildcatfanone]

38 minutes ago, FLAlaska said:

Yes.that is it exactly. The Sanctuary is no longer available for day passes. It is o ly for those in sanctuary class cabins. The Sun will have no adult only area available for other passengers, paid or included in their fare.

This plus the buffet location will keep us off these new ships.  That and the the kids focused deck.

That's okay, will find others.

 

[Retired-N-Happy]

38 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

This plus the buffet location will keep us off these new ships.  That and the the kids focused deck.

That's okay, will find others.

 

You do have 15 other ships in the fleet to cruise on.  Plus all of the ships on X or HAL.  They have no kids decks and I believe that all of their ships have the buffet on the Lido like you're accustomed to. 🤔

Edited April 25 by Retired-N-Happy

[FLAlaska]

14 minutes ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

You do have 15 other ships in the fleet to cruise on.  Plus all of the ships on X or HAL.  They have no kids decks and I believe that all of their ships have the buffet on the Lido like you're accustomed to. 🤔

Hopefully they won't  "Sanctuarize" the rest of the fleet

[nasa1974]

Once I get onboard the Sun I will have sailed on all 4 classes. Of course that doesn't make me special. 😀 

I never really paid attention to what class of ship I was sailing on. I guess for my wife and myself the ship was going to where we wanted to visit, or we had friends onboard. What class we were on never came up. Now that I look back at the ship's we sailed on it was mostly the Grand Class. We really enjoyed the retreat pool on the Sky. The bump out balcony on the Island was unique. What can I saw about Skywalkers. And the Diamond was our first.

For everyone that has sailed, each ship and each class has had its likes and dislikes. Now that I am sailing solo, I'm sailing on the Sphere Class for the ship. So, we will see if the Sun and Star can draw me in or will I fall back to the other classes and still enjoy cruising. We don't know until we try.

Edited April 25 by nasa1974

[kywildcatfanone]

29 minutes ago, FLAlaska said:

Hopefully they won't  "Sanctuarize" the rest of the fleet

Yep, if the expand the Sanctuary and remove the retreat pool, I will have to find another cruise line entirely.

[imagiNet]

We board May 4th for 14 days.   I am not sure if everything is now open. Specifically, is the Main Princess theatre, the Arena, the Dome.  Can anyone confirm what is open and what is not.

[imagiNet]

I am referring to entertainment in these venues. Main Princess theatre, the Arena, and the Dome.   Are there scheduled performances in these locations?

[TRLD]

5 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

Yes.that is it exactly. The Sanctuary is no longer available for day passes. It is o ly for those in sanctuary class cabins. The Sun will have no adult only area available for other passengers, paid or included in their fare.

Guess Princess has decided to go all in on the class system. Would not be surprised if Princess, as Celebrity did, retrofits the Royal class ships to a class system as well. Pretty easy to change the Sanctuary to be for Suites only and divide one of the mid ship dining rooms into 2 separate rooms and make one dining room for suites. Biggest question would be where to make the suites lounge. Maybe the lounge on 6 near the casino.

 

 

 

[TRLD]

3 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

Hopefully they won't  "Sanctuarize" the rest of the fleet

If it works for Sun then most likely they will.

[reedprincess]

54 minutes ago, imagiNet said:

I am referring to entertainment in these venues. Main Princess theatre, the Arena, and the Dome.   Are there scheduled performances in these locations?

Yes.

There's something every night currently in the Arena, although only one of the promised 4 production show is happening. The rest is guest entertainers..

 

The Dome has 2 of the 3 promised shows running, but they're not every night, according to reports of those aboard. There has been some of the guest entertainers in there, ie guitarist and such... 

 

Princess Live is repurposed as Laugh Lounge for comedians some nights.

 

Love by Britto is still closed, although due for Grand Opening on April 27, from what I've read.

 

And Park 19 is still closed, although more extensive training and trials have been going on currently..  so, soon - although no one seems to have a date.

 

Essentially, everything else is open.  When the other 3 Arena shows will come online or the Dome show, no word . 

Edited April 26 by reedprincess

[555]

12 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

Yes.that is it exactly. The Sanctuary is no longer available for day passes. It is o ly for those in sanctuary class cabins. The Sun will have no adult only area available for other passengers, paid or included in their fare.

I didn't know that when we booked. It appears as though they've removed another feature we enjoyed on the other ships.

We'll have to see how bad it gets with even a few kids on board but we'll probably return to the Royal class ships in the future. 

[kywildcatfanone]

7 hours ago, TRLD said:

If it works for Sun then most likely they will.

Yep, they most certainly will.

[Retired-N-Happy]

13 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

Hopefully they won't  "Sanctuarize" the rest of the fleet

It's the way it is on the Sphere Class ships because of Princess's ship within a ship concept similar to their competition. Getting half day or full day passes to an adult only section I believe is unique to Princess.  The Vibe Beach Club is a variation on NCL, but is for the length of the cruise only (around 249 for 7 days) and unlike Princess can now be reserved ahead of time unlike the first come first serve race that occurs on Princess and used to occur on NCL.

[Retired-N-Happy]

16 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Yep, if the expand the Sanctuary and remove the retreat pool, I will have to find another cruise line entirely.

Unless Princess somehow wishes to change their entire fleet into a ship within a ship concept, I don't think you need to worry about the other 15 ships being changed. But if they take a page out of Celebrity's playbook when they Soltisized their fleet, you may have to look elsewhere.

[doghog]

9 minutes ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

Unless Princess somehow wishes to change their entire fleet into a ship within a ship concept, I don't think you need to worry about the other 15 ships being changed. But if they take a page out of Celebrity's playbook when they Soltisized their fleet, you may have to look elsewhere.

Even if Princess did, we'd still cruise with them. We cruise Celebrity alot. We've never cruised in the Retreat Class. Because of the structure of the Retreat Class that hasn't stopped us from continuing to cruise with Celebrity on any of their three class of ships.  We've never cruised in a suite. Celebrity or RC or Princess. We may book a MSC cruise one day.

[FLAlaska]

Just now, doghog said:

Even if Princess did, we'd still cruise with them. We cruise Celebrity alot. We've never cruised in the Retreat Class. Because of the structure of the Retreat Class that hasn't stopped us from continuing to cruise with Celebrity on any of their three class of ships.  We've never cruised in a suite. Celebrity or RC or Princess. We may book a MSC cruise one day.

Ive never cruised Celebrity but even though they have the Retreat,they managed to keep the Solarium which is adult only and open to all. Princess on the Sphere , has eliminated all adult only areas for non sanctuary customers.

[Wishing on a star]

Exactly...  any comparison with the SUN to any other ship that does still have an open Adult Area is very very misguided...  Apples to Oranges.   

 

We have a contact in with our TA to see if our $500. Goodwill Future Cruise Credit (which would technically be expired, last month) can be applied to a booking on Enchanted.

Not sure if we will keep our booking on the SUN, or not.

The draw of that booking was seeing the new ship.... (not itinerary)

And, sadly,  this new ship, for me, is already losing it's luster.

[chisoxfan]

2 minutes ago, doghog said:

Even if Princess did, we'd still cruise with them. We cruise Celebrity alot. We've never cruised in the Retreat Class. Because of the structure of the Retreat Class that hasn't stopped us from continuing to cruise with Celebrity on any of their three class of ships.  We've never cruised in a suite. Celebrity or RC or Princess. We may book a MSC cruise one day.

IMHO X really messed up abandoning balconies on their new ships which for us is a major reason not to sail with them . The Retreat with real balconies is great but pricing has become ridiculous. So when the Sun came out with dedicated pool, lounge, and restaurant at a 'reasonable' price point we were excited. As documented above it diddn't take long for this concept to experience a price blow up. So that leaves MSC YC. They have been consistent with their product and it remains at a most competitive price point. We just booked today a YC 1 week Carib cruise for less than the Princess Sun suite we also booked several months ago (and which increased by 50% overnight).  So living in the land of X and Princess I do have to give kudos to MSC (YC) for building their ships with a concept in mind and maintaining some consistency in pricing and benefits. JMHO

[Retired-N-Happy]

20 minutes ago, FLAlaska said:

Ive never cruised Celebrity but even though they have the Retreat,they managed to keep the Solarium which is adult only and open to all. Princess on the Sphere , has eliminated all adult only areas for non sanctuary customers.

The solarium area on X, especially in the Edge Class ships is great.  Other factors that have changed with X has caused them to be put in our rear view mirror after cruising on them nine times over the years in 4 classes of ships they have had.

[Retired-N-Happy]

9 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

 

And, sadly,  this new ship, for me, is already losing it's luster.

We feel the exact opposite.  We have 4 weeks booked on both the Sun and the Star when they cruise the Caribbean.  By then, the kinks will be worked out even with the delay with the Star.  Have sailed on the Excel Class on Carnival many times and am looking forward to Princesses spin on it with the Sphere Class.

[kywildcatfanone]

56 minutes ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

Unless Princess somehow wishes to change their entire fleet into a ship within a ship concept, I don't think you need to worry about the other 15 ships being changed. But if they take a page out of Celebrity's playbook when they Soltisized their fleet, you may have to look elsewhere.

It really wouldn't take much at all to convert the retreat pool area into an expanded sanctuary on the newest ships prior to Sun. All you have to do is move the entrance to the Sanctuary to the retreat entrance area and expand into that whole space.  

 

Edit:  It would be super easy on the Royal/Regal as the Sanctuary is on the same level as the retreat pool.

 

Again, if they did this, they would lose me as a customer.  We use the retreat pool every day we are on the ship the weather permits.

Edited April 26 by kywildcatfanone
More detail

[CalTexCruiser]

17 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

Hopefully they won't  "Sanctuarize" the rest of the fleet

 

14 hours ago, TRLD said:

If it works for Sun then most likely they will.

 

It is definitely possible to "Sanctuarize" the Royal class ships--just combine the Retreat pool and the Sanctuary and voila, you've got a Sun deck at the front.

 

 

[555]

14 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

 

It is definitely possible to "Sanctuarize" the Royal class ships--just combine the Retreat pool and the Sanctuary and voila, you've got a Sun deck at the front.

 

 

I think that change would sit well with lots of dedicated Princess cruisers. 

[doghog]

20 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

 

It is definitely possible to "Sanctuarize" the Royal class ships--just combine the Retreat pool and the Sanctuary and voila, you've got a Sun deck at the front.

 

 

I hate that idea. I like retreat pool and bar as is. Less crowded. 

[kywildcatfanone]

42 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

 

It is definitely possible to "Sanctuarize" the Royal class ships--just combine the Retreat pool and the Sanctuary and voila, you've got a Sun deck at the front.

 

 

I said this in another thread. Would be really easy for the Royal And Regal, and mostly easy for the others.  If they do that, they will  lose me as a customer.