Park 19 on the Sun Princess

[TRLD]

50 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I agree with what you're saying and that's why I said it's unlikely they'd provide a refund. 

 

However, there's a difference between what they're legally obligated to do vs what's the right thing to do. 

 

If somebody is sailing with kids and is upset enough to cancel their cruise because Park 19 was a failure, I think the right thing to do would be to give them their money back (whether it's legally required or not).

 

With that said - nothing I've seen from Princess indicates they're the type who cares about their customers (beyond their wallets) so I highly doubt they'll do that without a fight. 

One could say the same thing about any venue on the ship. Or for matter any port on a ships schedule.

 

Princess pretty much follows the same practices as the other cruise lines. No better no worse.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

15 minutes ago, TRLD said:

One could say the same thing about any venue on the ship. Or for matter any port on a ships schedule.

 

Princess pretty much follows the same practices as the other cruise lines. No better no worse.

I think you're being pedantic and I disagree, but it's also not worth fighting about. 

 

I'm sure we will enjoy our cruise on the Sun Princess so I'm not one of the ones wanting to cancel my cruise, I simply think they could do the right thing if they cared enough to (but at the end of the day, this is Carnival we're talking about).

[TRLD]

46 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I think you're being pedantic and I disagree, but it's also not worth fighting about. 

 

I'm sure we will enjoy our cruise on the Sun Princess so I'm not one of the ones wanting to cancel my cruise, I simply think they could do the right thing if they cared enough to (but at the end of the day, this is Carnival we're talking about).

Same with RCL and NCLH owned lines. We spend over 100 says on cruise lines each year. Last year on 7 different lines from 50 passemger ships to 5000 passenger ship. Business practices are all pretty much the same from mass market to luxury lines. Have none seen any that would modify their refund terms for a single venue not being available.

 

 

[vjmatty]

21 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

If you guys do decide to cancel - let us know if they give you your deposit back...they should based on what was essentially false advertising, but that doesn't mean they will.

Most Princess deposits are refundable, it appears to be the default for booking anything other than a guarantee cabin. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

12 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

Most Princess deposits are refundable, it appears to be the default for booking anything other than a guarantee cabin. 

That's good to know and makes me feel better who wish to change their plans. 

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Kit6]

On 8/3/2024 at 8:04 PM, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

We booked the Sun specifically because it had Park 19.

 

Not because we thought it would provide lasting entertainment, but because it was a fun thing for our kids to experience in addition to everything else.

 

We're still excited to experience the Sun Princess and will share how great it is for families on our YouTube channel and Facebook so even more families experience just how great Princess is!

I’m sure your kids will still have loads of fun (like ours did)! Ours did mention that it looked fun, wished it was open, whenever we were up on deck 19 playing or hanging out but it wasn’t upsetting to them, just a comment. The kids clubs have energetic employees, lots of activities (for those that wish to go) and there’s also lots of family areas & activities to enjoy. This was our first Princess cruise & we were impressed with the variety of activities/game shows/shows. The Piazza turned out to be a great central & open location for a lot of the entertainment- from game shows to dance lessons. The comments before about a lot of seating where you can’t see down to the center is true (puzzling that the design engineers didn’t identify that) but you can find lots of great areas to view things. Check out the Cirque shows if you hey a chance to - absolutely amazing, especially in a cruise ship venue! 

[Kit6]

On 8/4/2024 at 9:03 AM, vjmatty said:

I should clarify that I do hope something is done with it but I can’t fathom what given all the wind reported up there.

I find that the top deck of a cruise ship is always windy - not much they can do about that, pick something & let people decide if they’re okay with the wind or not. On Disney cruise, mini golf on the top deck can be “interesting”, often so windy we didn’t need to hit the ball or a shot would go from great to disastrous or vice versa, lol. And we still enjoyed that. It was definitely windy up on deck 19 on the Sun Princess but we still enjoyed the hammocks & games like giant connect 4 & giant jenga plus they had a few putting competitions up there using a little mat. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

8 minutes ago, Kit6 said:

I’m sure your kids will still have loads of fun (like ours did)! Ours did mention that it looked fun, wished it was open, whenever we were up on deck 19 playing or hanging out but it wasn’t upsetting to them, just a comment. The kids clubs have energetic employees, lots of activities (for those that wish to go) and there’s also lots of family areas & activities to enjoy. This was our first Princess cruise & we were impressed with the variety of activities/game shows/shows. The Piazza turned out to be a great central & open location for a lot of the entertainment- from game shows to dance lessons. The comments before about a lot of seating where you can’t see down to the center is true (puzzling that the design engineers didn’t identify that) but you can find lots of great areas to view things. Check out the Cirque shows if you hey a chance to - absolutely amazing, especially in a cruise ship venue! 

This is great to hear and very encouraging... Thank you! 

 

How early did you have to get there for Cirque?

 

I read someone say earlier that they got there 30 minutes early twice and it was completely full both times.

[Kit6]

Hopefully Princess announces and/or does something about park 19 soon - the neither here nor there if it all is the core of what’s firing people up on both sides for & against it. They need to get it running or take it down. Clearly, not everyone will be pleased no matter which way they go (clearly evidenced on these forums 😬) but at least everyone could make a choice knowing of park 19 was running, going to be running in the future, or demolished. 

[Kit6]

2 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

This is great to hear and very encouraging... Thank you! 

 

How early did you have to get there for Cirque?

 

I read someone say earlier that they got there 30 minutes early twice and it was completely full both times.

They had 2 different shows, we went to both (one at 830 & one at 10pm). You definitely need to be a half hour early but we found seats both times - one time was 3 of us & one time was all 6 of us. We went 30 minutes early both times, the time we went for the 830 show they actually had the doors closed for setting up so there was a line but we easily got in. They announced every few minutes to not save seats & ushers did actually help people find seats by kindly telling people to move close together (aka stop trying to save seats). 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

5 minutes ago, Kit6 said:

They had 2 different shows, we went to both (one at 830 & one at 10pm). You definitely need to be a half hour early but we found seats both times - one time was 3 of us & one time was all 6 of us. We went 30 minutes early both times, the time we went for the 830 show they actually had the doors closed for setting up so there was a line but we easily got in. They announced every few minutes to not save seats & ushers did actually help people find seats by kindly telling people to move close together (aka stop trying to save seats). 

We are the type to usually be one of the first ones there as long as I know how early we need to be, so that's helpful... Thank you! 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

9 minutes ago, Kit6 said:

Hopefully Princess announces and/or does something about park 19 soon - the neither here nor there if it all is the core of what’s firing people up on both sides for & against it. They need to get it running or take it down. Clearly, not everyone will be pleased no matter which way they go (clearly evidenced on these forums 😬) but at least everyone could make a choice knowing of park 19 was running, going to be running in the future, or demolished. 

They already announced Park 19 will never be opening, so all we're waiting for now is finding out what will go in its place!

[Kit6]

31 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

They already announced Park 19 will never be opening, so all we're waiting for now is finding out what will go in its place!

I thought that wasn’t confirmed/that it was possibly not a legit email as it isn’t on their website and not all travel agents were notified? When I asked my travel agent about it about a month ago, she had checked with their agency’s Princess rep and was told it was still hopefully going to get whatever clearance needed to open. Not sure who I believe here, sure seems like a lot is being hidden or not disclosed. Just seems funny to me that Princess would announce the cancellation of park 19 in writing to someone while being completely evasive to everyone else. Not that any of this makes sense, lol. Like I said it’s impossible to know what the heck is actually going on 🤨. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

1 minute ago, Kit6 said:

I thought that wasn’t confirmed/that it was possibly not a legit email as it isn’t on their website and not all travel agents were notified? When I asked my travel agent about it about a month ago, she had checked with their agency’s Princess rep and was told it was still hopefully going to get whatever clearance needed to open. Not sure who I believe here, sure seems like a lot is being hidden or not disclosed. Just seems funny to me that Princess would announce the cancellation of park 19 in writing to someone while being completely evasive to everyone else. Not that any of this makes sense, lol. Like I said it’s impossible to know what the heck is actually going on 🤨. 

I've seen people in Facebook groups share screenshots of chat and email conversations directly with Princess where they give the same exact statement as we saw on those websites.

 

At this point, I'm very confident that it is true, no matter how unfortunate.

[Kit6]

Just now, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I've seen people in Facebook groups share screenshots of chat and email conversations directly with Princess where they give the same exact statement as we saw on those websites.

 

At this point, I'm very confident that it is true, no matter how unfortunate.

Oh really? Well that’s interesting, definitely seems legit.  It sure why I’ve gotten a different response with Princess website chats & through my travel agency. I’m glad that they are being more direct with it (finally). Now if only they’d put a big announcement in the front page of their website so we’d all know! 😂 I’m one of the rare beings not on any social media, just stumbled upon this website searching for answers on park 19 months ago - haven’t seen anything official myself so totally in the dark with it. 

[kywildcatfanone]

You just have to laugh at this entire scenario.  

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

3 minutes ago, Kit6 said:

Oh really? Well that’s interesting, definitely seems legit.  It sure why I’ve gotten a different response with Princess website chats & through my travel agency. I’m glad that they are being more direct with it (finally). Now if only they’d put a big announcement in the front page of their website so we’d all know! 😂 I’m one of the rare beings not on any social media, just stumbled upon this website searching for answers on park 19 months ago - haven’t seen anything official myself so totally in the dark with it. 

Good for you for avoiding the social media trap!

 

I wish they'd tell us what's going in its place (and when).

 

At one point, I figured with us being booked over Thanksgiving there was no way it wouldn't be open, but now I'm pretty sure it's going to be no different than than it is now. 

 

I even met a captain of a Princess ship a couple months ago on a cruise who told me it'd be opening, but that just tells me even their team was in the dark. 

[lstone19]

46 minutes ago, Kit6 said:

I thought that wasn’t confirmed/that it was possibly not a legit email as it isn’t on their website and not all travel agents were notified? 

 

Why would you expect them to trumpet bad news with a big press release? In the old days before websites, information was disseminated by putting out a press release to the press. Which is what Princess appears to have been done. If it was bad news, it was done as quietly as possible and late in the day when I might be missed (but the company could still complain they issued the press release). What they did is no different than when a company releases bad financial results late on a Friday hoping it will be overshadowed by other things over the weekend.

[Kit6]

7 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

 

Why would you expect them to trumpet bad news with a big press release? In the old days before websites, information was disseminated by putting out a press release to the press. Which is what Princess appears to have been done. If it was bad news, it was done as quietly as possible and late in the day when I might be missed (but the company could still complain they issued the press release). What they did is no different than when a company releases bad financial results late on a Friday hoping it will be overshadowed by other things over the weekend.

Just in the interest of transparency. Even though I’m not in the group that will cancel or not book without park 19, I don’t think it’s right to heavily promote something & then go silent for months, then slowly tell some people but deny the information to others. In my opinion, this isn’t being discrete about bad news, it’s misleading the people that factor it in when choosing a cruise line/cruise ship. 

[lstone19]

34 minutes ago, Kit6 said:

Just in the interest of transparency. Even though I’m not in the group that will cancel or not book without park 19, I don’t think it’s right to heavily promote something & then go silent for months, then slowly tell some people but deny the information to others. In my opinion, this isn’t being discrete about bad news, it’s misleading the people that factor it in when choosing a cruise line/cruise ship. 

I was not trying to defend Princess, just point out that the traditional way of disseminating news was to issue a press release to the press, not to customers, given that some people cite the lack of direct dissemination to customers as a reason to doubt the veracity of it.

 

Ironically, we took a move over offer off a May cruise on Sun Princess. Perhaps if Princess had allowed customers to cancel due to not all amenities being available, Princess would not have needed to buy us off with a free cruise.

[Kit6]

19 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

I was not trying to defend Princess, just point out that the traditional way of disseminating news was to issue a press release to the press, not to customers, given that some people cite the lack of direct dissemination to customers as a reason to doubt the veracity of it.

 

Ironically, we took a move over offer off a May cruise on Sun Princess. Perhaps if Princess had allowed customers to cancel due to not all amenities being available, Princess would not have needed to buy us off with a free cruise.

I totally get what you’re saying. Congrats on the free cruise! Obviously not your first choice but silver lining nonetheless. I hope you enjoy your cruise!

[Retired-N-Happy]

4 hours ago, Kit6 said:

I thought that wasn’t confirmed/that it was possibly not a legit email as it isn’t on their website and not all travel agents were notified? When I asked my travel agent about it about a month ago, she had checked with their agency’s Princess rep and was told it was still hopefully going to get whatever clearance needed to open. Not sure who I believe here, sure seems like a lot is being hidden or not disclosed. Just seems funny to me that Princess would announce the cancellation of park 19 in writing to someone while being completely evasive to everyone else. Not that any of this makes sense, lol. Like I said it’s impossible to know what the heck is actually going on 🤨. 

Reality check.  No Park 19.  Princess never took ownership from the manufacturer.  It obviously works on land, but doesn't work at sea.  Princess wants to keep the bad PR to a minimum and that's why you're not hearing too much about it except on websites like CC.  

[Iamcruzin]

On 8/3/2024 at 5:58 PM, kywildcatfanone said:

It costs 73 cents for a stamp!

I can't even remember the last time I mailed anything. 

[Pixelskaya]

8 hours ago, Kit6 said:

Oh really? Well that’s interesting, definitely seems legit.  It sure why I’ve gotten a different response with Princess website chats & through my travel agency. I’m glad that they are being more direct with it (finally). Now if only they’d put a big announcement in the front page of their website so we’d all know! 😂 I’m one of the rare beings not on any social media, just stumbled upon this website searching for answers on park 19 months ago - haven’t seen anything official myself so totally in the dark with it. 

You just have to check the updated ship’s map: Park 19 has been erased.

 

[LittleTinker]

11 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Good for you for avoiding the social media trap!

 

I wish they'd tell us what's going in its place (and when).

 

At one point, I figured with us being booked over Thanksgiving there was no way it wouldn't be open, but now I'm pretty sure it's going to be no different than than it is now. 

 

I even met a captain of a Princess ship a couple months ago on a cruise who told me it'd be opening, but that just tells me even their team was in the dark. 

Which Captain was this?