Sanctuary Collection on Sun Princess

[oteixeira]

1 hour ago, insidecabin said:

The issue I see and why Haven & Yacht club are successful, you need everything exclusive behind the magic doors, cabins, restaurants, lounge, bar, deck...... you don't have to go far to get access to everything, restaurants are steps away from your exclusive lounge and bar..

RCI and Celebrity tried to patch up older designs to provide the facilities to try to compete and it took time

Why Princess did not take the opportunity to go ship in a ship  with a brand new ship is surprising, MSC and NCL are on multiple iterations of the concept while princess is patching up old designs to try to get more exclusive(more $)  like others did years ago, what we have is a private sun deck with a lot of suites below it.

My friend calls it "being behind the golden door" and refuses to cruise on any line that does not have that door.  :D 

[oteixeira]

58 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Because those lines have a different market focus. NCL  Royal and Carnival are NA family focused lines.  MSC is a European family focused line. Where as Princess, Celebrity, and HAL are NA adult focused lines. 

Totally different ship environments. On the family focused lines you need an isolated area because the main areas are far more chaotic.

 

Princess is going more in line with its adult focused competition, Celebrity, while keeping its general feel.

While I would have agreed with this before the new class of ship I think the top deck with Park 19 show very clearly that Princess wants to be more of a family line.  Time will tell.  

[TRLD]

36 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

While I would have agreed with this before the new class of ship I think the top deck with Park 19 show very clearly that Princess wants to be more of a family line.  Time will tell.  

I think it is more that Princess is getting more concerned abouts it's demographics. Other competing lines have been successful in lowering their average age demographic.

 

While Princess has added a couple of features that will increase its appeal to some families, it is no where near the family friendly lines.

 

More of grandkids willing to go on Princess with grandparents, instead of grandparents going to Royal or NCL when they cruise with kids and grandkids.

 

In order to get its demographics more into mid 50s instead of mid or high 60s it has to make it more attractive to 40/50 demographic which will include a few more children and young adults.

[oteixeira]

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

In order to get its demographics more into mid 50s instead of mid or high 60s it has to make it more attractive to 40/50 demographic which will include a few more children and young adults.

And this is what I call family friendly.  I think we have similar thoughts, we will see how it all works out.  

[vjmatty]

2 hours ago, oteixeira said:

My friend calls it "being behind the golden door" and refuses to cruise on any line that does not have that door.  😄

The issue with the golden door concept is when it becomes too removed from the other venues on the ship you might want to experience and enjoy. For example, Oasis class on Royal Caribbean has deck 17 where certain suites are on the same floor as the dining room and suite lounge, with nothing else. That’s great if all you’re going to do for the entire cruise is eat and drink. However, if you want Io go to trivia, live music, broadway shows, specialty dining, the spa, other bars, basically any kind of entertainment, it’s a pain when you need to run back to deck 17 to change, drop off bags, shower or grab something from your suite. Cruise lines need to find that balance between exclusivity and isolation. 

Edited April 29 by vjmatty
Clarification

[vjmatty]

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

I think it is more that Princess is getting more concerned abouts it's demographics. Other competing lines have been successful in lowering their average age demographic.

 

While Princess has added a couple of features that will increase its appeal to some families, it is no where near the family friendly lines.

 

More of grandkids willing to go on Princess with grandparents, instead of grandparents going to Royal or NCL when they cruise with kids and grandkids.

 

In order to get its demographics more into mid 50s instead of mid or high 60s it has to make it more attractive to 40/50 demographic which will include a few more children and young adults.

Agreed, I don’t know why so many people equate Park 19 with the water parks and amusement type rides on other more child-oriented ships. Park 19 is just a glorified sports deck.

 

I also agree there’s a difference between younger couples and family-oriented. Many couples now are deciding not to have children.

[oteixeira]

12 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

The issue with the golden door concept is when it becomes too removed from the other venues on the ship you might want to experience and enjoy. For example, Oasis class on Royal Caribbean has deck 17 where certain suites are on the same floor as the dining room and suite lounge, with nothing else. That’s great if all you’re going to do for the entire cruise is eat and drink. However, if you want Io go to trivia, live music, broadway shows, specialty dining, the spa, other bars, basically any kind of entertainment, it’s a pain when you need to run back to deck 17 to change, drop off bags, shower or grab something from your suite. Cruise lines need to find that balance between exclusivity and isolation. 

May I ask if you have ever sailed behind the golden door?  I enjoy a lot of things in the main ship and it is no harder to go back to my room on deck 17 then it is to go back to my room on deck 5, or deck 14 (balcony on most NCL), etc.  The person I was referring to earlier spends a lot of time in the Casino, the idea is really to enjoy the ship but have a place to go back to that is away from the crowds so you can relax (in a public setting).  

[TRLD]

19 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

May I ask if you have ever sailed behind the golden door?  I enjoy a lot of things in the main ship and it is no harder to go back to my room on deck 17 then it is to go back to my room on deck 5, or deck 14 (balcony on most NCL), etc.  The person I was referring to earlier spends a lot of time in the Casino, the idea is really to enjoy the ship but have a place to go back to that is away from the crowds so you can relax (in a public setting).  

My objection to the golden door approach is because it is often needed because the cruise experience outside of the Golden door is very substandard such as on MSC. Yacht Club good, outside of Yacht Club rather poor even by family oriented mass market standards.

[oteixeira]

2 minutes ago, TRLD said:

My objection to the golden door approach is because it is often needed because the cruise experience outside of the Golden door is very substandard such as on MSC. Yacht Club good, outside of Yacht Club rather poor even by family oriented mass market standards.

I mean I understand that can be the case depending on the line, but you never answered my question, we kind of zigged when we were currently talking about zagging.  Again, I have sailed behind the door.  Going to the room is no different then a room on most of the rest of the ship, which was your argument for it not being a great set up.  So, have you ever sailed behind the golden door?  
 

[vjmatty]

53 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

May I ask if you have ever sailed behind the golden door?  I enjoy a lot of things in the main ship and it is no harder to go back to my room on deck 17 then it is to go back to my room on deck 5, or deck 14 (balcony on most NCL), etc.  The person I was referring to earlier spends a lot of time in the Casino, the idea is really to enjoy the ship but have a place to go back to that is away from the crowds so you can relax (in a public setting).  

Yes I have. In fact, to illustrate my ability to compare, I’ve been in a Royal Suite, Crown Loft Suite, Owner’s Suite and Grand Suite on RC; Royal Suite and Aqua Sky Suite on Celebrity, Penthouse Suite and Window Suite on Princess, as well as Princess Grill and  Queens Grill on Cunard.  The most enjoyable for me were those suites that had their own areas for dining and lounges but not far removed from everything else. I liked Queens Grill on Cunard and Owners Suite on Deck 8 near Central Park on Oasis Class the best.  My least favorite was the Crown Loft Suite on Oasis class ships. There is only one set of elevators because  deck 17 is very small. Also, the CLS itself, while beautiful to look at, was impractical as the stairs got old quickly lol.

[vjmatty]

38 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

I mean I understand that can be the case depending on the line, but you never answered my question, we kind of zigged when we were currently talking about zagging.  Again, I have sailed behind the door.  Going to the room is no different then a room on most of the rest of the ship, which was your argument for it not being a great set up.  So, have you ever sailed behind the golden door?  
 

I’m the one you asked, and yes I did answer your question. You’re confusing two different posters. 

[Hobby3333]

1 hour ago, vjmatty said:

The issue with the golden door concept is when it becomes too removed from the other venues on the ship you might want to experience and enjoy. For example, Oasis class on Royal Caribbean has deck 17 where certain suites are on the same floor as the dining room and suite lounge, with nothing else. That’s great if all you’re going to do for the entire cruise is eat and drink. However, if you want Io go to trivia, live music, broadway shows, specialty dining, the spa, other bars, basically any kind of entertainment, it’s a pain when you need to run back to deck 17 to change, drop off bags, shower or grab something from your suite. Cruise lines need to find that balance between exclusivity and isolation. 

I have sailed MSC YC three times and always ventured outside of YC. It was never an issue.  This July will be my first Princess cruise and we are staying in a suite.  YC is an excellent experience.   We are looking forward to sailing out of Galveston next December in YC.   I am sure Princess will deliver a good experience.  

[TRLD]

1 hour ago, oteixeira said:

I mean I understand that can be the case depending on the line, but you never answered my question, we kind of zigged when we were currently talking about zagging.  Again, I have sailed behind the door.  Going to the room is no different then a room on most of the rest of the ship, which was your argument for it not being a great set up.  So, have you ever sailed behind the golden door?  
 

I think you asked that question of someone else. There person that commented about isolation from everything else.

 

However i will answer it anyway. Yes, on two different lines.  one reason I specifically mentioned MSC, the other being NCL

We cruise about 100 days per year on various cruise lines from mass market to luxury. Last year we were on 7 different lines on ships from 50 to 5000.

Edited April 29 by TRLD

[oteixeira]

40 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

Yes I have. In fact, to illustrate my ability to compare, I’ve been in a Royal Suite, Crown Loft Suite, Owner’s Suite and Grand Suite on RC; Royal Suite and Aqua Sky Suite on Celebrity, Penthouse Suite and Window Suite on Princess, as well as Princess Grill and  Queens Grill on Cunard.  The most enjoyable for me were those suites that had their own areas for dining and lounges but not far removed from everything else. I liked Queens Grill on Cunard and Owners Suite on Deck 8 near Central Park on Oasis Class the best.  My least favorite was the Crown Loft Suite on Oasis class ships. There is only one set of elevators because  deck 17 is very small. Also, the CLS itself, while beautiful to look at, was impractical as the stairs got old quickly lol.

Cool, maybe I just don't mind the walking as much?  LOL

[CalTexCruiser]

Bringing this back on topic:

 

I wonder if they'll dedicate, to suite guests only, some number of loungers in the Sanctuary Club (even though the suite area has apparently been removed) and seats in private dining (even though it is likely that Signature Dining will be merged with Reserve Dining), so suite guests would not be in a situation where they'll be left to wander aimlessly in the Sanctuary Club or have to wait to dine (gasp).

[dides]

23 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

I wonder if they'll dedicate, to suite guests only, some number of loungers in the Sanctuary Club (even though the suite area has apparently been removed) and seats in private dining (even though it is likely that Signature Dining will be merged with Reserve Dining), so suite guests would not be in a situation where they'll be left to wander aimlessly in the Sanctuary Club or have to wait to dine (gasp).

 

I saw a comment on a vlog that said a lot of the suite guests moved around to the pool on some days when it was windier so maybe that sun deck wasn't all that great! It makes me wonder when they decided to roll out these changes - they went to the trouble of building these gates to separate the areas even though they were never medallion-enabled!

 

 

 

 

[vjmatty]

1 hour ago, oteixeira said:

Cool, maybe I just don't mind the walking as much?  LOL

Oh I love walking, and get my 10k steps in no problem. My knee can’t do more than 5 flights of stairs though and the wait for elevators on that ship is ridiculous.  I’m keeping an open mind about Sun though, and giving it a fair chance. 

[keldaria]

58 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

Bringing this back on topic:

 

I wonder if they'll dedicate, to suite guests only, some number of loungers in the Sanctuary Club (even though the suite area has apparently been removed) and seats in private dining (even though it is likely that Signature Dining will be merged with Reserve Dining), so suite guests would not be in a situation where they'll be left to wander aimlessly in the Sanctuary Club or have to wait to dine (gasp).

I’m right there with you and unfortunately there really isn’t a good way to know at this stage.

 

the more I think about the private dining situation the more I wonder if suites will maintain their access to the signature but rather than a full merger, I wonder if they’ll just take a small portion of the non-suite sanctuary class cabins and move them into the signature restaurant so they can have a little better balance between the 2 and not as much congestion at the reserve restaurant. I mean the space doesn’t make it easy to merge them and allowing a free for all between the 2 would mean potentially a lot of mad suite guest. It wouldn’t be hard to take 15-20% of the non-suite guests and say “congratulations your private dining is at the signature restaurant” and leave the rest in the reserve. 

[vjmatty]

7 minutes ago, keldaria said:

I’m right there with you and unfortunately there really isn’t a good way to know at this stage.

 

the more I think about the private dining situation the more I wonder if suites will maintain their access to the signature but rather than a full merger, I wonder if they’ll just take a small portion of the non-suite sanctuary class cabins and move them into the signature restaurant so they can have a little better balance between the 2 and not as much congestion at the reserve restaurant. I mean the space doesn’t make it easy to merge them and allowing a free for all between the 2 would mean potentially a lot of mad suite guest. It wouldn’t be hard to take 15-20% of the non-suite guests and say “congratulations your private dining is at the signature restaurant” and leave the rest in the reserve. 

I’m wondering how dining is going to work also. I don’t think the suites will be infringed on because the Reserve restaurant population has been cut in half and they are only adding the 12 DO cabins. That should give relief to the overcrowding in Reserve dining that was observed in the earlier sailings. Signature dining should not be affected, as there will still

have to be two separate dining rooms since they can’t be combined with the kitchen being in between the dining rooms. But then again at this point I have learned not to underestimate Princess’ ability to come up with more bad ideas. 

[keldaria]

4 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

I’m wondering how dining is going to work also. I don’t think the suites will be infringed on because the Reserve restaurant population has been cut in half and they are only adding the 12 DO cabins. That should give relief to the overcrowding in Reserve dining that was observed in the earlier sailings. Signature dining should not be affected, as there will still

have to be two separate dining rooms since they can’t be combined with the kitchen being in between the dining rooms. But then again at this point I have learned not to underestimate Princess’ ability to come up with more bad ideas. 

I don’t believe that because it would’ve be clearly stated that signature is exclusive to suites like the lounge was. I think some sort of merging of co-mingling will occur which is why they reference private dining instead of coming right out with it.

[techsearch]

On 4/23/2024 at 12:55 PM, mw82den said:

Got the email saying that our booking had been ‘upgraded’ to the Sanctuary Collection (penthouse suite on Sun Princess).

 

I had already purchased Princess Premier to go with it - would I be eligible for a refund on that, if it’s now already included?  
 

EDIT: seems not.  I just noticed that it’s called out in the FAQ for existing bookings.

I had my beverage package refunded. I had paid for it (or rather reserved it) and they refunded it as now my Suite 'inlcudes' the Premier package. 

 

[CalTexCruiser]

4 minutes ago, techsearch said:

I had my beverage package refunded. I had paid for it (or rather reserved it) and they refunded it as now my Suite 'inlcudes' the Premier package. 

 

 

Does your Travel Summary now state Premier package?

 

I purchased Plus with my Penthouse Suite and it is still Plus.  Absolutely no refund to me.

 

 

[capriccio]

3 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

Does your Travel Summary now state Premier package?

 

I purchased Plus with my Penthouse Suite and it is still Plus.  Absolutely no refund to me.

 

 

Same with us (an S9 with Plus).

[CalTexCruiser]

35 minutes ago, keldaria said:

I don’t believe that because it would’ve be clearly stated that signature is exclusive to suites like the lounge was. I think some sort of merging of co-mingling will occur which is why they reference private dining instead of coming right out with it.

 

DELETED as I made the same point you did.

 

Edited April 29 by CalTexCruiser

[techsearch]

11 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

Does your Travel Summary now state Premier package?

 

I purchased Plus with my Penthouse Suite and it is still Plus.  Absolutely no refund to me.

 

 

Hmmm, now I am questioning this. I have not made final payment yet. SO I just called and cancelled the PLUS package. I had received an email from Princess that 'looked' like they were now including everything in the 'Sanctuary'. We are in a Penthouse Suite too. But I might not have fully understood that email. I was already getting all the Sancturary perks - that's why we booked the suite in the first place. I just sent an email to my TA asking for clarity. I'll report back. 

 

But how in the world will they know who is and isn't Premier if all suites sold from this point forward include the Premiere package?! On Celebrity - if you are on the Retreat Deck, you have the package. There aren't some with and some without.