Very brief Sun Princess review

[dides]

6 hours ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

Any information regarding the juice bar?  Where is it located and what are the menu options?  Thanks

It's a reduced Lara juice menu.  We saw it displayed at Coffee and Cones on Deck 17 and the Promenade Bar on deck 9.

 

 

[Retired-N-Happy]

1 hour ago, alyssamma said:

Menu from the diner...

 

Coffee & donuts milkshake with espresso?  Yum.

[Retired-N-Happy]

28 minutes ago, dides said:

It's a reduced Lara juice menu.  We saw it displayed at Coffee and Cones on Deck 17 and the Promenade Bar on deck 9.

 

 

Thanks for the update.  Looks to be different than the other menu that the rest of the fleet is using that has 2 smoothies and I think five or six fruit or fruit/veggie combos.

[telcom]

5 hours ago, 555 said:

So now their handing out tickets ! 

Since it only seats 250 people max, there must have been quite a line up. 

What times were the shows?

Our tickets are for 9:30, not sure if there's another. And now it's Thursday not Friday, per new Patter notice.

[555]

14 hours ago, telcom said:

Our tickets are for 9:30, not sure if there's another. And now it's Thursday not Friday, per new Patter notice.

Was there a big lineup to get tickets?

[telcom]

19 minutes ago, 555 said:

Was there a big lineup to get tickets?

No, he got there around opening 8:00 AM.  Not sure if this will be a thing now.

[GrannasVacay]

On 4/30/2024 at 3:02 PM, cynbar said:

It's 6 weeks before our Sun cruise and we still can't make dining reservations, which is contributing to all the concern. Apparently no reservations are available yet for cruises after May. It just all seems so confusing and unnecessary. All the other Princess ships can make reservations after final payment, or earlier for Elite and Platinum. But thank you everyone for the input.We may not know much more until we board, sadly.

We are sailing in August. Don't know if you have tried since this post, but if you are arriving a day or two (in our case 3) ahead of the cruise, obviously you can't reserve shipboard dining on those days. The confusing thing is on the app your days prior to boarding the ship are listed as 'day 1, day 2, etc'. It took my s-i-l and I 20 minutes to figure out what we were doing wrong. 🙃 

[JimmyVWine]

On 5/1/2024 at 11:18 AM, alyssamma said:

Ok, went to deck 8 and found out the deal...for this cruise and the last one, because of "high volume", whatever that means...on sea days they are the same as the MDR.

I'm curious to see how this develops.  I suspect that this will become the norm.  The American Diner concept seems pretty brilliant to me...for B and L.  But for dinner, not so much.  If you polled the 4,000+ people on board and asked them if they would prefer Deck 8 to be a Diner for dinner, or convert to a casual venue serving the MDR menu thus alleviating the logjam at the other two decks by providing 50% more MDR seating, it seems to me that the vote would be a landslide.  

[Cruisecrusader22]

My husband and I ate evening dinner in the deck 8 diner on 18th April, it was a sea day. It was the diner menu. My husband had the burger but I ordered the ‘from the main dining room’ option of a roast meal. We both had the banana split for dessert. We had experienced the long line on deck 7 (our reservation coincided with everyone coming for dinner after Captains welcome) so we went upstairs to 8. We had reservations in either deck 6 or deck 7 each night. We enjoyed deck 6 dining early most, the service was better. We got off the ship on 4th May in Athens. We loved the ship. Food was improved over our previous 2 cruises. The staff served eatery buffet worked well we thought.  I enjoyed being able to, most of the time, to get a seat to watch shows in the Piazza. We went to a lot of the shows in the Arena and the entertainment was very good (we didn’t really enjoy Vallora, it was impressive production wise for a ship and good songs but the dragged out storyline was childish, our opinion). I think everything was better on Sun Princess, our 8th cruise with Princess.

[joespin]

Hello, We're on the Sun for the Sept 14 Iberian and TA. Does anyone know the brand of TV in the cabin and if the HDMI ports are  accessible? TIA

[Retired-N-Happy]

10 hours ago, Cruisecrusader22 said:

My husband and I ate evening dinner in the deck 8 diner on 18th April, it was a sea day. It was the diner menu. My husband had the burger but I ordered the ‘from the main dining room’ option of a roast meal. We both had the banana split for dessert. We had experienced the long line on deck 7 (our reservation coincided with everyone coming for dinner after Captains welcome) so we went upstairs to 8. We had reservations in either deck 6 or deck 7 each night. We enjoyed deck 6 dining early most, the service was better. We got off the ship on 4th May in Athens. We loved the ship. Food was improved over our previous 2 cruises. The staff served eatery buffet worked well we thought.  I enjoyed being able to, most of the time, to get a seat to watch shows in the Piazza. We went to a lot of the shows in the Arena and the entertainment was very good (we didn’t really enjoy Vallora, it was impressive production wise for a ship and good songs but the dragged out storyline was childish, our opinion). I think everything was better on Sun Princess, our 8th cruise with Princess.

Glad to hear that your opinion was that everything was better on the Sun compared to your previous cruises.  Do have a question though.  If you ate on deck six early how come you weren't locked into that for the entire duration of the cruise?  I was under the impression that you were either assigned six early, six late, seven with reservations or seven without reservations.

[Jemnibabe02]

Can anyone presently on the Sun or who have been on the Sun, tell me where they hold the Trivia?  Thanks.

 

Judy from SW Florida

[dides]

1 hour ago, Jemnibabe02 said:

Can anyone presently on the Sun or who have been on the Sun, tell me where they hold the Trivia?  Thanks.

When we were on board in April, Trivia was mostly held in Princess Live!. There was an early morning Brain Teaser challenge held in O'Malleys at  9:15 and all the big game shows like Liars Club and Marriage Match were held in the Piazza 

 

 

 

Edited May 11 by dides

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

Glad to hear that your opinion was that everything was better on the Sun compared to your previous cruises.  Do have a question though.  If you ate on deck six early how come you weren't locked into that for the entire duration of the cruise?  I was under the impression that you were either assigned six early, six late, seven with reservations or seven without reservations.

There isn’t anything about the reservation system that locks you in. I am able to make reservations for my upcoming cruise and each day is independent of the others. There is a toggle that you can select for “same time each night.”  But if you don’t select that, you can make a reservation for Deck 6 on Monday, Deck 7 on Tuesday, and jump back to Deck 6 on Wednesday. The only difference is that when selecting Deck 6 you are only offered two choices: 5:30 and 8:00 whereas on Deck 7 you get many other options. And you also get the option of “Private” or “Shared” table. I assume that the Dining Room Manager will piece together the puzzle of people who select “same time each night” and provide those people the old fashioned Traditional Dining experience and for the people who don’t select that option, they can be rotated to different tables each time that they dine on Deck 6. 

[mrmarklin]

Just boarded today. I’ll make comments as time goes on and will try to answer questions.  
We are Suite passengers with a suite literally across the hall from the Signature lounge

 

Drinks were ready and waiting there and considering we arrived on ship around 2:30 today in Barcelona there were exactly no hassles boarding.  If I have one minor complaint about the Lounge it would be that the appetizers were niggardly. Luckily we had a plate of canapés  in our room upon arrival. 

Walked about the ship a bit, observed Sailaway and took a few pics of the port. If I can figure out how to do pics, I will post some. 
After a complimentary dinner at Sabatinis I’m tired and going to bed. Sabatinis has lost the Oslo Bucco, but was otherwise excellent. 

 

[chamima]

On 4/29/2024 at 2:59 PM, alyssamma said:

The good: cabin is simply amazing. We have an inside (only other time had a cabin class lower than balcony was a couple of times in MSC Yacht Club). I was worried because the dimensions are small, but this is one of the best cabins I've ever been in. Shower and bathroom are (cruise) spacious, lots of closet and other storage space, a zillion hangers, and really nice touches. For example, when you get up from bed a small night light comes on under the nightstand and in the bathroom.

 

The look of the ship is stunning. Nice colors, very pretty.

 

Staff is mostly very nice and friendly.

 

The few shows I have seen were good. Not the best, but I'd say a solid B+

 

The average: Food is hit or miss. Nothing has been bad, but tends towards average instead of great.

 

Cruise director. Eh. A little annoying to me, but ymmv. Regardless, I'd say she's in the middle of CDs I've experienced.

 

The bad: the layout is simply the worst I've ever seen. It's so bad I could never sail this ship again. Princess Live, where they have comedy and enrichment shows is completely open, so not only do you hear the crowds walking by, but you also very clearly hear whatever is going on in the central atrium part of the ship. Which leads to...

 

The Piazza. Great to look at, but three levels with limited chairs means every show they have there requires people to stand. There are about 3x as many people standing as sitting.

 

Lastly, I hate that they funnel you through the shops or casino to get to the important parts of the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

K - is this you?

Hope you guys are great!

Boy do you guys get around!

How does this ship compare to the Sapphire? Sounds like not so great.

We are signed up to take our grandkids for New Years (that we booked when we realized we weren't doing the SE Asia cruise). I have a feeling it'll be a one and done on this class of ship.

[Cruisecrusader22]

5 hours ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

Glad to hear that your opinion was that everything was better on the Sun compared to your previous cruises.  Do have a question though.  If you ate on deck six early how come you weren't locked into that for the entire duration of the cruise?  I was under the impression that you were either assigned six early, six late, seven with reservations or seven without reservations.

I booked our dining in the app prior to cruise, I had thought that the anytime dining on 7 would suit us best but on some days there was no availability so looked for available times in deck 6. I could only find early dining in 6 to book which I had thought would bother us but we ended up liking it much better. It wasn’t too busy and then gave us plenty of time to go to the shows all evening. On the days we had late return excursions we booked deck 7. We had different tables each time in both dining rooms, I didn’t notice the toggle in the app for selecting same table etc. We have been on 7 different cruise ships on Princess and we have enjoyed them all but the new Sun Princess is favourite now. The Piazza isn’t as grand in styling as the others but still places to sit and relax. The outdoor decks on 9 for the Eatery are really nice. We ate our breakfast outside most mornings enjoying the views, there are heaters in the ceilings in some of the spots.

[Retired-N-Happy]

4 hours ago, chamima said:

How does this ship compare to the Sapphire? Sounds like not so great.

You honestly think a 20 year old rust bucket is better than a brand new state of the art ship?  

That's why there is vanilla and chocolate, different flavors for different people.  There are old school Princess cruisers that won't cruise on the Royal Class, so obviously there will be those that won't cruise on the Sphere Class either.  Luckily you still have the older ships that you're comfortable with until they retire as scrap metal in Turkey.

[Ombud]

2 questions:

1. Musicians: do they have several options at a time and where

2. Buffet: can I get my salad as I want or is it only "pre-made"

 

After so many cruises, I find the game shows boring & redundant 

 

Edited May 12 by Ombud

[Retired-N-Happy]

10 minutes ago, Ombud said:

After so many cruises, I find the game shows boring & redundant 

How can you possibly find the Yes/No game show boring & redundant?  It's a show unique to Princess that we find to be entertaining.  Especially when my DW lasted about 20 seconds.

[Ombud]

@Retired-N-Happy what did you find was a good place to relax and listen to musicians when you were on the Sun Princess?

 

Asking bc final payment date is rapidly approaching.  Thx

 

Edited May 12 by Ombud

[ISABELLA]

We are leaving in 4 days for May 18 cruise. From reading these post, it seams still a lot of confusion and changes are taking place. I have not sailed with Princess in more that 15 years and going with an open mind, but not high expectations. I hope there will be no regrets for booking this cruise. So far, I was not able to make any reservations for dinners on deck 6 or 7. 8 is not even showing up on the app.  We are hoping that Princess will become a nice variety from Celebrity. So far, it seems everthing is very disorganized. Not excited.

 

[ILUVHOCKEY]

7 hours ago, Ombud said:

2 questions:

1. Musicians: do they have several options at a time and where

2. Buffet: can I get my salad as I want or is it only "pre-made"

 

On the ship right now, first seas day for me. So Yes at this time there do have musicians placed across the ship. So that is nice. 

 

As for salad they will custome make it for you and portion size. Just need to tell them ahead of time.  The do have display models so you get an idea of what type of salads and what it is suppose to look like.

 

Although I am not a buffet person, I am disappointed that there is no self serve drink machines in the buffet for juice, ice tea and lemonade.  

 

They do have them on the lido though.

[JimmyVWine]

8 hours ago, Ombud said:

. Buffet: can I get my salad as I want or is it only "pre-made

I have definitely seen YouTube videos that show a salad station where all of the component parts are separated allowing the guest to tell the server what they want. Looked sort of like the toppings station at a Subway sandwich franchise. Not sure if that was in the Eatery or outside on Deck 9 near the pizza station, or at the Deck 17 food stations. 

[chamima]

2 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I have definitely seen YouTube videos that show a salad station where all of the component parts are separated allowing the guest to tell the server what they want. Looked sort of like the toppings station at a Subway sandwich franchise. Not sure if that was in the Eatery or outside on Deck 9 near the

pizza station, or at the Deck 17 food stations. 

 

I think you've hit on a main problem that the Sun has . Which of the 3 or 4 different venues does one need to go to? I get it that with a large passenger load Princess is trying to distribute the load across the ship but the way it's been implemented just leaves a lot of people confused.