LIVE from Sun Princess Barcelona to Southampton September 14th-23rd

[Pink-belle]

We’ve returned from MDR breakfast, we were later today 8:45 am and there was a bit of a queue, nothing too long, but a queue.  
 

Breakfast menu was much larger than port day menu.  Pastries were served the traditional, selected from a tray, service. 

[Esprit]

3 hours ago, Pink-belle said:

We’ve returned from MDR breakfast, we were later today 8:45 am and there was a bit of a queue, nothing too long, but a queue.  
 

Breakfast menu was much larger than port day menu.  Pastries were served the traditional, selected from a tray, service. 

We had the same experience last month. I thought the menu was extensive. I don't recall seeing both the American and English full breakfasts being offered on Regal two years ago, but I'm sure I will be corrected once again 🙄

[SotonScotty]

On Sun Princess at the moment. Ship is fantastic apart from the ongoing building work ( jack hammering out the floor tiles in the poolside showers and then retiling) and the demolition of the sky ride attraction that never opened). In a reserve mini suite and it is one of the nicest staterooms we have had. One pointless thing is 2 65 inch televisions 5 feet apart. Bed is really nice as is the bathroom with its huge walk in shower. Room service is good and the fact you can order food and drink on the Princess app and they can find you anywhere on the ship to deliver it to you ( this is extra but we went for Princess plus package which is well worth it). All in would definitely cruise on Sun Princess again. 

[suekel]

Currently on-board in a Reserve Cabana.  Love it with a few caveats. One is the bathroom layout, it's easiest to get in the shower if you open the bathroom door.  I really like the Cabana room.  We did the Ultimate Balcony Dinner out there, it would have been windy on the balcony. 

I'm finding the food to be very good,  especially the egg salad sandwich at the IC. The service is very slow in the Reserve dining room.  Bring a drink. 

All of the staff are great.  

There has been no live music at Crooners in the evening after dinner but Henry and Agus are very entertaining bartenders. 

Tonight we're at  Umai Teppanaki. 

I think the ship is beautiful and I'm glad I tried it.  I'm also glad my next 2 cruises are on the Emerald and the Grand.

[SotonScotty]

 

Jack hammer Central lol

[LACruiser88]

1 hour ago, suekel said:

Currently on-board in a Reserve Cabana.

Hey there!  Have you been to the Sanctuary yet?

[suekel]

7 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

Hey there!  Have you been to the Sanctuary yet?

 

7 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

Hey there!  Have you been to the Sanctuary yet?

We walked by and looked but that's it.  I don't even know if I'll get to the pool areas this cruise... so much to keep us busy.  

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

1 hour ago, SotonScotty said:

 

Jack hammer Central lol

We were on the April 8th sailing and was amazed at how many things were broken and needed repair.  Not things that were not ready yet.  But things that were working at the start of the cruise and then weren't during it.

[SDWalt]

Hi-

Does anyone know if the Crown Grill menu in post#10 will be adopted at all Crowns? or just the Sun & Star?

So many more options!  I like it!

[dides]

Day 4 - Sea Day

 

Patter:

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to sleep in today and wake up when when we wake up! I woke at 9:30am and Chris an hour later. I went to sit our on the balcony and thought I would get to listen to the sound of the sea. Well I did and much more! I also heard the sound of people putting down plates and eating with cutlery. It sounded so close but I eventually  worked out it drifting up from the deck 9 tables all the way up to 17! :

 

 

We had decided to go to Americana for breakfast and it opened at 11:30am so we popped into the Suite Lounge for 20 minutes so that we could let our steward into our stateroom. I must say that our steward Stephen has been very quick and efficient thus far 

We had a coffee and hit chocolate in the Suite Lounge in some lovely china

 

 

 

Then we made our way down the scenic elevators to deck 8. We have a new interest in the layout now we know it will be coming the new Sanctuary Collection restaurant This is one of the doors you will see:

 

 

If you come in from the left door then the Spellbound area is directly on your left as you walk into the dining room: or 

 

 

You then need to walk up to the Main entrance desk and kind of go out to come in and wait to be seated. There were about 8 people in line ahead of us already.

 

 

The decor isn't that bad. Although Chris did bash his head on one of those low lampshades!

 

 

And this view of the Wake View Terrace isn't the best.

 

Here is the walk out to the other door:

 

 

 

Here is the menu for Americana for that day:

 

 

 

We both chose.a milkshake each since they didn't have them back in April. Chris had.t he Coffee and Donuts and I had the Strawberry Shortcake. So thick and delicious!

 

 

Then Chris had the All American Breakfast minus the eggs and I had the 3 egg omelette. We wrapped up a dessert each - Apple Pie for Chris and more Strawberry Shortcake fur me.

 

 

 

 

 

Service was quick and so was the food!

 

Next we went up to The Sanctuary and it was a lot busier today. We sat in some seats in the shade - the staff always lay a new towel on your selected seat or lounger to indicate it's occupied. Although some clearly were not any longer!

 

It was very overcast initially and then the sun burned through. We chilled out and spent a lot of the time commenting on the workmen on scaffolding cutting away at Park 19.,The grinding of the metal was quite loud at times. It's going to take some time at their current work rate!

 

 

 

 

 

At one point. the staff in The Sanctuary started taking orders for lunch so we checked out the menu and ordered s couple of bento boxes.

 

Food menu:

 

Drinks menu:

 

 

Chris chose the Waffle Sensation and I went for the lighter Tropical Fruit Melange:

 

 

 

Both were pretty sensational actually!

 

it started to get too hot for us so we went back to our cabin for a nap.

 

To be contiuned

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:06 AM by dides

[MsSoCalCruiser]

22 hours ago, dog said:

Facebook post just now-  email sent out offering some to cancel. No penalty due to park 19 disappointment.  

@dog, for what dates?

[MsSoCalCruiser]

14 hours ago, SotonScotty said:

 

Jack hammer Central lol

Is that going on all day long 😳??? I feel sorry for everyone but I hope they’re finished before our b2b. 

[SotonScotty]

37 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Is that going on all day long 😳??? I feel sorry for everyone but I hope they’re finished before our b2b. 

Yes this was taken on day 3. We can hear it in our stateroom.  

[MsSoCalCruiser]

6 minutes ago, SotonScotty said:

Yes this was taken on day 3. We can hear it in our stateroom.  

Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. What hours have they been working? Did they say when it will be finished?

[SotonScotty]

2 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. What hours have they been working? Did they say when it will be finished?

They start at 8 am. I think they are almost done but they are still cutting down the unfinished sky ride on deck 19. I think they are try to get it all done before they start cruises from USA. Running track is also closed 

[Pink-belle]

Well, no chance of relaxing in our deck 16 stateroom today.  Drilling right above us started before 8am.  Really not impressed.  I do understand that ships require constant upgrades maintenance etc. 

There is really a lack of communication, on this ship.  In the past we’ve had notification of planned works that have an impact.  Nothing on this cruise.  We wouldn't have ordered breakfast to our room had we known! 

[SotonScotty]

Now on day 4 of jack hammer Central. If we had known this was going on we would not got on board. One very expensive ruined vacation 

[Pink-belle]

18 minutes ago, SotonScotty said:

Now on day 4 of jack hammer Central. If we had known this was going on we would not got on board. One very expensive ruined vacation 

I totally agree, more than 30 cruises with this line.  It wasn’t a cheap getaway, totally wasted money and work leave.  I tried so hard to remain positive but this is my worst cruise experience ever! 

[dides]

So this past evening was 80s night which is our decade of choice for any trivia questions. And there are 2 Princess Live! events on the schedule which are of interest. The first evening quiz however is movie soundtracks at 7pm so we decided to head for that as a warm-up 

 

We left our room slightly later than usual aand decide to try out Italian night at the Suite Restaurant hoping we can squeeze in a couple of courses so we can grab a seat a Princess Live! for the 7pm start. 

 

The midship elevators were totally against us and we had to wait ages for a car that wasn't packed out. We sat down in the restaurant at 5:45pm and told the staff we needed to make a swift exit with one main dish and maybe a dessert!

 

Here is the menu:

 

 

 

Chris ordered the Lasagne and I ordered the Chicken Parmigiana. I noted that the trolley was now present for the Prime Rib and was pretty popular:

 

 

In the meantime, we tucked. Into the very tasty fresh bread from our basket (the French bread slices went first!)

 

 

Our mains arrived within 20 minutes:

 

 

 

We were offered fresh Parmesan and pepper - all very tasty.

 

One of the waitstaff. Sheena, asked what entertainment we were looking to make and offered to take our dessert order instead. She was so quick we didn't have time to photograph the menu! Here are the options from the app:

 

Chris chose the Chocolate and Whiskey Torte and I selected the Lemon Meringue Cheesecake. Our order arrived within 2 minutes at 6:25pm! One advantage of having a galley so close to the restaurant!

 

 

 

Chris said his torte was nice but he couldn't taste the whiskey!

 

We managed to get to Princess Live! In good time but it was pretty packed out so we had to sit at the side and move round to a more central spot later in the evening.

Vinnie and Tena joined us for the Movie Soundtracks trivia and we got a respectable 15/20 with the winners getting 18/20. Our teammates then headed off for an early night as they had a 7am excursion the next day for Seville.

 

Next up was the All About the 80s quiz - we were doing really well on this even though we guessed a lot of the answers on American topics. We managed to get 19!20 and won! We were given some more wine stoppers to add to our collection 

 

 

On the We Play You Say quiz we had to complete the lyrics of songs from different genres. Chris amazed himself by guessing the answer in Korean for Gangnam Style but we got the answer wrong for Man in the Mirror. A couple of teams got full points however.

 

For the final quiz on 80s music trivia we got one missing artist for the song Maniac and came joint second. 

 

We wrapped up the evening with the PG16 set from Tucker, the comedian we saw the previous night.

 

 

He was pretty funny and riffed off the audience a lot. One risque joke had us almost crying with laughter.

 

To be continued

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:57 AM by dides

[SotonScotty]

They are not that fussy about some parts of the ship.  They are replacing the shower floors because they get a bit of water pooling. But happy to let green alge grow on the pool ladder in the aft infinity pool 

[Esprit]

23 minutes ago, Pink-belle said:

I totally agree, more than 30 cruises with this line.  It wasn’t a cheap getaway, totally wasted money and work leave.  I tried so hard to remain positive but this is my worst cruise experience ever! 

Feel for you honestly.

We had a fantastic time on Sun Princess last month. One of our best recent cruises.

What with the Park 19 dismantling, I can imagine there are many rightly disgruntled passengers

 

 

[Geoffa30]

Not very happy about the continuing Park 19 dismantling. We’re in a penthouse suite on the TA. Will be our first and more than likely last Princess experience given the cost. If we’re presented with the incessant sound of axle grinders whilst ‘relaxing’ in the Sanctuary for 16 days, we will be requesting significant compensation.

[commodoredave]

50 minutes ago, Pink-belle said:

I totally agree, more than 30 cruises with this line.  It wasn’t a cheap getaway, totally wasted money and work leave.  I tried so hard to remain positive but this is my worst cruise experience ever! 

So sorry for this terrible situation. We will be joining the ship for the TA crossing, and after splurging for a Signature Penthouse Suite, feel we may have wasted our money. If our experience is as bad as yours, this will be our final cruise with Princess (not that they would care).

[commodoredave]

11 minutes ago, Geoffa30 said:

Not very happy about the continuing Park 19 dismantling. We’re in a penthouse suite on the TA. Will be our first and more than likely last Princess experience given the cost. If we’re presented with the incessant sound of axle grinders whilst ‘relaxing’ in the Sanctuary for 16 days, we will be requesting significant compensation.

We’re in agreement. Princess has to be aware of the negative experience the construction is causing, and should be willing to provide compensation if they want repeat business.

[dog]

4 minutes ago, commodoredave said:

We’re in agreement. Princess has to be aware of the negative experience the construction is causing, and should be willing to provide compensation if they want repeat business.

On Facebook Sun thread a passenger posted her email offer to cancel without penalty due to Park 19 disappointment.  Many others for different dates received the offer too. Did you?  Next, the restaurant locations will be moved.