I’ve been cruising for nearly 10 years, and — previous to final month — had taken cruises throughout seven totally different traces. For reference, these traces are Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Carnival, MSC, Viking, Disney, and Virgin. Though I like every of these traces for various causes, this 12 months I used to be craving one thing new. So, I made a decision to guide a Princess cruise.
This fall, the chance got here to guide a seven-night cruise on Princess’ latest ship Sun Princess, and I jumped on it. The better part? I booked into the road’s new inclusive idea known as the Sanctuary Collection. I’ll get into extra about that beneath. In this put up, I’m going to present a few of my impressions of the journey as an avid cruiser who was experiencing Princess for the primary time.
It’s necessary to say that Sun Princess is the primary within the Sphere Class, and — in some ways — is in contrast to another ship within the Princess fleet. Since my solely first-hand expertise of Princess is that this ship, these experiences might not translate to or be out there on different vessels within the fleet.
The Sanctuary Collection
Before I get into my impressions of Sun Princess, you first want an concept of precisely what I booked and what the Sanctuary Collection contains for its friends.
On high of the usual predominant pool deck and an aft sundeck with an infinity pool, Sanctuary Collection friends have their very own Sanctuary Club sundeck. Located on deck 18 aft, this outside house contains its personal pool and sizzling tubs, a full-service bar, afternoon tapas and a meals supply menu, and a plethora of daybeds, plush loungers, and different seating. The Sanctuary Club is a peaceable spot for these 16 and older away from the hustle and bustle of the remainder of the ship, and it was by no means troublesome to search out loungers or a daybed proper in entrance of the pool.
Guests staying within the Sanctuary Collection even have their very own non-public Sanctuary Restaurant, which takes up residence on the third flooring of the ship’s predominant eating room. The workers was great, remembering us even if we didn’t even get to eat there a lot since we had entry to so many specialty eating places. However, the meals we did have on the Sanctuary Restaurant was scrumptious!
What does the Premier Package embrace?
Booking a cabin within the Sanctuary Collection additionally implies that you routinely obtain the Princess Premier bundle, which is an inclusive bundle that you just’d ordinarily should pay an additional price ($90 per day) to obtain. But in Sanctuary Collection, it’s included within the cruise fare.
This bundle contains the ship’s finest wifi connection known as MedallionWeb Max for as much as 4 gadgets per individual, in addition to day by day gratuities. It additionally contains all premium and alcoholic drinks price as much as $20, together with bottled water. Another enormous perk is that the Premier Package contains almost all specialty eating on the ship — you possibly can guide specialty eating places everytime you need and received’t pay something further to take pleasure in them.
Other perks embrace a photograph bundle, limitless premium desserts (suppose over-the-top ice cream sundaes, massive slices of cake, and specialty doughnuts), room service, health courses, and reserved seating within the theater.
If you guide into the Sanctuary Collection or buy the Premier Package by itself, nearly the one stuff you’ll should pay further for are salon and spa providers, entry to the spa’s thermal suite, specialty experiences (comparable to Spellbound by Magic Castle), and souvenirs.
I extremely advocate reserving the Sanctuary Collection on Sun Princess — entry to the non-public sundeck and having specialty eating and drinks included within the worth of the cruise introduced my trip to a different stage. It’s going to make it troublesome for me to return to an everyday cruise expertise!
1. The stateroom was very spacious and well-designed.
I had a Sanctuary Collection mini-suite on my latest Sun Princess cruise. Select balcony cabins and mini-suites in addition to all suites on the ship are a part of the Sanctuary Collection. Though I had seen images and movies of what our cabin would seem like forward of time, I used to be nonetheless giddy with pleasure once I walked in and realized it will be my residence for the week.
The mini-suite is laid out into 4 predominant areas, plus a balcony: the lavatory, the mattress space, the closet/desk space, after which a sitting space with a separate TV and pull-out sofa. The closet had loads of hanging and open-shelving house, together with a number of drawers. The desk was lengthy and didn’t really feel too cramped, both.
One of my favourite issues in regards to the cabin was so many lighting parts to swimsuit each use and time of day, together with an ornamental inset lighting function above the mattress. There’s additionally a movement sensor outdoors the lavatory door that triggers an under-vanity gentle which was SO good when getting up in the course of the night time.
Speaking of the lavatory, that was additionally a spotlight. The bathe (which had a glass door!) was very massive and virtually didn’t really feel like a cruise ship bathe (if you understand, you understand). In truth, the entire lavatory was a terrific measurement with loads of shelving and counter house.
Stateroom Gifts
A spotlight of staying within the Sanctuary Collection that we weren’t absolutely anticipating was the items that had been left in our cabin all through the cruise. For instance, previous to our day at Princess Cays (Princess’ non-public seaside vacation spot within the Bahamas), they left us branded flip-flops to make use of throughout our seaside day (and maintain). We obtained different goodies too, like a Sanctuary Collection seaside bag and a cute little Sanctuary Collection-branded rubber duck.
Sun Princess affords a terrific number of stateroom decisions for any cruiser’s want or choice. Whether you’re in search of probably the most reasonably priced choice or a cabin with further house — or entry to the perks of the Sanctuary Collection — there’s a stateroom for everybody on this ship.
One of the distinctive issues is that even some customary balcony staterooms and mini-suites have entry to the Sanctuary Collection. Many cruise traces solely embrace suites of their “ship within a ship” idea, so it’s fairly a deal with and offers quite a lot of flexibility to supply these perks to balcony cabins on Princess.
2. Sun Princess has great meals.
Going into my first Princess cruise, I wasn’t precisely positive what to anticipate when it got here to the meals. I’d heard great issues in regards to the meals on Sun Princess, however since I hadn’t even skilled the road earlier than I wasn’t positive the way it was going to match up with my style buds. Well, I’m glad to report that eating on board surpassed my expectations.
We spent most dinners on the ship consuming in numerous specialty eating places. Our first night we went to the Italian restaurant Sabatini’s, the place I had what’s now certainly one of my favourite lasagnas I’ve ever eaten. The lamb chops had been glorious as nicely. Another night time at Crown Grill, I had a scrumptious filet mignon — which is saying one thing as a result of I don’t actually like steak. Even the informal Americana Diner provided a superb fish and chips dish together with very flavorful and tacky mac and cheese.
Over the course of the cruise, we had meals from specialty eating places, the Sanctuary Restaurant, the buffet, and in informal eateries and almost all of it was manner above what I might contemplate to be par for a cruise ship. I can actually say that alongside my expertise on Disney Cruise Line, Sun Princess has my favourite meals on a cruise ship.
3. The atrium video games had been artistic and enjoyable.
When folks take into consideration the points of a trip that caught out to them, most aren’t considering of video games within the atrium. But surprisingly, the video games within the Piazza on Sun Princess actually stick out to me. I feel Princess has achieved a terrific job curating a lineup of guest-participation video games which can be enjoyable to look at whether or not you stick round for 5 minutes or for the entire present.
One of those video games was known as the Yes No Game Show, the place the cruise director would discuss with a visitor and ask them questions, and in the event that they mentioned at any level the phrases “yes” or “no” or related phrases comparable to “yeah,” they’d be out. The aim was to succeed in a set variety of minutes with out saying sure or no, and the visitor that endured the longest can be the winner. Other video games pitted friends towards the ship’s officers, comparable to “guess the musical artist” jenga and putt-putt. These had been so enjoyable to look at and an effective way to move the time.
I do know that the Piazza atrium on Sun Princess is sort of totally different from any of Princess’ different Piazzas, and I feel they’ve achieved a terrific job with designing it. It’s three tales and incorporates a round predominant flooring with massive LED screens to at least one facet. On the second and third decks of the Piazza there’s tiered seating which suggests it’s simple to not solely settle in to take pleasure in atrium leisure, but additionally simple for many who could also be standing to see over the heads of the folks in entrance of them.
4. The Ocean Medallion Technology is seamless and handy.
Instead of utilizing a credit score card-sized key card, friends on Princess cruises have little disc-shaped items of tech known as Medallions. Most friends both put on their Medallion round their neck on a lanyard or on their wrist in a particular bracelet you should buy from the cruise line. You may also get a Medallion clothes clip or simply toss it in your pocket every day. And I’ve to say, in comparison with different cruise traces that additionally use wearable RFID know-how like this, Princess comes out on high.
The Medallion permits you to open your cabin door, however you don’t have to carry it as much as the door lock such as you may suppose. Instead, the tech in your door senses your Medallion approaching and unlocks it — usually earlier than you even attain for the deal with. The Medallion can also be what friends use to signal on and off the ship in port.
The facet of the Medallion that almost all impressed me was the extent of service that it allowed crew members to supply to friends. For instance, if I sat down at a bar or a restaurant, usually the crew member who came visiting to serve me greeted me by title — even when I had by no means been to that venue earlier than. This is as a result of their touchscreen gadgets present them who’s close by based mostly on their Medallions, and it features a picture so that they know who’s who. This makes ordering meals and drinks a breeze on board, and provides a personal touch that simply feels good as a visitor.
5. The ship didn’t really feel enormous, however there was nonetheless heaps happening.
While Sun Princess is tens of hundreds of gross tons smaller than the biggest cruise ship on the planet, it’s nonetheless inside the high 25 largest cruise ships at sea. However, the design workforce did a terrific job creating a really massive ship that doesn’t really really feel as massive as it’s — and that’s a very good factor.
Sun Princess options quite a lot of public areas, each indoors and open air, the place friends can hang around, participate in actions, and luxuriate in leisure. The move of the structure is nice and issues really feel suitably unfold out. However, for those who’ve ever taken a cruise on a bigger ship you most likely know what I imply once I say that typically the cabin hallways really feel like they go on without end. Surprisingly, given how massive Sun Princess is, the stroll to the far finish of my stateroom hallway didn’t really feel ridiculously lengthy, and that feeling continued into the remainder of the ship.
Like any passenger, we spent numerous time strolling from place to position on board, shifting by means of hallways and venues just like the Piazza or buffet. But it by no means felt overwhelming like it could on some mega ships.
Though Sun Princess doesn’t really feel huge, it does maintain quite a lot of leisure and issues to do like several massive cruise ship does. There was virtually all the time one thing on the schedule we had been focused on, whether or not it was dwell music, comedy reveals, events, or numerous actions. Did we do the whole lot we had curiosity in? Definitely not, as a result of one of many highlights for us was the Sanctuary Club which we spent loads of time in all through the week. Whether you need to do quite a bit or a little bit, you’ll discover loads of enjoyment on Sun Princess.
6. Specialty cocktails had been plentiful, they usually’re imaginative and distinctive.
The meals and beverage program could be very sturdy on Sun Princess, and that interprets into the artistic cocktails which can be provided on the ship’s bars. It appeared like just about each bar we visited had its personal record of particular cocktails alongside basic ones and the same old wine, liquor, and beer lists. It was a lot enjoyable to go to totally different bars and see what that they had on supply.
We seen that Princess appears to essentially like together with banana in a number of of its cocktails and we tried (and cherished!) lots of them. We remarked greater than as soon as that we had been very impressed with the variability and creativity of the drinks on Sun Princess, and that is coming from very avid cruisers.
Cocktail menu-wise, I’d say my favourite bars had been Cascades Bar, Good Spirits at Sea, and the bar within the Sanctuary Club. My favourite cocktails at every had been Amazonia (Cascades), Starry Night in Oslo (Good Spirits), and the Blueberry Basil Smash (Sanctuary Club).
7. Spellbound is nicely well worth the cash.
The one expertise we paid further for on Sun Princess was Spellbound by Magic Castle. This magical, intimate expertise hosts simply 30 friends twice every night. It contains dinner, cocktails, close-up magic, and a card trick present by a resident magician. The Spellbound expertise takes place in a number of areas devoted completely to Spellbound, they usually’re very nicely themed.
When we booked our cruise on Sun Princess, I instantly knew that I needed to do Spellbound — even on the steep worth of $150 per individual. And after it was throughout, we couldn’t cease gushing about how price it the entire night was.
Dinner is a set menu, and takes place in a small themed eating room off of the Sanctuary Restaurant. Guests are then escorted to the primary Spellbound space — by means of a seemingly normal-looking door off the Piazza. This is the place the magic actually begins. The house is extremely immersive and options an consideration to element that we in contrast with the Disney parks — significantly the Haunted Mansion attraction.
The cocktails had been artistic and scrumptious, and the magic was mind-blowing. I’ve seen a number of illusionists over time, and this expertise — which featured two totally different illusionists — featured maybe probably the most impressing and complicated tips I’ve ever seen.
For your entire remainder of the cruise, we couldn’t cease speaking about how good the tips had been and the way a lot we cherished the Spellbound expertise. I extremely advocate spending the additional cash and having fun with a enjoyable night at Spellbound.
Right now, Spellbound is just out there on Sun Princess. However, will probably be included on upcoming sister ship Star Princess as nicely.
In Conclusion
Upon studying this text, you might be questioning if there’s something I didn’t like about Sun Princess. To be trustworthy, there actually isn’t a lot — my cruise on this ship has now turn out to be certainly one of my favourite sailings up to now. I did suppose it was disappointing that there wasn’t a lot to do on the highest deck since Princess canceled its Park 19 recreation and attraction space. The house is at the moment very under-utilized, simply that includes numerous seating and hammocks. But this wasn’t a evident subject — particularly because you don’t actually “come across” that spot until you head there on goal.
Another small inconvenience we seen was that, to us, the Sanctuary Club ended its meals service too early within the day at 4 pm. We would have most well-liked it proceed for an additional hour or two since we had been usually nonetheless up on the sundeck nicely previous that point of day previous to preparing for dinner.
Overall I used to be very impressed with my stateroom, the meals, the Sanctuary Collection expertise, and the leisure. Of observe, I cherished the dwell music in O’Malley’s Irish Pub. A 3-person Irish band known as Pint of Plain performed there usually within the evenings, they usually had been so enjoyable and actually bought the group into the music.
With Sun Princess being my first Princess cruise, I do know that it most likely offers me a little bit of a skewed view of the fleet as a complete. But if the essential pillars of a trip (meals, lodging, leisure, actions) on this ship are any indication, I’m now a strong Princess Cruises fan. I might undoubtedly guide onto Sun or her sister ship Star Princess sooner or later.
Have you lately sailed on Sun Princess or one other ship within the Princess Cruises fleet? What points do you take pleasure in most on a Princess cruise? Drop us an anchor beneath to share your cruise critiques.