Good, honest critique Andrew. Thank you! Recently we booked on Sun Princess and found the price dropped substantially. Even though we were five months out, the representative would not honor the new price. Instead, we had to cancel and rebook. It was such a waste of time we decided to go with a different cruise line. I know that the price has since dropped twice more. The lesson I learned is that with Princess wait till the final payment to make your booking.
Ouch! Andrew, thanks for another fair and balanced video. I’ll be boarding the Sun Princess this coming Saturday… Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know if things have improved.
I have no doubt you'll still have a good time! It's still a cruise ship after all! Once you find your happy places on the ship, just focus your time there. And if you have to see a show, I found standing against the walls on the sides or off the centre entrance was a great way to avoid the lineups (and tiny economy class size seats) with a good view and an easy escape.
Thank you for the eye-opening report on the Sun Princess. Having 44 cruises with Princes, I must say I will never be seen on this or any other sun class ships. They have deviated too much from a comfortable norm for me to enjoy this class ship. Princess would no longer feel like coming home. I will stay with the Royal class ships and older in order to continue enjoying cruising with Princess the way it should be! I do hope Princess executives read and pay some sort of attention to this video as well as the general public reaction.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. Princess is definitely getting a lot of negative feedback on this ship based on my conversations with fellow guests - it will be interesting to see what they do, if anything.
@@TheChillCruiser These new ships are so large it will be difficult to make the changes required to satisfy the Princess regular cruisers, of which I am one. I have 46 cruises on Princess to date. I doubt I will ever cruise on the Sun or any of the other new ships in this class.
My wife and I just spent 7 days on the Sun in the East Caribbean (Nov 16 to 23, 2024), and very much enjoyed our trip, and have a few similar comments, however none that I felt were so serious that it “ruined” or tainted our trip. First, I did not notice any construction or damage, such as broken glass, seems that work has completed. I do agree that the venues are smaller than they should be for a ship of >4000 passengers, but at the same time, we always got into any show we wanted, and never went more than 30-45 mins early, and always had good seats going that early, but people were still getting seats just minutes before showtime. So this was not an issue for us. The Dome schedule was light (presumably because there was an acrobatic accident on prior sailing resulting in injury), but we did see a magician in there. It wasn’t even full, and he was only “ok”, not overly impressed with that act. I agree that the washroom was tough to find, lol. Conversely, the production shows in the Arena were top notch, and usually filled up by showtime, but pretty much anyone who wanted to get in was able to do so, from what I could tell. It is worth noting that the time we sailed would be “off peak”, there were not many kids or young families on board, which reduces lines I am sure. (I heard they were expecting 700-800 kids this week during US Thanksgiving! 😐) One more omission you didn’t mention, which was a surprise to us (despite watching lots of videos before embarking), is that there is NO Art Gallery (or auction) on this ship, which was very disappointing to my wife, as we have taken to collecting art on prior cruises. However, we heard during a session with crew in the Piazza at the end of the trip that they “could not fit one in” with the original design (with 20 decks and 177K tons?), but they plan to find a way to do so after the ship warranty (1 year) is up, along with some other changes. This was our first experience with Medallion (our last Princess cruise was 2016), and we enjoyed that technology a lot. The app was decent, navigation to areas (or members of your party) is a bit hit & miss. Strangely, the Push notification in the app worked for the first day to two, then stopped, so you would only know you had a message if you went into the app and checked, which is useless fora communications app. The OceanReady for ordering food & drinks is a great idea (tried it a couple times, delivery time was reasonable), however the menu selection is very limited. Overall, we very much enjoyed our trip - and really made use of our Premier package 😉 - and would likely go on the ship again if the timing and itinerary makes sense. However, our next cruise is likely to be a family trip on the Enchanted in August next year (2025), we have a deposit down for a sailing on that one. 🙂. Cheers from Toronto area. 🇨🇦
Thank you Kevin for your feedback and for sharing your experience. I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise and didn't experience most of the issues I did. That's very interesting that changes are planned after the ship's warranty is up. I would highly recommend Enchanted - it's definitely one of my favorite Princess ships if not THE favorite. Cheers
we just got off and I'd say your take is accurate. Lots of kids on our sailing (but it didn't bother us in any way). Our teens wanted the best seats for production shows, so we'd get there around an hour early--but there were still good seats scattered around after that. The chat feature is still worthless b/c it doesn't make any notification pop up at all. What son and I found SUPER annoying: they decorated the piazza with green tree/ornament type decorations, but they hung it all inside the piazza on the bottom 16" or so of the glass---so this ruins the view of everyone on the 2nd and 3rd level (you can literally only see maybe 20% of the floor because your line of site is blocked by the decorations. I have no clue what they were thinking. They should take it all down ASAP, perhaps hang it on the 6 or 8 vertical pillars, where it's not blocking everyone's view.
@@monkeyb1820yup, same issues we had. The weird thing about the message popups (push notifications) is that I would swear it worked properly the first day or two (showing up in the iOS notifications panel), but then this stopped happening for the rest of the cruise. I think a server or service needs to be rebooted somewhere, lol. There were complaints about the garland in the piazza on our cruise as well - that was not well thought out, for sure.
Just got off the sun after 12days. You are spot on with the hits and misses. Spoke with management twice in a private setting and they admitted the flaws but said corporate had to make any decisions to fix even the smallest problems.
I really appreciate your in depth review and information about all things Princess, I’m thinking about a transatlantic in 2025 on the Sun Princess, but maybe I will do it on the Sky Princess instead🛳🛳
I'm on her right now. While I feel they have really upped the food game, I just don't like the layout. The entertainment venues just don't have enough room. For example, I attempted yesterday to go to the shopping show in the Princess Live area. I got there about 10 minutes early and couldn't get within 10 - 15 feet because of the crush of people. I'll keep sailing on the royal class instead.
Wow - that's frustrating. They really dropped the ball with this design. I hope you've found an uncrowded happy place or 2 on the ship where you can enjoy the rest of your cruise!
@@melaniepattonraleigh9663 I did the same for a few days. Really enjoyed ordering room service and binge watching The Good Wife! (They have the frist 2 seasons on demand).
Great video. I was looking at Sun but from all the reports I think it'd frustrate me with the small venues and crowds. It sounds like Princess repeated the same mistake NCL made with the Prima Class. Small venues, chopped up design, etc.
I went during the begging of December. I never had any issues with the maeldallions. The elevators were neat but during high congestion times, like getting on and off, would cause them to run slow. All of the parties going on all over the ship was very different from the old ones. I notice pixels were going out on the video wall on the pool deck. One of the mounting bracket for the pool deck line arrays broke and they had to jerry ridge it together. Also, they rarely played movies on the pool deck during sea days only at night and when we were docked. Also did not like, on deck 6, you had to pass through a smoking casino to get from the piazza to the theatre. My only complaint for the rooms, and I had a mini suite, was the motion sensing lighting. I liked it for the bathroom but there 2 in the room in a cabinet on each side of the bed. If I would pass them to get to the bathroom from the couch bed, and they would turn on waking everyone else up, and would take for ever to turn back off.
I just got off the Sun 12/14/24 and I can vouch the work is all done. I went to all the production shows in the arena and never waited more than a half hour, but I had the Premiere package so I had seats waiting for me (the performers were amazing). I never made it to the dome for shows, just in the day, but they need to revamp the loungers (which split apart into chairs) to maximize the seating capacity
It's still a cruise ship with good food and drink and nice cabins so I wouldn't worry - it's just not the "sensational" ship they try to sell it as. Most people I asked rated the ship an average of 6 out of 10. Waiting until next May also gives them a good amount of time to try and address all the issues.
My husband and I thought the same thing regarding the entertainment. We tried to see a show in the Dome. Our family was already there and we got there a few minutes early, but they wouldn’t let us in. They said it was full 😭 We also thought Princess Live was small. I didn’t like the design of it
Sorry to hear about your experience. They really need to get their act together with the Dome (and a lot of other venues). A ticketing system would be a good start.
Appreciate the feedback. Sun could be a very different ship in 2026 so you never know. If you're ok with trying a very different Princess experience than I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
@ We love Princess. We are Elite status and have sailed on all of the Royal class ships with the exception of Majestic Princess. And, we are sailing on her in a couple of months. We may try Sun Princess in the future. For now, we are going to try a smaller ship experience instead of larger and see which is better for us. Thanks again.
I lament the sale of the Pacific Princess and the elimination of that size ship on Princess, so your review confirms in my mind that this ship is not for me.
Great video thank you so much for sharing. A good friend of mine who lives in another state sailed on the sun princess and recommended that I stay away from this ship. Many of his comments were similar to yours so I think I’m going to continue sailing on Holland, America, Norwegian, and the older princess ships which I really like. I agree with you that Princess is experiencing an identity crisis, trying to cater to a variety of audiences yet ignoring the traditional Princess cruiser.
Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your perspective! Identity crisis indeed! I really enjoyed HAL’s Rotterdam earlier this year. Celebrity is also worth a try too - especially their older Millennium and Solstice class ships.
Sounds like there is more misses then hits. What an incredible shame. Not being able to use the indoor pool after 2 or see a show without waiting for hours is a huge disappointment.
I’ll stick to the older and smaller Princess ships for that “Princess” experience. I just sailed on Emerald, and my only complaint was that the volume level in the theater and the piazza was too loud.
@ no the closet is parallel rather than perpendicular. The doors open into the hallway rather than the very convenient open access. It’s ok for a solo traveler but much less storage space than before
We were on Sun Princess in Nov 2024 - some issues were reconciled - beautiful cabins with great showers - many venues were TOO SMALL - we ate at pm - then went to get a seat in Theater - that wasn't too bad but even though Piazza was multiple stores many times no seats available 😢
We are in the sanctuary suite class right now. If they were trying to compete with Celebrity Retreat, they failed miserably. Not even close as far as service and personal relationships.
I was on the transatlantic and they need to get the HVAC fixed. There was no air circulating where my cabin was. My room was good but I felt bad for my room steward working in the heat all day. I loved the ship overall and appreciated the crews hard work and you could see they were very understaffed.
I think you nailed it you said this ship isn’t meant for Palo Princess cruisers, and I believe you’re right. It feels like they gave up on trying to please two different types of clientele and just split off and created a ship for those cruises that are younger and want a new big ship. It also leads into what I thought for sense the day they introduced their apps, and that is, they were trying to place too many people at once. That being said I’m booked on the star Princess for inaugural Panama transit, knowing some of the downside of the sun, however after a 28 day cruise on the Crown Princess back in 2022, which was relaxing, but I did get a bit bored towards the end, and a seven day on the grand last year to Alaska I really didn’t have any entertainment that I found appealing, I felt I’d gamble with this new clash of ship as the only other two options in them in the period of time I could go with the grand which I know I would get bored on, and the island which type of feeling I would have the same issue as the grand. Having said the deposit is fully refundable so if I don’t like how star is turning out, I can always cancel.
I think they will definitely make some changes to Star based on their experience on Sun but I don't think there's a lot they can do. I have a feeling their focus on younger demograhpic won't change in the short term. Have you considered trying another cruise line like Celebrity?
@@TheChillCruiser that’s what I’ve been saying to people about them changing the star is, there’s probably not a lot they can do at this point because the ship is mostly built and I think this is partially what they were going for in the first place. Personally most of the issues I’ve seen aren’t a huge problem for me, the small show venues may be annoying though but usually I’m not a huge show person and honestly the past couple cruises I’ve been on with Princess, The shows really haven’t been to my liking in the first place. But I have a lot of loyalty with Princess so that benefit alone keeps me with Princess and while I decent amount of loyalty with Norwegian, I like the more all inclusive stuff with Princess and really don’t want to start from scratch on loyalty with a new line. I think they’ll eventually get the operation of the sun sun down, especially once the people who wouldn’t like it realize that and the two focused demographics split into two I think we’ll start seeing increasing in ratings of the ship.
We are about to do this ship (the pricing on two inside cabins, 2 people each was actually pretty good for Thanksgiving week). But I'm anticipating the issues you mention. I'm bringing a book and anticipate seeing fewer shows than usual because I too hate standing in long lines. If you get to the theater long before the show, do you have to just line up? or can you go in and take a seat? I'm sure we will enjoy it overall, but I anticipate not wanting to do this class of ship again...
Sorry for the delay. There were lineups for theater shows when they started before the theater opened, which happened more towards the end of the cruise as people realized how tough it was to get seats. Hope you're having a great cruise - and please report back on your experience if you can.
@@TheChillCruiser we just got back. At this point, the theater was open early enough for everyone to get seating. For the production (song/dance) shows, getting there like 45-60 minutes or so early would ensure access to some of the best seats, but even getting there around 20-30 minutes or so before hand, there would be decent seats in the side sections. For the other shows, probably 20 minutes or so in advance would give really good seats. But we arrived early for a show in the 'dome', and the staff politely told us we had to get out while they 'prepared', they told us where to line up on deck 17 and some obnoxious European family stood to our side and cut in front of us at last moment. They have no good mechanism for handling lines for the dome. I'd arrive 45 minutes or so early. We thought the show (sort of ground-based acrobatics/juggling) was good but nothing spectacular.
Honestly if there are that many problems with a cruise then I disembark and fly home. Did that twice with Celebrity. Thanks to Casino conps that’s a lot easier when no money is on the line of course.
Cruisers who have been on the ship recently have said that there is no more visible work going on in public spaces, which is good news. I hope you have a wonderful cruise!
Sounds like every other new ship that gets launched, lots of growing pains! If I choose to book onto a new ship I always wait a year as I'm doing on the Sun. I try to look at things in a positive light too, if you look for issues, trust me you will find them!
Well 6 months in and there’s still a lot of work to do! I walked in with no expectations and wanted to like it but after getting lost for the fifth time and not getting a seat in the theater or dome for the 3rd time I couldn’t help but start to get frustrated!
Thanks for this. I love Princess but the design of this ship does not appeal or me. Sky and Regal are my favs so sticking with the Royal class until Princess gets this mess straightened out. The Dome situation is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Just in case this helps...It looks like they're converting the venue beside the casino on most Royal class ships to non-smoking extensions of the casino. Already done on Regal and Enchanted and the others it's only a matter of time I think.
I was on beautiful sun princess from Aug . 24 th to Oct. 11 th and I enjoyed every moment of it . Captain Street and all his crew members were amazing . I have no complaints …..life is not perfect . Always keep an open mind when travelling.
I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Captain Street and the bridge team did a great job of keeping everyone safe and informed as we navigated around the hurricanes.
There were cabin flaws. Even the smallest rollater could not get into the door without folding it. Also a person that was 5 "3" could not reach the rack in th closet to hang their clothes.
Our Family cruises every 5 yrs and our deal was $5,500(+$250 OBC) for a Mini Suite on a 7 night Med cruise. Seems like I got a GREAT price. Does anyone Disagree?
I will not miss the wasted space of Churchills or the library and internet Cafe. Royal class has no indoor pool except for the enclave. You can also remove the casinos as far as I'm concerned but that won't happen.
Princess is a very badly mismanaged organization. The conversation with the hotel GM you had and the follow up is just indicative of this. They absolutely have their heads up their butts. They tend to do food and entertainment (third party only, not in-house production) pretty well. But when it comes to customer service-especially the call center-, consistency, and lord knows, technology, they are abysmal. One thing you didn't mention: The light switches in the cabins make no sense. Did you notice this? The bed has switches but if you get all snuggled up in bed you can't shut all the lights off. The closet light and the light around the balcony door stay on! Also the desk mirror light has a separate switch. There is a 1980s fix to this problem they apparently couldn't figure out on a brand new ship. I would have happily taken that over the automatic lights that come on every 30 seconds under the side table or the one in the bathroom that don't turn off. Or the ones in the closet door that stay on because the door doesn't shut all the way unless you force it shut hard. (We apparently were on the same sailing, btw).
Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your perspective. You're absolutely right about the light switches in the cabin - I was constantly fidding with them and never really figured them all out!
@@TheChillCruiser Yep! Nothing on this ship makes any sense. It wasn't well thought out at all and not user friendly. They just wanted to maximize the additional revenue-producing square footage on board and reduce the ordinary passenger space. That's all they cared about.
I agree with your perspective; this ship is a very hastily produced work, with a bizarre and unattractive design. Princess cruises has been on a downward trajectory for the past decade and is no longer a match for the Celebrity cruises.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. Celebrity introduced a lot of changes with its Edge class that weren't for everyone but at least a lot of thought went into them. I also appreciated how they listened to - and acted on - a lot of the feedback on new features like infinite verandas and Eden. I still remember a video they released talking about how they were acting on all of the feedback. I'm not holding my breath that Princess will be a similar class act.
We spent 21 nights on Sun Princess and have to say as loyal Princess cruisers Sun is by far the worst ship we have ever sailed on she looks beautiful but thats where it ends the main pool area is way to small for a ship that size crowded all day and not once were we able to get a deck chair there as people were claiming them as early as 6 in the morning also hardly ever had Movies under the stars instead loud thumping music all day long inside its so crowded everywhere and none of the bars really have there own space its all open plan with ques of people walking past all the time while you are trying to have a drink the atrium is just loud music all the time so much so it can be heard in other parts of the ship people with cabins near by complained they couldnt sleep because of it The ship feels like Princess trying to be a Carnival fun ship its a crowded party ship in reality
Maybe do some more research before completely ruling it out. Sun wasn’t for me but I did meet a few people who loved it. It’s also got decent food and nice cabins so if the itinerary works you can’t go wrong. I just wouldn’t pay a premium to go on this ship vs others.
This is what the industry needs. Someone to take apart the nonsense changes that are being made to established products in the name of going to a younger clientele. This ship looks horrible. I just can't get into taking out established areas that work and not replacing them or trying to use spaces as multi-function areas. Kicking people out of spaces happens sometimes due to "private" events. But the dome is designed to do so. Yikes. And, no, I'm no fan of the decor either. Tired of "modern" or "contemporary" being defined as a sea of greige and very muted, almost dull colors. Princess Live looks horrible. And the creeping class system to the ships is something that is unfortunate as well. Overall, this class of ship is unappealing to me. I don't even like the Celebrity Edge ships and this looks worse.
Thank you for sharing your feedback and perspective. I heard from several people that they thought of Ikea when they walked into the piazza for the first time!
Yours is the most informative video on Sun Princess! Thanks
Thank you very much! I'm glad it was helpful!
Special treatment of "influencers" is why I rarely take their gushing praise cruise advice. Thanks for keeping it real.
No Thank YOU for the feedback. I really appreciate it.
Good, honest critique Andrew. Thank you!
Recently we booked on Sun Princess and found the price dropped substantially. Even though we were five months out, the representative would not honor the new price. Instead, we had to cancel and rebook. It was such a waste of time we decided to go with a different cruise line. I know that the price has since dropped twice more. The lesson I learned is that with Princess wait till the final payment to make your booking.
Thank you for your feedback! It means a lot! I’m sorry to hear about your booking experience. I hope you enjoy the cruise you ended up going with!
Thank you for your comprehensive video. I had actually booked a cruise on her sister ship - but have canceled it for now.
Thank you for your feedback!
I concur with the majority of your assessment. Nice meeting you onboard. See you on another cruise; probably a Royal class ship though.
Great to meet you as well! Agreed - I will not be back on Sun unless they make some big changes.
Ouch! Andrew, thanks for another fair and balanced video. I’ll be boarding the Sun Princess this coming Saturday… Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know if things have improved.
We will be boarding Sun Princess on your disembarkation day, I'm not worry at all. Enjoy your cruise.
I have no doubt you'll still have a good time! It's still a cruise ship after all! Once you find your happy places on the ship, just focus your time there. And if you have to see a show, I found standing against the walls on the sides or off the centre entrance was a great way to avoid the lineups (and tiny economy class size seats) with a good view and an easy escape.
@mark98011 Just curious, do you have an update about your experience?
Thank you for the eye-opening report on the Sun Princess. Having 44 cruises with Princes, I must say I will never be seen on this or any other sun class ships. They have deviated too much from a comfortable norm for me to enjoy this class ship. Princess would no longer feel like coming home. I will stay with the Royal class ships and older in order to continue enjoying cruising with Princess the way it should be! I do hope Princess executives read and pay some sort of attention to this video as well as the general public reaction.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. Princess is definitely getting a lot of negative feedback on this ship based on my conversations with fellow guests - it will be interesting to see what they do, if anything.
@@TheChillCruiser These new ships are so large it will be difficult to make the changes required to satisfy the Princess regular cruisers, of which I am one. I have 46 cruises on Princess to date. I doubt I will ever cruise on the Sun or any of the other new ships in this class.
@@larryaerts4041 Why not try it, you may be pleasantly surprised
I think you nailed it. We did the transatlantic and had the same complaints.
Thank you Jon for your feedback and for sharing your experience! Really appreciate it!
My wife and I just spent 7 days on the Sun in the East Caribbean (Nov 16 to 23, 2024), and very much enjoyed our trip, and have a few similar comments, however none that I felt were so serious that it “ruined” or tainted our trip. First, I did not notice any construction or damage, such as broken glass, seems that work has completed.
I do agree that the venues are smaller than they should be for a ship of >4000 passengers, but at the same time, we always got into any show we wanted, and never went more than 30-45 mins early, and always had good seats going that early, but people were still getting seats just minutes before showtime. So this was not an issue for us. The Dome schedule was light (presumably because there was an acrobatic accident on prior sailing resulting in injury), but we did see a magician in there. It wasn’t even full, and he was only “ok”, not overly impressed with that act. I agree that the washroom was tough to find, lol.
Conversely, the production shows in the Arena were top notch, and usually filled up by showtime, but pretty much anyone who wanted to get in was able to do so, from what I could tell. It is worth noting that the time we sailed would be “off peak”, there were not many kids or young families on board, which reduces lines I am sure. (I heard they were expecting 700-800 kids this week during US Thanksgiving! 😐)
One more omission you didn’t mention, which was a surprise to us (despite watching lots of videos before embarking), is that there is NO Art Gallery (or auction) on this ship, which was very disappointing to my wife, as we have taken to collecting art on prior cruises. However, we heard during a session with crew in the Piazza at the end of the trip that they “could not fit one in” with the original design (with 20 decks and 177K tons?), but they plan to find a way to do so after the ship warranty (1 year) is up, along with some other changes.
This was our first experience with Medallion (our last Princess cruise was 2016), and we enjoyed that technology a lot. The app was decent, navigation to areas (or members of your party) is a bit hit & miss. Strangely, the Push notification in the app worked for the first day to two, then stopped, so you would only know you had a message if you went into the app and checked, which is useless fora communications app. The OceanReady for ordering food & drinks is a great idea (tried it a couple times, delivery time was reasonable), however the menu selection is very limited.
Overall, we very much enjoyed our trip - and really made use of our Premier package 😉 - and would likely go on the ship again if the timing and itinerary makes sense. However, our next cruise is likely to be a family trip on the Enchanted in August next year (2025), we have a deposit down for a sailing on that one. 🙂. Cheers from Toronto area. 🇨🇦
Thank you Kevin for your feedback and for sharing your experience. I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise and didn't experience most of the issues I did. That's very interesting that changes are planned after the ship's warranty is up. I would highly recommend Enchanted - it's definitely one of my favorite Princess ships if not THE favorite. Cheers
we just got off and I'd say your take is accurate. Lots of kids on our sailing (but it didn't bother us in any way). Our teens wanted the best seats for production shows, so we'd get there around an hour early--but there were still good seats scattered around after that. The chat feature is still worthless b/c it doesn't make any notification pop up at all. What son and I found SUPER annoying: they decorated the piazza with green tree/ornament type decorations, but they hung it all inside the piazza on the bottom 16" or so of the glass---so this ruins the view of everyone on the 2nd and 3rd level (you can literally only see maybe 20% of the floor because your line of site is blocked by the decorations. I have no clue what they were thinking. They should take it all down ASAP, perhaps hang it on the 6 or 8 vertical pillars, where it's not blocking everyone's view.
@@monkeyb1820yup, same issues we had. The weird thing about the message popups (push notifications) is that I would swear it worked properly the first day or two (showing up in the iOS notifications panel), but then this stopped happening for the rest of the cruise. I think a server or service needs to be rebooted somewhere, lol.
There were complaints about the garland in the piazza on our cruise as well - that was not well thought out, for sure.
Just got off the sun after 12days. You are spot on with the hits and misses. Spoke with management twice in a private setting and they admitted the flaws but said corporate had to make any decisions to fix even the smallest problems.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
I really appreciate your in depth review and information about all things Princess, I’m thinking about a transatlantic in 2025 on the Sun Princess, but maybe I will do it on the Sky Princess instead🛳🛳
I love Transatlantics! But you have to like sea days. Let me know if I can help with any questions. Happy holidays!
I'm on her right now. While I feel they have really upped the food game, I just don't like the layout. The entertainment venues just don't have enough room. For example, I attempted yesterday to go to the shopping show in the Princess Live area. I got there about 10 minutes early and couldn't get within 10 - 15 feet because of the crush of people. I'll keep sailing on the royal class instead.
Wow - that's frustrating. They really dropped the ball with this design. I hope you've found an uncrowded happy place or 2 on the ship where you can enjoy the rest of your cruise!
@@TheChillCruiser It's called my balcony. Last night was formal night,so I just stayed in and vegged out on TV to avoid the crazy crowds.
@@melaniepattonraleigh9663 I did the same for a few days. Really enjoyed ordering room service and binge watching The Good Wife! (They have the frist 2 seasons on demand).
Great video. I was looking at Sun but from all the reports I think it'd frustrate me with the small venues and crowds. It sounds like Princess repeated the same mistake NCL made with the Prima Class. Small venues, chopped up design, etc.
Thank you for the feedback. "Chopped up design" describes Sun Princess perfectly!
Thank you for your informative video.
Thank you for the feedback - I'm glad it was helpful!
I went during the begging of December. I never had any issues with the maeldallions. The elevators were neat but during high congestion times, like getting on and off, would cause them to run slow. All of the parties going on all over the ship was very different from the old ones. I notice pixels were going out on the video wall on the pool deck. One of the mounting bracket for the pool deck line arrays broke and they had to jerry ridge it together. Also, they rarely played movies on the pool deck during sea days only at night and when we were docked. Also did not like, on deck 6, you had to pass through a smoking casino to get from the piazza to the theatre. My only complaint for the rooms, and I had a mini suite, was the motion sensing lighting. I liked it for the bathroom but there 2 in the room in a cabinet on each side of the bed. If I would pass them to get to the bathroom from the couch bed, and they would turn on waking everyone else up, and would take for ever to turn back off.
Thank you Greg for sharing your experience!
I just got off the Sun 12/14/24 and I can vouch the work is all done.
I went to all the production shows in the arena and never waited more than a half hour, but I had the Premiere package so I had seats waiting for me (the performers were amazing). I never made it to the dome for shows, just in the day, but they need to revamp the loungers (which split apart into chairs) to maximize the seating capacity
Thank you for sharing your experience and the updates. I'm glad the work is finally done.
Im going on her in may 2025..have been reading about so many issues..after 20+ cruises on princess..hate to say im worried about this one...
It's still a cruise ship with good food and drink and nice cabins so I wouldn't worry - it's just not the "sensational" ship they try to sell it as. Most people I asked rated the ship an average of 6 out of 10. Waiting until next May also gives them a good amount of time to try and address all the issues.
My husband and I thought the same thing regarding the entertainment. We tried to see a show in the Dome. Our family was already there and we got there a few minutes early, but they wouldn’t let us in. They said it was full 😭 We also thought Princess Live was small. I didn’t like the design of it
Sorry to hear about your experience. They really need to get their act together with the Dome (and a lot of other venues). A ticketing system would be a good start.
Thank you for this video, it helped me choose today, nov 2 2024 to sail in the Celebritybeyond instead of the sun princess
Hope you enjoy your cruise! I've only heard great thigns about Beyond. I hope to sail on her soon as well.
Thank you for the honest review. I have a cruise scheduled for early 2026, but looking at other options.
Appreciate the feedback. Sun could be a very different ship in 2026 so you never know. If you're ok with trying a very different Princess experience than I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
@ We love Princess. We are Elite status and have sailed on all of the Royal class ships with the exception of Majestic Princess. And, we are sailing on her in a couple of months. We may try Sun Princess in the future. For now, we are going to try a smaller ship experience instead of larger and see which is better for us. Thanks again.
I was just on Enchanted Princess on a Port heavy Itinary and loved it. Boring ship but the service was impeccable.
I really enjoyed Enchanted as well!
I lament the sale of the Pacific Princess and the elimination of that size ship on Princess, so your review confirms in my mind that this ship is not for me.
Thanks for your review! Just discovered your channel and subscribed. Cool to see a fellow Ottawan on here 👍
Thank you for watching, subscribing AND sharing feedback! Really appreciate it!
Good unbiased review
Thank you!
Great video thank you so much for sharing. A good friend of mine who lives in another state sailed on the sun princess and recommended that I stay away from this ship. Many of his comments were similar to yours so I think I’m going to continue sailing on Holland, America, Norwegian, and the older princess ships which I really like. I agree with you that Princess is experiencing an identity crisis, trying to cater to a variety of audiences yet ignoring the traditional Princess cruiser.
Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your perspective! Identity crisis indeed! I really enjoyed HAL’s Rotterdam earlier this year. Celebrity is also worth a try too - especially their older Millennium and Solstice class ships.
Sounds like there is more misses then hits. What an incredible shame. Not being able to use the indoor pool after 2 or see a show without waiting for hours is a huge disappointment.
Unfortunately yes - 2 misses for every hit on this ship.
I’ll stick to the older and smaller Princess ships for that “Princess” experience. I just sailed on Emerald, and my only complaint was that the volume level in the theater and the piazza was too loud.
Good plan. I love the older Princess ships!
The inside cabin layout is a big step back in my opinion.
Is it the two beds against the back wall that you don’t like?
@ no the closet is parallel rather than perpendicular. The doors open into the hallway rather than the very convenient open access. It’s ok for a solo traveler but much less storage space than before
@@cruisingforonegood to know! Thank you for sharing!
We were on Sun Princess in Nov 2024 - some issues were reconciled - beautiful cabins with great showers - many venues were TOO SMALL - we ate at pm - then went to get a seat in Theater - that wasn't too bad but even though Piazza was multiple stores many times no seats available 😢
Thank you for sharing your experience.
We are in the sanctuary suite class right now. If they were trying to compete with Celebrity Retreat, they failed miserably. Not even close as far as service and personal relationships.
Thank you for sharing your experience! What did you think of the Sanctuary pool area compared to Celebrity’s Retreal Sun decks?
@@TheChillCruiser The sundeck on Sun Princess was phenomenal. That was one positive.
I was on the transatlantic and they need to get the HVAC fixed. There was no air circulating where my cabin was. My room was good but I felt bad for my room steward working in the heat all day. I loved the ship overall and appreciated the crews hard work and you could see they were very understaffed.
I noticed that too - some decks were very warm.
I think you nailed it you said this ship isn’t meant for Palo Princess cruisers, and I believe you’re right. It feels like they gave up on trying to please two different types of clientele and just split off and created a ship for those cruises that are younger and want a new big ship. It also leads into what I thought for sense the day they introduced their apps, and that is, they were trying to place too many people at once.
That being said I’m booked on the star Princess for inaugural Panama transit, knowing some of the downside of the sun, however after a 28 day cruise on the Crown Princess back in 2022, which was relaxing, but I did get a bit bored towards the end, and a seven day on the grand last year to Alaska I really didn’t have any entertainment that I found appealing, I felt I’d gamble with this new clash of ship as the only other two options in them in the period of time I could go with the grand which I know I would get bored on, and the island which type of feeling I would have the same issue as the grand. Having said the deposit is fully refundable so if I don’t like how star is turning out, I can always cancel.
I think they will definitely make some changes to Star based on their experience on Sun but I don't think there's a lot they can do. I have a feeling their focus on younger demograhpic won't change in the short term. Have you considered trying another cruise line like Celebrity?
@@TheChillCruiser that’s what I’ve been saying to people about them changing the star is, there’s probably not a lot they can do at this point because the ship is mostly built and I think this is partially what they were going for in the first place.
Personally most of the issues I’ve seen aren’t a huge problem for me, the small show venues may be annoying though but usually I’m not a huge show person and honestly the past couple cruises I’ve been on with Princess, The shows really haven’t been to my liking in the first place. But I have a lot of loyalty with Princess so that benefit alone keeps me with Princess and while I decent amount of loyalty with Norwegian, I like the more all inclusive stuff with Princess and really don’t want to start from scratch on loyalty with a new line.
I think they’ll eventually get the operation of the sun sun down, especially once the people who wouldn’t like it realize that and the two focused demographics split into two I think we’ll start seeing increasing in ratings of the ship.
I feel like a lot of cruise ship critiques are nit picky. Your points seem reasonable to me.
Thank you - I really appreciate the feedback!
We are about to do this ship (the pricing on two inside cabins, 2 people each was actually pretty good for Thanksgiving week). But I'm anticipating the issues you mention. I'm bringing a book and anticipate seeing fewer shows than usual because I too hate standing in long lines. If you get to the theater long before the show, do you have to just line up? or can you go in and take a seat? I'm sure we will enjoy it overall, but I anticipate not wanting to do this class of ship again...
Sorry for the delay. There were lineups for theater shows when they started before the theater opened, which happened more towards the end of the cruise as people realized how tough it was to get seats. Hope you're having a great cruise - and please report back on your experience if you can.
@@TheChillCruiser we just got back. At this point, the theater was open early enough for everyone to get seating. For the production (song/dance) shows, getting there like 45-60 minutes or so early would ensure access to some of the best seats, but even getting there around 20-30 minutes or so before hand, there would be decent seats in the side sections. For the other shows, probably 20 minutes or so in advance would give really good seats. But we arrived early for a show in the 'dome', and the staff politely told us we had to get out while they 'prepared', they told us where to line up on deck 17 and some obnoxious European family stood to our side and cut in front of us at last moment. They have no good mechanism for handling lines for the dome. I'd arrive 45 minutes or so early. We thought the show (sort of ground-based acrobatics/juggling) was good but nothing spectacular.
Honestly if there are that many problems with a cruise then I disembark and fly home. Did that twice with Celebrity. Thanks to Casino conps that’s a lot easier when no money is on the line of course.
I’ve never considered disembarking early assuming last minute flights would be ridiculously expensive but the casino savings would definitely help!
I hope it’s finished by the time we sail in January.
Cruisers who have been on the ship recently have said that there is no more visible work going on in public spaces, which is good news. I hope you have a wonderful cruise!
Sounds like every other new ship that gets launched, lots of growing pains! If I choose to book onto a new ship I always wait a year as I'm doing on the Sun. I try to look at things in a positive light too, if you look for issues, trust me you will find them!
Well 6 months in and there’s still a lot of work to do! I walked in with no expectations and wanted to like it but after getting lost for the fifth time and not getting a seat in the theater or dome for the 3rd time I couldn’t help but start to get frustrated!
Thanks for this. I love Princess but the design of this ship does not appeal or me. Sky and Regal are my favs so sticking with the Royal class until Princess gets this mess straightened out. The Dome situation is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! (I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the Dome is dumb!)
Thanks for your review! We will not book this one.
I am with you! Too many negatives.
| guess I'll be enjoying the Grand class ships where my only complaint is the smoky casino.
Just in case this helps...It looks like they're converting the venue beside the casino on most Royal class ships to non-smoking extensions of the casino. Already done on Regal and Enchanted and the others it's only a matter of time I think.
I was on beautiful sun princess from Aug . 24 th to Oct. 11 th and I enjoyed every moment of it . Captain Street and all his crew members were amazing . I have no complaints …..life is not perfect . Always keep an open mind when travelling.
I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Captain Street and the bridge team did a great job of keeping everyone safe and informed as we navigated around the hurricanes.
I concur. Lots of flash and not a lot of follow thru.
Thank you for sharing your perspective!
There were cabin flaws. Even the smallest rollater could not get into the door without folding it. Also a person that was 5 "3" could not reach the rack in th closet to hang their clothes.
Thank you for sharing your experience! My friend with a rollater had a lot of issues getting in and out of her cabin and around the cabin hallways.
Our Family cruises every 5 yrs and our deal was $5,500(+$250 OBC) for a Mini Suite on a 7 night Med cruise. Seems like I got a GREAT price. Does anyone Disagree?
I will not miss the wasted space of Churchills or the library and internet Cafe. Royal class has no indoor pool except for the enclave. You can also remove the casinos as far as I'm concerned but that won't happen.
Sounds like you would enjoy Viking ships: Smoke-free and no casinos!
@TheChillCruiser Maybe.
This is exactly why we wait at least One year before we go on new ships. GIVE THEM TIME TO WORK OUT THE KINKS!!!
Well they've had 6 months and unfortunately there's still a lot of kinks. It may take a lot longer than a year to fix everything.
@TheChillCruiser don't get wrong. I wasn't yelling at you...lol
This isn't carnival. I'm they will be in point by Xmas cruise time
They've taken Churchills cigar lounge off other Princess ships to make room for a game room, which makes money for them.
Indeed - very unfortunate since Churchills is a beloved Princess venue - and that the replacement arcades always seem to sit empty.
Princess is a very badly mismanaged organization. The conversation with the hotel GM you had and the follow up is just indicative of this. They absolutely have their heads up their butts.
They tend to do food and entertainment (third party only, not in-house production) pretty well. But when it comes to customer service-especially the call center-, consistency, and lord knows, technology, they are abysmal.
One thing you didn't mention: The light switches in the cabins make no sense. Did you notice this? The bed has switches but if you get all snuggled up in bed you can't shut all the lights off. The closet light and the light around the balcony door stay on! Also the desk mirror light has a separate switch. There is a 1980s fix to this problem they apparently couldn't figure out on a brand new ship. I would have happily taken that over the automatic lights that come on every 30 seconds under the side table or the one in the bathroom that don't turn off. Or the ones in the closet door that stay on because the door doesn't shut all the way unless you force it shut hard. (We apparently were on the same sailing, btw).
Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your perspective. You're absolutely right about the light switches in the cabin - I was constantly fidding with them and never really figured them all out!
@@TheChillCruiser Yep! Nothing on this ship makes any sense. It wasn't well thought out at all and not user friendly. They just wanted to maximize the additional revenue-producing square footage on board and reduce the ordinary passenger space. That's all they cared about.
I agree with your perspective; this ship is a very hastily produced work, with a bizarre and unattractive design. Princess cruises has been on a downward trajectory for the past decade and is no longer a match for the Celebrity cruises.
I may have to give Celebrity a try. Thanks!
Not crazy about Celebrity either. Same sense of trying to change the product for a different type of clientele.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. Celebrity introduced a lot of changes with its Edge class that weren't for everyone but at least a lot of thought went into them. I also appreciated how they listened to - and acted on - a lot of the feedback on new features like infinite verandas and Eden. I still remember a video they released talking about how they were acting on all of the feedback. I'm not holding my breath that Princess will be a similar class act.
@@TheChillCruiser Princess seems to just plow ahead with big changes not taking into account their average cruiser age base.
We spent 21 nights on Sun Princess and have to say as loyal Princess cruisers Sun is by far the worst ship we have ever sailed on she looks beautiful but thats where it ends the main pool area is way to small for a ship that size crowded all day and not once were we able to get a deck chair there as people were claiming them as early as 6 in the morning also hardly ever had Movies under the stars instead loud thumping music all day long inside its so crowded everywhere and none of the bars really have there own space its all open plan with ques of people walking past all the time while you are trying to have a drink the atrium is just loud music all the time so much so it can be heard in other parts of the ship people with cabins near by complained they couldnt sleep because of it The ship feels like Princess trying to be a Carnival fun ship its a crowded party ship in reality
Thank you for sharing your experience!
What a shame I was looking forward to possibly going on this ship
Maybe do some more research before completely ruling it out. Sun wasn’t for me but I did meet a few people who loved it. It’s also got decent food and nice cabins so if the itinerary works you can’t go wrong. I just wouldn’t pay a premium to go on this ship vs others.
Wah Wah Wah Wah. “Something has changed - it must be horrible!”
Interesting. Or is it: "This isn't what I wanted to hear - it must be wrong!"
This is what the industry needs. Someone to take apart the nonsense changes that are being made to established products in the name of going to a younger clientele. This ship looks horrible. I just can't get into taking out established areas that work and not replacing them or trying to use spaces as multi-function areas. Kicking people out of spaces happens sometimes due to "private" events. But the dome is designed to do so. Yikes.
And, no, I'm no fan of the decor either. Tired of "modern" or "contemporary" being defined as a sea of greige and very muted, almost dull colors. Princess Live looks horrible.
And the creeping class system to the ships is something that is unfortunate as well.
Overall, this class of ship is unappealing to me. I don't even like the Celebrity Edge ships and this looks worse.
Thank you for sharing your feedback and perspective. I heard from several people that they thought of Ikea when they walked into the piazza for the first time!