I am currently sailing on Princess Cruises’ newest and largest ship, Sun Princess. I am onboard for five days as a guest of Princess so I can bring you everything that this new cruise ship has to offer.
I embarked on the ship in Athens, Greece and will disembark in Rome, Italy. After spending a little over 48 hours on the ship, here are my first impressions of Sun Princess. This is only the second sailing for the ship so the kinks are still being worked out.
This is my ninth cruise with Princess and the cruise ship is completely unlike any other ship in their fleet. Over the past year, I took two shipyard tours of the ship while it was under construction in Monfalcone, Italy. It’s such a great feeling to finally see the completed ship and all of the unique spaces that it offers.
Because it’s a new class of ship and unlike any other in Princess’ fleet, it did take a little longer than normal to get my bearings and learn where everything was.
The ship is gorgeous, inside and out. From the main dining room to the Piazza, it just has a comfortable feeling. I am currently in the Wheelhouse Bar writing this article and I just love this space.
One of the biggest changes on the ship was moving the buffet (The Eatery) from the traditional location at the top of the ship and move it off of the Piazza (atrium) on deck 9. Sister cruise line Costa also did this with their recent new ships and I really like it. It just makes more sense.
However, there is still food on the Lido Deck with different stations for pizza, tacos, and burgers etc.
There are a lot of specialty dining options on board that I will be trying throughout my cruise. I will have more on that after I get back.
The crew on board have been incredible so far, you would never know that it’s only the second cruise on the ship. And it’s not just me, I have overheard many other passengers talking how friendly they are and what a great job they are doing. If you have a cruise booked on the ship, make sure to visit Wirat at Crooners and the Lido Bar. She’s just awesome!
I am staying in a balcony cabin on deck 17, you can watch a two minute walkthrough video of my cabin below.
A few things that Princess really did right was to make sure there are a ton of power outlets all around the cabin. On each side of the bed, there is a 110, USB, and USB-C outlet. There are also multiple outlets on the desk.
The bathrooms are by far the best in the Princess fleet and it has a great shower.
Another nice feature are motion detected lights on the floor if you need to get up in the middle of the night.
There are a few things that still need work before they are 100%. The new Princess app is missing useful information that passengers need like dining times and the open hours for bars and lounges. They should have waited until the new app was 100% before rolling it out.
Also, because Princess recently took delivery of the ship, a lot of the entertainment is not ready. This includes the Princess Arena and Spellbound.
The Dome has also been closed most days as they work on shows. I’m hoping it will be open tomorrow for our sea day because it looks like the perfect spot for when you are at sea.
I was able to walk through it and take a few photos on embarkation day. I think it’s going to be really popular with guests.
My Ocean Medallion has worked flawlessly so far, I like it so much better than having a cruise card.
Park19 is another area of the ship that remains closed and hasn’t opened yet. Once the ship gets safety approvals, Sea Breeze will finally open. It looks to be a really fun ride around the top of the ship.
The WiFi has been decent as long as you aren’t uploading large videos. I was able to video chat with my son today and the 10 minute call never dropped once.
One big thing that was missing is that there was no where to get something to drink on the Lido Deck without going to a bar. However, Princess fixed this today and added beverage stations with water, ice tea, and lemonade. This trend should continue as they get the kinks worked out on a new class of cruise ships.
Surprisingly, there is no basketball court on Sun Princess.
I will have more on Sun Princess after the cruise is over. Tonight I will be experiencing a sneak peek at Spellbound, the cruise line’s second Extraordinary Experience that brings the magic of Magic Castle to sea for the first time.
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