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Posting this on the Star Princess build thread following the updates from those passengers who have been notified of changes directly. While nine inaugural sailings have now been cancelled and the new inaugural is now October 4 2025, this states the ship delivery date will be September 26, 2025 (a slot for a shakedown cruise maybe?). The official press release: MONFALCONE, Italy, (April 19, 2024) – Princess Cruises and ship builder Fincantieri today announced the mutual decision to postpone the delivery of the next Sphere Class ship, Star Princess. Following a comprehensive review of the remaining construction milestones, both parties have elected to adjust the ship's delivery date from July 29, 2025 to September 26, 2025, which will result in the cancellation of the nine inaugural sailings. “Despite our collective dedication and relentless pursuit to deliver the ship in late July, it has become evident that additional time is required to ensure the Star Princess is delivered to the highest standards expected by our guests,” said John Padgett, president of Princess Cruises. The new inaugural sailings of Star Princess will sail roundtrip from Barcelona and include an 11-day Mediterranean voyage on October 4, 2025, and a 7-day Mediterranean voyage on October 15, 2025, that precede a 14-day transatlantic crossing to Fort Lauderdale on October 22, 2025 for the ship’s first Caribbean season. These three new cruises will open for sale on April 30, 2024. Guests who are booked on any of the impacted voyages will be given three options: book any Princess cruise worldwide, including aboard the new Star, sister ship Sun Princess, or any other Princess ship. Guests who elect to rebook will receive future cruise- and onboard-credits depending on the cruise they select. Guests will also have the option to cancel and receive a full refund of the cruise fare. Princess will protect travel agent commissions on all bookings that have been paid in full. Star Princess is the second in the new Sphere Class of ships for Princess. Sister ship Sun Princess, built by Fincantieri in Monfalcone, debuted in February and is hailed as the next level Love Boat featuring the iconic and elegant structural lines Princess is known for, while delivering an evolution of the brand with new eye-catching architectural spectacles like The Dome, the cruise industry’s first geodesic feature on the top deck, and The Sphere, the suspended glass Sphere Piazza at the center of the cruise ship.

Yes, $140 for a half day/$220 for a full day (except Sun Princess).

This is a direct link to Steve's (CanadianBurger's) final thoughts on his cruise on Sun Princess but you can go back to the start of the thread if you wish.

Article in Cruise Industry News covers the same points as above and confirmation that nine inaugural sailings will be cancelled. Sad that we won't get to see her in Southampton!

Video interview by Insider Travel Report with Corinne the CD talking about current and upcoming entertainment featured on Sun Princess And another interview with Craig Street, the Captain:

Yes, this was called out in the first Live From thread. For the earlier cruises, at least, they had the same menu in Signature and Reserve each night as in the MDR, with maybe more Princess favourites in the MDR but higher quality ingredients in the dishes in Signature and Reserve. e.g. Ribeye Steak Cafe de Paris in Reserve and Signature in place of Grilled Flat Iron Beef Steak in MDR For Princess Favorites, MDR gets Fettucine Alfredo and Grilled New York Strip Steak as well, Reserve and Signature gets Jumbo Shrimp instead of Shrimp in the MDR and Signature gets an additional Prime Rib on the Carving Trolley Makes sense for there to be a separate kitchen if they have upgraded ingredients.

They have a full bar and the staff went off to find some non-alcoholic welcome drinks for the two teenagers in our test group. Didn't see anything on a list though.

Just a warning then that the seats in the little Spellbound theater have arms and aren't that fluffy friendly. There are some armless bar stools at the back (I hate shuffling onto these) so I grabbed the single bucket chair in the middle.

No, we went to one of the media only events - no meal for these - and were told to come in whatever you feel comfortable in. After my other half packed a dinner suit lol

Award-winning actress and performer Hannah Waddingham will serve as the godmother for Sun Princess during naming festivities April 23 at the Port of Barcelona.

We only walked that way a few times but always had to make way for people coming in the other direction. You would be better getting feedback from someone with a Reserve Cabana between the fwd elevator bank and the Piazza.

Hope you don't mind if add some thoughts on our recent "media cruise" on Sun Princess here. We are now home after our 6 day experience on Sun Princess. Princess UK kindly arranged the cruise part of the trip and we paid for the flights, hotels and transfers. Embarkation We flew in the day before and stayed at the Hilton Rome Airport hotel (nice!) and booked a private transfer via CivitavecchiaPort.org. The driver didn't speak much English but as we approached Civitavecchia, he pointed out a massive ship sitting on the sea in the distance and that was enough! Finally! We were dropped off at 9:50am, tipped a porter to take our cases so we could head straight into the security line and go up to the check-in area. We were Blue lane (as from the UK) but there were no lines that early and we collected our medallions and took a seat for about half an hour until general boarding was announced - we were on the ship by 11. Our Stateroom We had a Deluxe Balcony cabin - 15251, not far from the forward elevators. Handy for Dome, Lido Deck, Arena, Good Spirits, O'Malley's, Princess Live! and Guest Services. Not so handy for The Eatery, any of the MDR locations, the Wake View Terrace and The Sanctuary. Didn't like having to walk through the busy Cabana deck corridors on deck 9 to get to International Cafe or a smoky Casino on deck 8 for Crooners. Getting back from The Sanctuary and the Wake View Terrace takes some thought too! The cabin itself was lovely. Great storage, upgraded charging facilities, huge sofa, comfy bed, good air-con. Annoyances were minor: Motion activated lights in front of the bedside tables. Even when you moved the bed covers off and on. Our workaround was to lean the long thin cushions from the sofa against the tables at night. Not easy to watch the TV while sat on the sofa - no tilt on the screen. We couldn't find a switch near the bed that would turn off the wardrobe and balcony curtain lights so had to go traipsing back to the main door switches. Maybe our switches near the bed were faulty. We just didn't put them on again! The bathroom. Well, it was great to have a shower door and upgraded products but I am a fluffy cruiser and it was just too narrow. You can manage but it just felt so confined, sitting on the toilet and doing everything you needed to do at the sink at the same time. And having to open the shower door outwards into the room so you can get in - you have to be a contortionist. Just enough room in the shower itself but don't drop anything! Also, no rails to hang the bath towels!. My other half couldn't find them folded and hidden under the sink unit. I have a feeling the mini-suite bathroom would be better for us. But then a big shower was one of the main reasons we booked suites on Royal Class and the initial inaugural! The balcony was deeper than Royal Class. The chair was too narrow for me to sit on but my other half did his regular before bed drink and contemplation session each night and said he missed the balcony lighting. We also looked directly down onto the Cabana deck and balconies - I do wish you could look down to the sea but that's obviously not part of the design for this class. Food We didn't manage to eat everywhere and we only have 2 meals a day anyway. Was meant to do the MDR one evening but my other half had caught the sun so we ordered in. Walked through The Eatery a few times and it was always busy but didn't eat there. Americana on deck 8 - ate there for brunch one morning. It was packed! Basic comfort food. International Cafe - picked up some breakfast items a couple of mornings with some coffee/hot chocolate. Very busy. Room Service - did the OceanNow delivery one evening. Quick and hot enough. Same for Door Hanger breakfast. Lido Deck - Loved the new taco options. My other half had the burger from the grill a couple of times and really rated it! The Promenade - that rustic pizza is the best pizza on the ship! Alfredo's - pizza was yummy but preferred the old desserts. O'Malley's - Onion Ring stack was not as impressive as the pictures! Fish and Chips was grim with the batter all floppy - I left half of it. Butcher's Cut by Dario - fun experience and to be seated on a shared table. Wouldn't do this again though - we are medium/well done filet steak eaters and didn't really appreciate the different cuts. Great cake at the end though! Crown Grill - we enjoyed our filet steak as usual. Nice to have a separate restaurant. Umai Hot Pot - wasn't really our thing. I couldn't reach the pots so my other half had to do all the work and he is too much of a fussy eater for this. I had to put a timer on my phone to make sure his chicken had enough time to cook! They also didn't offer us any drinks so that didn't help. Entertainment The Dome and Arena were still being used for dress rehearsals during our 6 days. They had some other acts on in the Arena but not our thing. We did like some of the new seating options in the Arena though like the bench seats. They had comedians doing half hour slots in Princess Live! for a few evenings which was great but then they just repeated the same set 3 times each night! We did a couple of quizzes in Princess Live! and watched some karaoke and game shows. It's more self contained than Sky/Enchanted/Discovery so a better venue design. Drink service was good but it could still get packed. We watched a few events in the Piazza like Line Dancing but you don't get a whole view of the floor when sitting on the seats on the higher decks. And if there's a big act on, everyone cannibalises the chairs from Crooners and other surrounding venues to add even more seating! We got to experience the cocktail and magic part of Spellbound as part of a media group and are completed converted - the best cocktails on the ship, superb service and mind-bending magic! O'Malley's had a great atmosphere especially with the musical acts. Relaxation We really loved the new outdoor spaces like the Sea View Terrace, the Wake View Terrace and The Sanctuary! We are not sunbathers but do enjoy sitting on comfy seating in the shade, looking at a view and being served drinks! We used to book cabanas on the Royal Class but don't think we will be spending $499 on one in Sphere class. But we would happily sit in a shaded area and be served by Marc and his team in The Sanctuary. We didn't get to enjoy the Dome much because it was closed off when we popped up there on port days. For drinks and chatting, we enjoyed Good Spirits and Crooners bars. The Wheelhouse Bar was a weird one on either side of the thoroughfare to the MDRs and it had board game trolleys during the day. We noticed a lack of bar wait staff on the Lido Deck near the food outlets. We had to resort to Lemonade from the soft-drinks self-serve dispenser and used OceanNow for delivery another time. Technology The App was a little glitchy onboard - we watched our muster video while sat in the Piazza but it couldn't tell us our Muster location so we had to ask the crew. We couldn't cancel one of our dining reservations using the app so had to call Dine Line. We used OceanNow around 4 times and it only failed to deliver drinks the first time (we were sat up near Go Princess in the Piazza). Wi-fi was good, regularly got 4 mbps down and up to 2 mbps up. Crew Call chat was very efficient and saved us queuing at Guest Services. Note that wanted to print our return flight boarding passes (I know - old skool) and since there is no Internet Cafe, we were advised to go to Guest Services where they forwarded the emails to their email account to print off. Would we cruise on Sun Princess again? Yes! The crew were a happy crew, the service was great and reminded us that we still love Princess. Plus we still have new things to try. Once everything is up and running and given the right itinerary...

Thanks!. We heard it mentioned a few times while on the ship so something was going around. I was hit with a long cough back in January which was horrible so hoping it will clear up!

Now that we are home (with the cruise cough), it looks as though it's the premiere of the first production show in the Arena tonight:

No, only seen movies showing on MUTS during this current cruise. Note that the Arena and Dome are still being used for rehearsals a lot of the time.