CalTexCruiser

LOL. Only on Cruisecritic do the most uncontroversial things become controversial.

Nothing nefarious here. This is required by California's Senate Bill 478, aka the junk fee law, that is set to take effect on July 1.

More power to them if they can sell out the Signature suites at the elevated fares given this s**t show of an opening. We got our PH suite (I think now called a Vista Suite) at a good casino discount. But all these changes have severely dampened my excitement.

I am confused by all this back and forth about slides. Bottom line, is there or is there not a slide on the Sun? And more importantly, will I be able to slide down this purported slide on my upcoming cruise next May?

LOL. Signature went from ship within ship to general population. Princess seems to have thrown in the towel and decided they can’t compete with the Retreat/Haven/Yacht Club

LOL. Actually we pay extra for larger rooms and secondarily the ability to access the ship within a ship, but we spend the vast majority of our time outside the Retreat areas, including specialty restaurants, shows, the casino, hot tubs, thermal suites, gym. And yes we do sometimes eat at the buffet, since it does get tiring to have to sit through formal dinners every night, especially on cruises longer than 7 days.

Be advised that there have been recent incidents where protesters have shut down the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge for hours, so any travel across one of those bridges can be dicey if world events trigger any such protests. Having said that, I once had a taxi driver get me from downtown SF during rush hour (around 5pm) to SFO in under 30 minutes to get to my flight with 20 minutes to spare. He knew all the shortcuts through downtown to avoid congestion. Gave him a big tip.

Agreed. This is to entice Royal and X passengers who are already interested in premium small lines to stay in the RCG family. The only VS 250 benefits that I care about are the free laundry and the 10% discount on future cruises.

We are Elite on Celebrity and never sailed SS. would VS 250 apply to our very first SS booking?

I have seen reports that those in the Signature Restaurant for suites had no waits and received excellent service. When they combine the Reserve Restaurant with the Signature Restaurant in October 2024 under the new Sanctuary Collection program, I hope the experience does not degrade to the lowest common denominator reported here.

On a few occasions we had to wait behind a number of guests while the Reserve host/hostess explained they were at the wrong dining room entrance.

Princess can't make up its mind what to call this. First it was Club Class. Then Reserve Class. Then when the Sun was introduced, it was Reserve Class plus Signature Suites. Then two months later they changed their mind and combined Reserve Class and Signature Suites on the Sun to Sanctuary Collection.

The OP did state "no commentary or reply to comments." So we should not expect any. I still appreciate the photos. I suppose the suite experience prior to Oct 24 will probably be different from the "Sanctuary Collection" experience when the suite passengers are lumped in with the remaining Sanctuary Collection passengers.

The ability to book the Sanctuary at the Go lounge and not having to run onboard to get in line at the Sanctuary is also a valuable benefit, WHEN IT WORKS. It worked for us but others have reported that incompetent/lazy/overworked concierges on board waited too long to make the requested Sanctuary reservations.

Anyone have any information on WHY Park 19 is still unavailable?

@bnickle Thanks for sharing Is your sailing fully booked, and if so, does the ship feel crowded with 4,000 passengers?

offerings on menu look good

love your screen name Really sounds horrific what Princess has done The same thing happened last year on Princess’ other rust bucket Crown

If they do this they'll have to provide suite breakfasts in one of the specialty dining restaurants. Makes no sense that suite breakfasts are available on all other Princess ships but not the Sun/Star.

I'm afraid this thread as severely veered off course

I suspect if not for the Star Princess error they may have honored the Greenland bookings. But once it became a feeding frenzy where they were handing out mini-suites for free and potentially losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue they went back and revoked everyone.

I agree with you about the Greenland cruise, and I pointed that out in my post above. When I saw the Greenland cruise offer it looked very similar to casino offers I've received in the past. So yes, you had no reason to doubt the legitimacy. The obvious glitch was the Star Princess comped mini-suite + Premier Package for pretty much anyone who logged into their Princess account.

The Star Princess offer of comped mini-suite + free Premier package is clearly a glitch. Although I frequently play in the casinos, the best offers I've ever received from Princess are free inside cabins and sometimes free play dollars, but never the plus or premier package. I would agree with @MsSoCalCruiser the Greenland offer on the Emerald was more in line with what I've received in the past.

FWIW, My former CVP attempted the hard sale of this on me a few months ago. He is no longer my CVP. So watch out for this even from your CVPs.

Hope it works out for you given your substantial investment. This is Princess' first foray into becoming more family friendly (with Park 19) and the ship within a ship concept (with the sun deck and lounge). I hope their treatment of suite guests reflects the significant premium paid over non-suite Sanctuary Class cabins.