Mishkin

I highly doubt with the number of cabins, 215, that they're going to allow people to buy access. I feel like they're going for the Ship within a Ship for the Sanctuary Collection. The new Sanctuary Collection aboard Sun Princess includes three levels of stateroom types – Signature Collection Suites (80), Mini Suites (123), and Premium Deluxe Balconies (12).

I agree 100% the dining situation is a bit confusing. The logical part of me thinks they won’t change it and suite go to Signature. They also removed the Cabana class from being reserved so maybe that’s to limit those they get it

Well they jacked the price up a whole lot with this update. It is more expensive than the old+premier so I'm feeling it is more of a cash grab and they would rather the guaranteed money from suite then the possibility of people buying it on the ship itself. My Suite would be ~$2200 more and our travel companions would be ~$1600 for their reserver collection mini-suite. We all had premier already so no change in price there, they just now get to hang with us in the Sanctuary without maybe being able to pay per day. We'll see what sort of clarification they provide but right now I'm not holding my breath.

So watching a review of the Sanctuary there were two sections of it. The portion with the padded loungers that was supposedly reserved for suite guests then the other section. Maybe they'll keep those for us that paid extra for suites.

Were S9 the lowest of the Suite option previously? If so at least you'll still be able to go to the Suite Lounge for drinks that don't count to your 15!

Oh for sure, there are only 177 loungers in the Sanctuary and they are putting 215 cabins in there now. The Cabana Deck will probably be less crowded now 🙃

On the Sun Princess there is the Signature Lounge and Restaurant for Suite guests as well as a Reserve Collection Restaurant.

We are in a Reserve Collection Mini-Suite. Our cruise is in December so maybe that is why?

I am only Gold Status haven't paid yet and it is letting me pre-book the specialty.

I agree that this new pricing will make us evaluate other options as well. The one thing is the Lounge will not be more crowded as only Suite guests will have access to it.

I agree it is a bit of bummer to having those 80 spots shared by 215 cabins now. The dinning portion is still a bit unclear as nothing has been said how that is changing. Suite guests still will have the separate lounge and still have priority embarkation/disembarkation/tender so they aren't killing all of the perks. The main change I see is expanded Sanctuary access and now requiring Premier and the associated cost.

Is there a reason you're not booking your specialty dining ahead of time?

We cruised last summer to Alaska on Princess prior to the switch to some switches on the drink package. We got e-mails from Princess that we got upgraded but upon getting on the ship we had extra charges as our drink pack didn't have the same $15 limit. It was a bit annoying.

I agree Princess did a terrible job with the wording for suites guests. Nothing seems to have changed for the suite guests other than the fact that you can no longer book it without a package like you used to be able to. The upgrade really applies to people in the Reserve Collection, who now get Sanctuary Access.

The one thing I'm curious about is Suite guests used to get specialty dining on embarkation night. With this change they don't mention that any more. I wonder if we would still get it. edit: Looking at the summary page it still shows that as a perk so looks like they didn't drop that off.

The press release outlines it. Sanctuary Collection staterooms on Sun Princess and Star Princess go on sale April 23 for sailings after October 14, 2024 beginning in the Caribbean season on Sun Princess and at launch on Star Princess in Fall of 2025.

The cost for the suites also went up significantly so there is a nicety in the fact that we don't have to pay the new amount. Although I wonder if they're just not applying the discount/lower deposit right now.

Not only did the prices go up, the deposits are also crazy. the price went up about $2200 for our journey and the deposit went from $198 to $1000. I liked Princess for the "sane" pricing but they may be pushing me out.

I have mixed feelings on it. We convinced some friends to join us on our cruise in March 2026 and they couldn't swing higher than the reserve collection mini-suite and we were slightly bummed they may not have Sanctuary access without paying. Now we see that they have access which is nice but also means the area will have more people. Then I looked at the pricing and I am over not having to spend over $2000 more, the mini suite also went up over $1500 and yes we all had the premier package already. The pricing is what concerns me more than the extra access.

They're going to keep closing these and not tell us what they'd like. Mods please help us out. I'm not sure where they want us to put of posts about it.

You can read the press release about it https://www.princess.com/en-us/news/news-releases/2024/04/princess-cruises-unveils-exclusive-new-sanctuary-collection-aboard-sun-princess-and-star-princess Short answer is they're changing Reserve Collection and Suites to be Sanctuary Collection and increasing the pricing but including the premier package. Anyone who didn't previously have premier does not get upgrade you keep what you had before. This also dilutes the exclusivity of the Sanctuary space as now it won't just be the 80 Suites, it'll be Signature Collection Suites (80), Mini Suites (123), and Premium Deluxe Balconies (12). It also is pushing the upper limit of what I can reasonably spend on a fruits.

My wife and I did our first cruise out of Vancouver and we opted to pick them up as we were spending the week before exploring Seattle and Vancouver and they couldn't guarantee they would be there in time. We were one of the first people at the cruise terminal and getting the medallion probably added about 30-45 minutes. We still were there early enough to have lunch at the MDR but it definitely added time. To me it's like TSA Pre-check, sometimes it doesn't make much of a difference but when the line is long you'll wish you had it already.