Sun Princess Coastal Wonders Cruise April 2 - April 14 2009

This is my review of the Coastal Wonders cruise on the Sun Princess traveling from the 2 April to the 14th, and stopping at Whitsundays, Yorkeys Knob, Port Douglas, Cooktown, Townsville and Brisbane

We arrived at the wharf around 10.15am on the day of departure. There were still people disembarking from the previous trip but that didn’t deter the fact we were only in the queue to check in for about 15 minutes. Upon checking we were given a ticket with `boarding group number 1` on it and was told the ship would be boarding early around 11am and not the 12.30pm as expected, which was good news for us, as I was not looking forward to having to wait around for ages having got there so early. I have read reviews from people who appeared to have been waiting for ages but I hate to say it, ours was quick and painless. My only complaint was as my partner is a smoker we happened to be outside when they called our group meaning that we didn’t actually hear the PA announcement calling our group. It would appear the PA system is only inside. Still it was no drama and we still got on quickly.

Our cabin:

I actually found the ship quite easy to navigate around, and we found our cabin on the Aloha deck (deck 11) really quickly. We had booked a balcony room on C deck but were upgraded to A deck at no extra cost (a saving of about $100 pp) Always a nice surprise. My only regret with being in a cabin on one of the higher decks is that you are some way from most of the facilities. If you want to be closer to the pools etc than this deck was ideal but if you would prefer to be closer to the Atrium bars and restaurants than I would suggest a cabin on one of the lower decks. In hindsight I think deck C would have suited us better. Not a complaint, just more of an observation. Danny our cabin steward came to greet us immediately and offered his services for the duration of the cruise. He was a polite young man from the Philippines who did his job well. There were no towel animals on our bed each night like other people have written but still he did do a good job. There is no disputing that the cabins on this ship are small. As I have mentioned we had a balcony, but that aside, they have plenty of wardrobe space with ample hangers and storage for the luggage was adequate with all of our 4 suitcases fitting nicely under the bed. The bathroom is also tiny but you make do with what you have and found it quite manageable.

Food:

Well being 6 kilos heavier after the cruise I have to honestly say the food was fantastic and there was so much of it at anytime of the day. The majority of our meals where eaten in the Marquis Dining room, with a couple of trips to the Horizon Food Court for breakfasts (especially handy when you had a day in Port as the breakfast in the restaurant could be a little slow) I can confidently say that 90% of the food served was a hit, with the remaining 10% a miss, and when they missed on the food they did it in a major way. But I have to say though, the very few times it happened I was happy to let the occasional flaw pass by. The staff in the restaurants are always pleasant and our dinner waiter `Carmelo` was fantastic. It took him a few days for him to really warm to the table (probably because we rarely had a full one, but when he did, he was excellent. He also kindly offered us second helpings when we required them. This was particularly good on Lobster and King Prawn night J Our wine waiter, was a little slow, and I think he even mentioned it was first cruise but by 8pm each night the last thing I wanted to do was be scoffing down food and trying to run away anywhere so having the dinner go a little slower than normal was fine. One night we decided to try Ultimate Balcony Dining. The charge for this was $125 (with a $57 upgrade fee for a full bottle of Moet) this was something really fun and different but fell short in a couple of ways. First of all, the evening we decided to do this was particularly humid, and those balconies can get quite hot and sticky, this is of course not Princess`s fault but if you decide to do it, really make sure of the outside temperature as you are going to be stuck out there for at least 2 hours. The other thing which is not so much a complaint is that personally I think there was way too much food. First of all they will bring you a huge plate of canapés; I would guess at least 30 of them. We only ate about 5 each, but in hindsight I would have avoided them all together. The next course is Crab Cakes, which were really yummy but again really filling. A good sized lobster table (bigger than those served in the Restaurant) and at least a 300g cut of the most tenderest meat is the main meal. By this point we were bursting at the seams. And with the hot sticky night air the whole novelty factor was wearing thin. Our waiter was great he would serve the food and then leave the room for about 15 minutes returning to top up the champagne or clear the plates for the next course. We decided to let him go after dinner and asked if he would just leave the dessert so we could enjoy this in our air conditioned cabin. Overall I would recommend it but as I mentioned just make sure the outside temp is how you like it. Included in the cost is a photo as well, where one of the professional photographers will come down and take a shot. Sovita who was by far our favorite camera girl was fantastic and we had several fun encounters with her throughout the cruise

Shore Tours:

Ok this is a real bone of contention for me and I am going to do my best to keep it brief because the mere thought of it just gets me wound up. These are a total rip off! Being an Australian cruise I had the luxury of being able to search for a lot of the tours online and directly through the tour operator beforehand and came to the conclusion that the average Princess tour was about 60% dearer than what could be purchased on board. The only tour we did book was Ocean Rafting in the Whitsundays which was $179. I rang the service provider beforehand whose website offered the same tour for $109 and enquired about booking directly. They advised that Princess will charter their tour to ensure that you are returned to the boat in time (which makes perfect sense) but if I had booked directly through them, their tour actually goes longer but could not guarantee that we would be back in time that `Princess` wanted us back on board. What made this experience more frustrating was we had decided to get an earlier tender in to have a look around at the township before the tour started but the tender that was allocated to bring the rest of the tour in arrived 40 minutes late so therefore this time was taken off overall time allocated, so even though we bit the bullet and decided to book this tour through the ship they were still not organized enough to get the group in on time. Anyway before I rabbit on for too long, my suggestion is do a bit of googling before you leave, see if you are able to get the same tour onshore for half the price and providing that you are going to leave yourself plenty of time than do that instead. Taking into account that you are also at the mercy of the ship tenders and the majority of the time the pre booked tours will get precedence. My suggestion is if doing your own thing, get a tender ticket before heading to breakfast and you`ll be guaranteed of getting on one of the first boats into a port. We found the success of this method quite good although I have heard some horror stories. Overall, I refuse to give the exorbitant amount of money to Princess for these tours you can organize yourself. 1 particular example of a mark up on a tour was the trip to Warner Bros Movie World, the park itself is $69.95 to get into but the Princess tour was $169. Even the Sea World tour whose admission prices were the same was only $139 and that’s a further distance than Movie World.

Activities and Shows:

It was rare that I was bored on board. There’s always something to do. If not Trivia, we played religiously every day was a hoot, if not for a few people taking it a little too seriously. At the end of the day the prize was a token that at the end of the cruise you could cash in for things like Princess Caps, Cards and Tote bags. Being a big board game fan there was at least 2 games a day of things like Scattergories, Pictionary and Taboo. All great fun. We only saw a couple of the shows `The Piano Man` which was a show featuring the hits of Billy Joel, Elton John and a few others was quite good and the costumes were great. The other show was Sid Heylan Junior who juggled and told jokes etc he was also very funny. My partner was picked as the guinea pig from the audience to help him ascend a tall uni cycle whilst juggling razor sharp knives. Speaking with a lot of the other passengers the majority all gave glowing reports of the shows we missed. Well worth seeing to, is the cruise staff show. As well as having all the using antics of the cruise directors staff it also highlights the singing and dancing abilities of the other members of staff and in my opinion if you only see the one show this would be it. Bingo is another major rort to me that just struck me as another way for Princess to grab your money. It starts at $10 for 1 book of 5 games and going up to $40 for a book of 5. The annoying thing with that too is the books cannot be separated. For example if you had 4 others with you, you could not separate the book and share it with the others to save money as this would make the book void. And even then you don’t get the value of a full game, with winning numbers only having to be the the top line of a book etc, and it’s only the final game where they seem to play it like any other normal bingo game. We played the once and then avoided it like the plague for the rest of the cruise.

Staff:

They were truly the highlight of the cruise. I can honestly say I did not come across one staff member that made was not 100% devoted to their job and who at times could not go out of their way enough for you. Whether it be just bar waiters who would remember what you drank from day to day, or the cabin steward stuff who would 1 by 1 all say good morning when you passed them in the corridor. And if you are Deck 11 where the entire deck is cabins that’s a hell of a lot of good mornings to get through. The cruise directors staff were all really lovely with the exception of one who could get a little curt when she wanted but Kelvin, Mark and James were all the stand out ones for me. Sovita who was one of the photographers was by far our favorite staff member. We went a little overboard (no pun Intended) on the various photo opportunities available and Sovita had a lot of fun with us when it came to tilting heads or moving arms or trying to bend us into position to get that perfect shot. I jokingly said she must have had fun with her Barbie dolls as a kid making them too get into exactly the same positions. On the first formal night, my same sex partner and I wanted some quality shots she discreetly asked if we were mates or a couple. When we advised we were in fact a couple and had been together for 17 years she was our new best friend and new exactly how to manhandle us every time we had a photo op (which was many) We ended up spending almost $400 on photos thanks to her great ability to take a great photo

Overall:

It’s almost certain that I have forgotten various points that I wanted to say, so have decided to add them as I see fit. But overall we had a ball. We got off the ship feeling relaxed and pampered and wanting to rebook again. We have joined the captains circle group which allows us 4 years to book our next cruise at a reduced deposit and up to $150 in onboard credits and let’s just say I am already surfing the net for the next holiday. I was really happy with Princess with the exception of the shore tours and a couple of the other things like Bingo etc where the main goal is to suck money from you. But we were really happy with 99% of all services offered and the fantastic staff made the holiday one we will remember for a long time. Bring on the next cruise I say, and I have no hesitation of recommending anyone to Princess.

I will attempt to add more if i think of it but just wanted to share with everyone my thoughts so far. Any feedback on how i have done it or any further questions please just let me know

Great Review Cazz. We did this same cruise in April 2008 and had the same great time with a similar outlook. Your comments about the pricing of shore tours strikes a chord also.

Re your impressions of Sun Princess - did you find in the latter half of the cruise, as people got to know more and meet up with others, that seating to get a pre-dinner drink was more difficult in the Rendezvous Lounge and Atrium bars???

My other frustration was the layout of the foods in the Horizon Court Buffet. Spent way too much time looking for the butter to put on the roll, the yoghurt to put with the cereal, the dressings to put on the salad etc. Has it improved any yet???

If that is the only things we have to complain about, then life is good.......

Hi Cazz,

Great review. Having been on the Sun Princess fairly recently I can relate to your comments. :) :)

Evon.

Great Review Cazz. We did this same cruise in April 2008 and had the same great time with a similar outlook. Your comments about the pricing of shore tours strikes a chord also.

 

Re your impressions of Sun Princess - did you find in the latter half of the cruise, as people got to know more and meet up with others, that seating to get a pre-dinner drink was more difficult in the Rendezvous Lounge and Atrium bars???

 

My other frustration was the layout of the foods in the Horizon Court Buffet. Spent way too much time looking for the butter to put on the roll, the yoghurt to put with the cereal, the dressings to put on the salad etc. Has it improved any yet???

 

If that is the only things we have to complain about, then life is good.......

Hit the nail on the head there. Yes, both the Rendevous and Atrium areas where packed about half way through and it never really occured to me why all of a sudden these 2 bars became so popular. In hinsdight your explanation is spot on. The Horizon buffet is much the same, we didnt eat there alot but i found i made the same mistake every time, was to get to the end of the buffet and realise the cutlery was at the very front of it therefore having to go back through the crowd to get them. You would think i would have learnt but continued to do the same thing the whole cruise:)

I also meant to mention we ended up getting the soda sticker for unlimited soft drinks. Its worth mentioning if thats all you drink this would be great value, but considering how delectable their cocktails were and the amount of days at port this proved to be a very poor investment.

A very enjoyable read, Cazz. Princess fan here too. We'll have to try the balcony dining next cruise...it sounds great.

Cheers,

Anna

It is a shame there is not more seating areas for pre-dinner drinks etc. We met a number of people when we were on shore, or doing activities and on numerous occasions, said the dreaded words "We'll meet you in the Atrium at ....o'clock for a drink before dinner". Unfortunately, after meeting up, we would then have to go somewhere completely different. Found there was always plenty of room up top by the pool etc, but when you are all gussied up for dinner, you don't really want to sit on a lilo.

We didn't try the Soda Sticker trick but did purchase the Coffee Card. I love a decent coffee in the morning and also late in the afternoon to round out a day of adventures, cocktails and celebrating! We found it good value as I often like it black which doesn't get clipped from the card but tastes great.

Something else i meant to add was if you have the luxury of picking a tender avoid the ships ones and go for a catamaran. The ships ones are hot and stuffy and really rough, and on a choppy day they can make for some adventurous trips. Probably a bit hard to do when leaving the ship but when getting back on definetly worth avoiding. At Yorkeys Knob we actually passed 2 of the ships ones that boarded before us, they simply take that long. :)

An enjoyable read.... agree wholeheartedly with choosing the cats over the tenders.... we had a leaking tender on the way back to the ship at Port Douglas.......pax behind us got drenched......

Did you hear about the tender that got a little lost coming back to the ship in the fog one afternoon..we spoke to 3 couples that said they were terrified:eek: .......glad we missed that one........have to add the coffee onboard was eeyuk ..... as my granddaughter would say............worst ever................cured me of my coffee addiction :D:D cheers Shiona

Hi there

Great review, we are going on the Asian cruise in 11 weeks time on the Princess Sun. I was hoping that you may be able to answer a couple of questions.

I have seen on these boards that there is a soda card and coffee card, can you tell me how much these are. Also I have heard that there is another card that offers mocktails. Does the Sun have this one and if so how much?

thanks in advance

cruzinwithteens.

Hi there

 

Great review, we are going on the Asian cruise in 11 weeks time on the Princess Sun. I was hoping that you may be able to answer a couple of questions.

I have seen on these boards that there is a soda card and coffee card, can you tell me how much these are. Also I have heard that there is another card that offers mocktails. Does the Sun have this one and if so how much?

 

thanks in advance

 

cruzinwithteens.

Hey there. The soda card is $4.50 a day for the duration of the cruise, which over 12 nights added up to $54 and to be honest we only used it a few times so not value for money. If you have kids though i would highly reccomend it. We did not use the coffee card but i think it was around $30 for 10 coffees, i am sure some of the other members maybe able to clarify that. I didnt hear of mocktail card...hope this helps:)

An enjoyable read.... agree wholeheartedly with choosing the cats over the tenders.... we had a leaking tender on the way back to the ship at Port Douglas.......pax behind us got drenched......

Did you hear about the tender that got a little lost coming back to the ship in the fog one afternoon..we spoke to 3 couples that said they were terrified:eek: .......glad we missed that one........have to add the coffee onboard was eeyuk ..... as my granddaughter would say............worst ever................cured me of my coffee addiction :D:D cheers Shiona

Hi Shiona...thats too funny. No i did not hear about the lost tender. How on earth can that happen i wonder? I didnt drink the coffee but reading everyone elses reviews on here the coffee is to be avoided. I really loved the particular cruise and wasnt too peeved that we had to miss out on Cooktown, i think out of all the ports if i had to pick any to miss that would have been it. Although having said that, i`ll doubt if we will ever get to that again.

My other frustration was the layout of the foods in the Horizon Court Buffet. Spent way too much time looking for the butter to put on the roll, the yoghurt to put with the cereal, the dressings to put on the salad etc. Has it improved any yet???

No, the layout of the foods is still strange. For example, why would you put the sugar-free desserts right next to the carvery? Also it was disconcerting to take what was labelled as a margarine pot (which was in a different location to the butter) and find that you had a pot of peanut butter instead. Weird!!

No, the layout of the foods is still strange. For example, why would you put the sugar-free desserts right next to the carvery? Also it was disconcerting to take what was labelled as a margarine pot (which was in a different location to the butter) and find that you had a pot of peanut butter instead. Weird!!

Did any of those people who travelled on that cruise discover the `waffle guy` in the mornings?? Not sure if he was on previous cruises but can almost certainly blame him for the extra 6 kilos i left with :)

Did any of those people who travelled on that cruise discover the `waffle guy` in the mornings?? Not sure if he was on previous cruises but can almost certainly blame him for the extra 6 kilos i left with :)

Mmmmm....waffles....and all that whipped cream, maple syrup, honey etc. He was there for afternoon tea as well. Yes, he has a lot to answer for!

Great review with honest opinions. Loved reading every word! It made me want to book another cruise! ( hang on, we have)

Peter

OMG ----- 6 KILOS!!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek:

WAFFLES....Sun Princess????making a few notes here.

Don't know if I should say thank you or not

WAFFLES....Sun Princess????making a few notes here.

Don't know if I should say thank you or not

I will even help you kasey with the exact location:) he is located in the Horizon Food court, not in the main food area but in the centre of the elevated seating area, literally behind the bar at the end of the buffett. Happy eating. Although dont blame me for the extra kilos. PS did i say there were cooked to order and not those skinny little waffles but at least 2 inches thick :D

Didn't try the waffles...but saw plenty that did..they looked massive....talking about weird food placements... i found my favorite which only appeared a couple of times...........GRITS..... next to the baked beans:eek::eek:... my reckoning was they should have been with the porridge...

Had to laugh with the sugarfree desserts in the carvery:D.......also if you want poached eggs you have to ask the poached egg guard.....:confused::D coz they aren't for public display:confused: ...love it..........cheers Shiona

Didn't try the waffles...but saw plenty that did..they looked massive....talking about weird food placements... i found my favorite which only appeared a couple of times...........GRITS..... next to the baked beans:eek::eek:... my reckoning was they should have been with the porridge...

Had to laugh with the sugarfree desserts in the carvery:D.......also if you want poached eggs you have to ask the poached egg guard.....:confused::D coz they aren't for public display ...love it..........cheers Shiona

Hey Shiona. I noticed that too. A couple of times i wanted poached and it was like whispering a secret codeword to a spy that then resulted in 2 poached eggs appearing:rolleyes: i did see the grits but for 2 reasons i gave them a miss A. They looked revolting and B. I have no idea what they are

PS I checked out your pics. Very nice

The poached egg secret service:cool::cool::eek:..... grits are like porridge but not so filling...corn base i think instead of oats.....yum......

I forgot to mention the most memorable part of my Sun Princess cruise was watching the re-runs of.....wait for it.....my fav show....LOVE BOAT... :D........thankyou thankyou thankyou Princess...........:D:D i'm not joking i do love that show.... the movies onboard were very good too.....cheers Shiona

oooops i forgot Meerkat Manor too.........the best

Hope they have those waffles on Dawn Princess too!!!!:eek:

Thanks for your great review Cazz!!!!:)

we have just done 18nights on her Sydney to Perth- nice cruise- but I agree the Horizon Buffet was the worst buffet on a ship we have ever seen- so disjointed- also so cramped for space around the food areas.

We had great waiters, Sam and Boom in the dining room table 123- if anyone sees them say hello from us!

Inside cabin for the first time was perfectly ok- we have always done outside cabins, but what a waste of money!

Kelvin and mark did a great morning show on TV- I understand mark has left now and gone to the Sea Princess

Judy and Barry

New Zealand

currin@xtra.co.nz

we have just done 18nights on her Sydney to Perth- nice cruise- but I agree the Horizon Buffet was the worst buffet on a ship we have ever seen- so disjointed- also so cramped for space around the food areas.

 

Judy and Barry

New Zealand

currin@xtra.co.nz

It is interesting how different people have different perceptions. We liked the Horizon Buffet. The different stations mean that you don't have to join one long queue to get something that is available at the end. After you scout around and see where everything is, you might only have to join one short queue and the rest you can probably pick up without queueing. We thought the appearance of the Horizon Buffet was great and the outlook superb. :):)

Evon.

Were you on the same cruise as us- 14 April?